Back from "vacation"

Most people go to warm areas with sunny beaches for vacation where they can relax and unwind and soak up some sun but me, I go to cold, snow-covered mountaintops to receive windburns on my face, physically exhaust my body from head to toe and even risk my life - all for a really good time of snowboarding. Was it worth it? Most definitely! I may never be able to experience the Rockies again! There's a common saying that "What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger" and after surviving a week of snowboarding in the Rockies of Colorado, I have a newfound respect for mountains and I think (and hope) that my snowboarding skills have improved. I've made it back to Seattle all in one piece, only slightly bruised and a little sore - definitely a little wiser.

My sister and nine of her friends all flew into Denver, Colorado from Toronto last Saturday and we met up at the airport (the only one designed to look like the Rockies - google it! it looks pretty cool), collected our boards/skis and then rented a couple vans and headed straight to Vail. After loading up on food for the week and finally checking in, I crashed onto my sofa bed at 9pm to catch up on my sleep.

I'm not sure exactly what I was thinking all these years but I've alwyas gone snowboarding without goggles and a face mask. I've never really needed either of them. I've gone to Whistler quite a few times now - a sizable mountain with top elevation of 7160 ft., vertical rise of 5020 ft., 1925 hectares of skiable terrian and over 100 trails - and I had survived without any problems - no real scary experiences. I thought that I'd be able to do the same with Vail. And why not? Vail is a mountain with a top elevation of 11,570 ft., vertical rise of 3450 ft., 2140 hectares of skiable terrain and over 193 trails. It's only a little higher in altitude (you know... only about 4500 extra ft.) but it's vertical rise is not as high as Whistler's. So seems legit that my only concern should be altitude sickness - my gear should be sufficient. Right? Not quite.

My first day on Vail's slopes gave me quite a scare (at the time. Now that I think back, I laugh at my folly). The weather was cold, windy and slightly snowing. No problem. When everyone saw I wasn't wearing a mask or goggles a few of them gave me worried looks and expressed concern. No problem. We snowboarded the entire morning. They hit the back bowls of Vail straight away - black diamond runs - and since the powder was fresh, it wasn't all that bad. If you stopped, you sunk into the snow which required a lot of energy to get out but otherwise if you wiped out it didn't hurt that much. After lunch, Kevin gave me his face mask (since he wasn't using it I might as well make use of it right?) and we headed back to the back bowls. Half the group started off ahead of me and advanced quickly down the trail and were lost. I decided to place myself in the middle of the group so that I wouldn't be the last one down. What i didn't know was that the other half of the group had decided to take an easier way down. I found myself on the black diamond bowl alone and struggling to make it down the mountain. The snow was starting to fall more heavily and it was getting hard to see. I started to panick as I continued to wipe out over and over - at one point so bad that I did a somersault. I sat on the mountain feeling pretty discouraged and starting to feel very scared. Finally two guys came by and helped me get out of the snow and gave me tips on how to snowboard in waist deep snow (lean on the back of the board - keep the tip up). I managed to get to the bottom and I knew it was already pretty late - I still have to go down another trail to get to our meeting point. I passed an emergency phone and a thought of using it crossed my mind (I was THAT freaked out). When I finally made it to the meeting point, I found only Shirley waiting for me. She informed me that a search party (Kevin and Stan) had gone back up to look for me and that we had to wait for them to come back. At this point, we're still on the back side of the mountain and pretty much as far as possible from the parking lot where the cars and the rest of the group is waiting for us. Time becomes an issue as the lifts close at 3:30pm and it was creeping towards 3pm. Stan and Kevin finally arrive at the meet point and we head back up the mountain. We plot out a route that will take us back to the base of the mountain and realize we have to go down the bowl again to catch another lift that will take us closer to our destination (sort of zig zagging across the back side of the mountain). We have 10 minutes to make it down. Three of us think we're screwed but Stan encourages us saying we can do it. We're all pretty exhausted and I can't make it two feet down without wiping out and then sinking into the waist deep snow. The board becomes very hard to control when your leg muscles don't respond the way you want them to!! Visibility is now very low and since I've wiped out so many times, fog and ice are forming on my glasses. I can't see anything. In fact, I see better without them. I give my glasses to Stan to hold onto and then I sit on my board and start to toboggan down the mountain (Stan figured it would work better and be faster than me trying to board down). I get half way down and start to fear the speed that tobogganing on my board gives. There are no brakes besides my feet and i don't want to break my legs. I decide to put it back on and snowboard down. Stan stays near me and tells me where I'm going ("tree on the left, Shirley's on the right, bump in front of you, go faster there's a flat part coming up..etc). We finally make it to the lift at 3:40pm. We're ten minutes late but it's still operating and I think we're the last ones allowed to take it up. Finally at the top again, we plan out a route that will take us all the way to the bottom (this time we're going down the front side of the mountain). I've never been able to snowboard straight down the mountain without stopping. While I'm glad that I'm finally snowboarding with company, I get really nervous as the sun is continuing to descend in the sky and as I look around, I notice that we're actually the only people on the mountain - it's Super Bowl Sunday but surely there must be other people?? At least one? We make a few stops along the way until mountain patrol arrives and tells us we can't stop anymore - they're doing a sweep of the mountain. If ever I've been pushed and challenged to my utmost limit, this was it. I got on my board, without glasses, completely exhausted - leg muscles cramped and twitching - and from that point on, I didn't hold back on speed and went as fast as I could all the way down the mountain. When the end was in sight, I collapsed on the ground, removed the board and was congratulated by my sister - "you made it! And you thought you'd had to take the gondola down." What a feeling of accomplishment!

We headed straight to the snowboard/ski shop and found an excellent pair of goggles and face mask for me.

The other two days of snowboarding were on clear blue sunny skies with 100% visibility and the mask wasn't absolutely necessary but I made good use of them anyway. Lesson learned: Never go snowboarding without them again!