My goal for February was to snowboard in the mountains. My prior snowboarding experience was limited - it pretty much consisted of me struggling to stand up on the board, avoiding the dozens of 7 year olds on the bunny hill at COP, and my brother patiently waiting for me to stop crying after a hard fall. Clearly, this does not a pro snowboarder make.
I signed up for two adult lessons at COP before I ventured to the mountains. And after the instructor taught me how to stand (I swear it's much harder than it looks) I knew I was headed in the right direction. The biggest hurdle I faced was committing to snowboarding. I had to put my fear of falling aside and commit to the turn and commit to going faster. It was a huge challenge, but once I did it snowboarding and I connected. Facing the fear of commitment helped in another area of my life too, but I'll save that for my March update.
Those two lessons gave me enough confidence to tackle the mountains. Two of my girlfriends (who were new skiers) and I decided to start with the least intimidating, easiet and closest hill: Nakiska.
After buying our lift tickets, and suiting up. We were ready to tackle the hill. For the record, snowboarding and skiing is not a glamour sport. Your jacket/helmet colour is basically the one way to tell if you're male or female.
We began our day with a green run - the glorified bunny hill, but it was still pretty high up there!
We did about ten runs before breaking for lunch, and after regaining our energy we decided we needed a bigger challenge. Ignoring our nerves, we got on the chair lift for the blue run and about ten minutes later we were at the top.
Ok, yeah.... we're a bit higher here, but I was happy to find out it wasn't that much harder. Everything I learned about snowboarding still applied, nothing had changed except the distance to the bottom (and from time to time the steepness of the hill). But I could do it! And I wasn't terrified.
After our day I felt proud of myself (and my girlfriends) for what I accomplished. I faced my fear of snowboarding head on and found out that it wasn't really that bad....not even close actually! And in fact, the reward made facing that fear worth it. I was on top of a mountain and had an amazing view. From now on I'll look forward to our winters knowing I'll be able to enjoy the view a little more from the top.
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