Monday, January 25, 2010

Crazy Weekend (Part 2): The Snow Trip

Just got back from the snow trip. I think I am going to give up on snowboarding as a sport. It is too painful! I basically slid and fell down the slope. I felt like I had no control over the board.

As we were driving to the where the bus was parked on the Oval, we saw some police cars and a car that had crashed into a tree. We figured it must've been drunk driving from Saturday night's masquerade ball. People tend to over drink at events like this. Anyway, everyone showed up for the bus pretty much on time and we set off on the trip. We stopped at one point to put on chains. The Sierras were covered with lots and lots of snow. When we finally got to Kirkwood, it started snowing. In fact, it proceeded to snow the entire day. The snow picked up in the afternoon and visibility was pretty poor.

It turns out that snowboarding boots are a lot easier to walk in than ski boots. We split into groups for lessons. The lessons were so painful! It was just too hard. I think I got some of the basics down but I didn't really pick up how to go down the slope without stopping (falling) at every turn. The bunny slope at this resort was really high. You had to take the ski lift to get there! And it is much more difficult to get off on a board than on skis. After the lessons, we had a quick lunch and went back out to the slopes. There were 3 easy slopes and I only managed to go on 2 of them for a total of 5 times on the lift. It took a long time for me to get down the slope. I was pretty tired after that and the snow picked up so we just stopped and hung around the lodge. So in conclusion, I think skiing is a lot easier to pick up but snowboarding could be more fun. But I doubt I will snowboard again any time soon. Right now I'm icing my knees. I really should've stretched before going out there!

It took us 2.5 hrs more than expected to get back because one of the tire chains broke and got stuck. We didn't know what was going on for the longest time. But the driver and a few students managed to get it fixed and put on new chains, which we had to take off after another hour's drive. We got back at 11pm instead of the expected 8:30-9pm.

1 comment:

yalu said...

Yeah when I first went skiing in 7th grade the girl I went down the slopes with was trying out snowboarding and it was no fun for her at all - she would fall off every few feet. Some things are not as rewarding at first than others - snowboarding is probably like learning the violin