Snowboarding

I started snowboarding when I was 12 years old, in the middle school "Ski School" program :) The first few times up were rough, slamming forward catching the toe side or falling backwards on the heal side. After getting the hang of it, it became super fun. I did this for 3 seasons in middle School & 4 seasons in High School! 

There is something truly exceptional about carving snow while strapped into the bindings of a snowboard. Without engines or noises other than wind & the natural upper alpine environment, I had many spiritual experience in the Cascade mountains at various ski resorts over the years. I went to Snoqualmie for middle school Ski School & then to Stevens Pass for Highschool Ski-School / in both cases I rode a tour bus with about 50 other children of similar ages & had experience so profound they went on to sculpt my future. During college I primarily obtained a season pass & spent as many days as possible snowboard at Alpental. The 2005 Prius with chains on the front wheels never failed to take me too or from these resorts. 

On one fateful day after more than 2 ft of fresh powder fell, I was snowboarding Ruby chair at Alpental in a gladded (tree covered) section & biffed or made a mistake & fell into part of a tree well where the snow above me collapsed in on me. For a few movements I thought this was it. I was 22 years old & going to die buried by snow. 

Then a memory of Matt Mayo telling me when I was 12 years old & first snowboarding, with him, that if I ever fall into deep powder & the snow collapses on me, to take my bindings off & start using my hands to build steps, then take the snowboard & lift myself up onto each step & build another. It took me almost 4 hours to climb out & I was so tired & spent that I ended up going home early on that Tuesday. I usually went early from open & stayed late for night skiing on Tuesday & Thursday, stacking my college classes on Monday, Wednesday & Friday's. I had an immeasurable amount of fun snowboarding like this for a few years in college & then gave it up for a couple years. 

On & off I continued to snowboard, but less with time. By the time I married Meg, I got her a snowboard & took her up twice, but she had a hard time & got badly injured the second time up, crashing & gave up. So I did too, until 7 days ago when I was able to borrow a snowboard from Meg's employer's sister Sveta, & got some used boots & used googles, & wearing layers of clothing under a thermal insulating suit I got for motorcycle riding on cold dry days in the winter, got a lift ticket online & headed up to The Summit at Snoqualmie where I rode Holiday for 10 runs on Tuesday. On Thursday I went back with another online lift ticket & did 12 runs, mostly on the Silver Fir Express chair, using the Blue Square "Outback" course to have more fun than I have had in a long time!