Surviving icy runs

Last week I went on my first black diamond and killed it (relatively speaking). This week I went snowboarding and encountered an entirely new beast:

Icy runs.

Now, if someone from the East Coast were to see what I was snowboarding on today, they’d say “that ain’t ice lol” and they’d make a good point. Apparently the Midwest and East Coast both have nasty icy runs most of the time. My runs were more like really hard packed snow that was super slick and hard to maintain control on – and to me, that’s ice.

Here’s how I survived those runs:

I didn’t.

I fell down a lot. My knee has a big, shiny bruise on it. I got tired easily and would simply sit on the mountain watching other people, young and old, zoom by.

(Side note: child skiers and snowboarders are absolutely the cutest thing ever.)

After two lousy runs, I texted Austin to let him know I was hanging out in the resort lodge. He was having a rough time himself and came and joined me where we did two more runs.

As the day warmed up, it got better. Plus, I enjoy snowboarding with Austin. He’d help me learn how to link my turns more and we’d hit some black diamonds where the snow had softened and I’d try to improve my time going down.

But it was still a rough time and I got exhausted really fast, ran into someone, and cried a lot. Physical exhaustion does that to a person.

I have progressed – I’m a lot better now than I was at the beginning of the season – but it’s days like today that I’m pretty bummed that I’m not as good as I’d like to be. Here’s to hoping for more snow!