Learning to snowboard, part three.

Canuk and I spent all morning on Bühlberg. It snowed at least fifteen centimeters while we were out, and we nearly had the place to ourselves. Silleren-Metsch and Lenk close on 13 April, so this is the last week and we figured we’d better ski/board to our hearts’ content while we still could, despite the weather. I think most Adelbodners will wait for another sunny day (e.g. tomorrow, they way the weather works around here). We had taken the first lift up of the morning, and it was completely whited out by the time we got to Bühlberg (via Silleren and Giles-Lavey). I was trying to get a feel for how far to lean over on the snowboard, but I couldn’t see the ground underneath me. I managed to lie down on the hillside at one point when I thought I was only barely tilting. I crashed into Canuk on that first run down Bühlberg after braving the easy ridge trail over from Tanzboden, but I improved quickly. (It helped that it stopped snowing quite so hard and I could see where I was going and even see Canuk on the piste, though she stayed behind me for an hour after I took her out.) I even managed the skicross trail by lunch time, though I fell on the hairpin turn and nearly wiped out on the third jump. After lunch, we boarded Lavey and Hahnenmoos for a while, then took Brenggen for kicks. T-bars are very intimate when you’re both on snowboards. I couldn’t imagine riding one with a goofy-footed stranger.

We could see the ground from the lift later in the day, and we could track our progress by following our tracks back up the mountain. Mine looked much better after I’d had some practice. We had to head in around three, since we were both tired from the long day on the pistes yesterday and fighting the powder all day today. My right leg was also starting to fail me, and I slipped off the piste at one point when I didn’t quite make a turn. I flew about two meters and landed seated, then got up and bumped over some crunchy whirls and jags where last night’s snow had hardened before getting enough speed to jump back up onto the main run. I also managed a full cartwheel on another trip down: I caught an edge, flipped over, pushed up into the snow with my palms, and landed on my board again. Sadly, Canuk didn’t catch it on film. It was too snowy for pictures in general, actually, so I'll spare you the usual shots of snowy mountains.