I went snowboarding two times in week's worth of time! That's pretty incredible considering the resources my family and I have to pay for both the rental(we don't own snowboards) and the tickets for both me and my brother. Unfortunately (at times) and gladly (at times) I must snowboard with my brother because going up the slopes is such a rare occasion for the Asian family. Well, it's not so uncommon for Asian-Americans but Asians tend to regard this matter of snowboard riding as a once-per-winter thing, which I wholeheartedly disagree with. Snowboarding is wayy too fun to happen only once per year!
Anyways, it was pretty awesome. We (and my cousin who is a surprisingly good snowboarder) went to Steven's Pass. I slept about 4 hours give or take the time spent on a new iPod app, because I was too excited! Well, we got there, and we saw just a okay-for-the-weekend crowd of people. The last time I went (which was on Thursday of last week), it was probably half, maybe less. I was a little pissed off considering the irritated, sleepless state I was in, but the presence of the crowd with its excited murmurs and snow-related comments made the adrenaline flow even more.
We went up after about 30 minutes of get-ready-go. Curiously, my cousin was appalled by the fact that nobody used the safety bars on the ski lifts. I actually don't know if it's just the Pacific Northwest or a universal ski tradition. Does anyone know? =P Well, the whole thing was pretty funny because despite the mountain being much less groomed and more steeper than the ski mountains in Korea, my cousin said the ski lifts were the most frightening. I kind of understand where he's coming from, especially I came home and found this article in my latest headlines. Pray for Powder! So you don't lose your bum if you happen to fall from a ski lift. Ouaaaaa! I get goosebumps from just thinking about it.
After the lift though, I found myself considerably out of shape. I had done no physical activity since the last time I snowboarded 5 days ago, and my quads were hating on me like teenage guys on Justin Bieber. It was soo painful and I'm sure my bottom also cursed me a few times. Going down all Blues (go to the middle of the article) on the first run was a bad idea for a 6-time snowboarder. Sleep-deprived, jittery, newly scared of falling down ski lifts, I was completely energy-spent on the first hill. I had to rest at least 3 times for the entire run, which was about a mile or so long. I have never felt so old in my life. I sheepishly looked at young kids roaring down the hills while I rested my long-spent body.
Well, it turned out a little bit of energy in the form of DELICIOUS, HOT food was just the solution. A bacon cheeseburger with the best curly fries (it looked better than this) in the entire Pacific Northwest (food always tastes good after physical exertion) for 10 bucks! Sold.
Afterwards, I decided I was energized enough to try Mill's Valley, the backside of the pass. It was pretty easy after the curly fries. My cousin hated it because it wasn't groomed lol. I loved it. I actually like bumps, but only if there's some slush or better yet, powder on top. Bumps are small tests the mountain gives you to see if you're actually good at the board and at balance. Sometimes, you get air! So I went down and I decide, hey that wasn't so bad. On to the Southern Cross Chair. Experts hill? No problem. I take my unsure brother and cousin with me and I didn't realize the chair was so long!!! It took an eon to get up and the elevation increase was about 100000 feet. The entire face was triple black. Talk about pain in the butt
One nice thing about getting down was that nobody had gone there before, so it was powder for some of the runs. Very bumpy though (hehe).
Near the end, I had this one awkward ski lift with two other college-age girls. They seemed quite nice and all, but I didn't want to talk and they had their own conversation but by the end, the silence was quite loud. I tend to become very quiet when I don't have enough sleep or if I'm irritated and this situation had the worst timing. To make it worse, I fell down possibly in the worst possible way on the landing pad. When you snowboard and ride a lift, you have your non-prominent foot loose from the bindings and the landing is always a bit of a nuance. Well, the pad was bit too steep, and my right foot(non-prominent) got loose, my snowboard slipped backwards and I ended up eating the ice. Ugh. Some shy, over-grown 8th grader in a WSU jacket. Haha, or maybe the WSU threw them off?
All this writing --> practice for my non-started, non-existent story
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