Spanning over the course of the last few days has been Google’s yearly Ski Trip, divided into three ‘waves’ of Googlers who descend upon Squaw Valley in Lake Taho, CA. This was my first foray into the downhill snow adventure sport realm, and I was given the opportunity to choose between Snowboarding and Skiing.
Considering that I know so many more snowboarders than skiiers, I figured it’d be a good skill to learn so that if I was to ever go to the mountain with my friends, I’d be able to hold my own — or at least try. Plus, I wanted to see what all the buzz is about.
I guess I found out. Or at least, my body is telling me that this was supposed to be fun. I went through a great lesson with a number of other people learning to snowboard and spent most of my day on the bunny slope. After a few hours, I was actually starting to get it.. I could go down on a run and pretty much only fall once or twice, once I got going. In the early afternoon falling was fine. The problem came around 3pm or so when the snow disappeared and a thick layer of ice coated the entire mountain. This made falling much more painful.
Despite improving my skills, "catching an edge" and flying face first onto solid ice was not pleasant. I was only able to take so much of this torture before I had to call it quits for the day. All-in-all, I had fun (I think) but.. needless to say I am h-u-r-t-i-n-g today.
Tags: Tahoe, Snowboarding, Pain
Cool Jesus is a skier. Cool Jesus says you have joined the Dark Side. Good day, sir.