We are now a week and a half into our Level 2 Snowboard Instructors’ course and our bodies are feeling it and our heads are mashed. Pete is carrying a shoulder niggle, I hurt my ankle yesterday in a tree run and I am nursing a sore knee from a previous ACL injury. But ………we are absolutely loving it!!!!!!!
Every day we are presented with challenges and this week when it snowed 18cm overnight we had a couple of amazing powder days. Riding powder that deep just feels like you are floating on a cloud but does present its own challenges. On Pow Days (obvs the kids can’t say an additional syllable if not necessary) the instructors want to make the most of the riding and so off-piste, tree runs, mountain bike tracks and berms all suddenly become the terrain for the day. This really challenges your skills and when you get it wrong you can end up having to dig yourself out of a deep powder hole for ages – you can work up quite a sweat trying to get to a spot where your hands can actually find some deep buried hard packed snow to push up off to get back up onto your snowboard. I learned the hard way never to take your snowboard off both feet as then you can be trying to walk in powder waist deep which is even worse!
Even the instructors get stuck sometimes !
In addition to doing our Level 2 snowboard training, we have bought some skis and poles and some second-hand ski boots.
Mine are really classy with two different bits of coloured tape on them but only cost me $20. Pete’s are probably even older and cost him a jug of beer. Thankfully our skis are much newer with modern technology ! We have had a few lessons from the guys who have just passed their Level 1 ski. Sometimes this has been in exchange for a snowboard lesson which has been nice for everyone to get some real teaching practice.
Today Harry took Pete, Phoebe and I for a lesson – even with his hangover. The skiing is going really well and we have mastered parallel turns and can get down the long green runs and have been told to go up on a blue run next time.
One of the guys got the data on his lift pass today, it showed we’ve been here 46 days and he had used his lift pass on 45 of those days. I think we may have had one more day off so we are likely to be on our 44th day. Wow! That is the equivalent of more than seven of our normal annual holidays all in one go. How lucky are we ????
