Novice Snowboarding

Unlike many other Brits, spending lots of money on a week-long holiday on a winter sport that I would only ever do for 1 week every year never really appealed to me. Especially as I could spend the same amount of money to go boating somewhere warm for at least 2 or 3 or more weeks. However, this year Cam and I had the opportunity to go to Colorado, with some good friends, and really splash the cash on a 2-week skiing/snowboarding holiday. We figured for 2 weeks it would be worth while. So we begged and borrowed some gear, got our hire boards sorted, donned our iron pants....






















....and headed to Copper Mountain, Colorado.

At 3000m it took a few days to acclimatise, especially with the slightly chilly temperature: -15 to -20C on some days, and that was before the wind chill and the huge amounts of snow that dumped on us (mainly when we were on the lifts). But, when we were wrapped up, with a good pair of mitts and whizzing down the mountain we didn't really notice the cold, and because the air was so dry when we were out of the wind, it was actually far more pleasant than a miserable 0C in England. And, of course the huge amounts of snow gave us some great powder days. Perfect for boarding, and a nice soft landing for us beginners.

We took a lesson to get the basics and then spent a few days practising the skills we'd been shown. Mainly though the first days consisted of a lot of this:















... I was grateful for those padded pants!
Lots of people had said I'd pick it up easily because the edges are so similar to boating, maybe, and I got the hang of heel edge/toe edge easily without too much falling over. The biggest problem was turning from one to the other and committing my weight onto my front foot.








About to get buzzed by a 4 year-old on skis, again: a frequent occurrence for the first few days.





We took another lesson after a couple of days by ourselves, to get our turns sorted out, and finally we were managing to get down the mountain and turn without falling over too often. Repeating the mantra: pee like a woman (heel edge), pee like a man (toe edge) helped on each edge turn.
















Finally getting some toe-turns without falling over.



Unlike European resorts there were no alpine cafes high up in the mountain serving hot wine and pastries, but the cinnamon buns and hot-chocolate in the coffee-shop at the base of the lift helped warm us up.
















The weekdays were really quiet, not packed-full of Brits on their week-long holidays (as are the European resorts). There were plenty of empty slopes - great for us falling-over beginners. Though the weekends were very busy with local weekenders - that was OK though as we needed a day off in the middle of the holiday!












Where is everybody?


By the end of the two weeks we were beginning to get the hang of it. Cam, annoyingly, picked it up a whole lot faster than me as he didn't seem to have the same fear of speed and steep slopes. I still struggled with putting my weight onto my front foot which generally led to a number of 180 falling-over manoeuvres resulting in my head facing down the mountain being slowed down rapidly by the huge amount of snow that was scooped up into my trousers!







Cam goes for the hanging arm 'pro-look' !






We did venture onto some black runs - and even made some turns without falling over which was very satisfying. And by the end of the fortnight I could mainly dismount the lifts without wiping out everyone in my path - again, a major achievement!

All in all we had a fantastic time, but our bodies (and knees especially) were certainly glad when the holiday came to an end. We are still not sure whether we can justify the money to spend on just a week's holiday, so we may be looking to do another 2-weeker sometime. Though, next time we may try skiing.

A river!

Some trees!