And Then BAM! Right Into The Side Of A House

Kyle and I played in Tahoe this past weekend and I just have to say it was a.maz.ing. Some of the best snowboarding I've ever enjoyed.

We hit the road from SF, bright and early, at 6 am Saturday morning. By the time we got gas and breakfast, and sat in Bay Bridge construction traffic, and made the 183 mile trek to Kirkwood, it was 10 am, which was later than we hoped for, but still ok. The weather was unbelievable. High 40s... maybe even 50 degrees... and not a cloud for miles. Sweet home Alabama had NOTHING on this awesome blue sky. And yet, even with the warm day, the snow was still beautiful. A bit slushy, but not nearly as wet as I would have expected, and still totally fun to carve around in. AND I had a total breakthrough on my board. I FINALLY FINALLY learned how to really flow from being on my heal edge to being on my toe edge (which I realize is just Greek to anyone who doesn't snowboard, but for me it was HUGE DEAL! Something I've been trying to master since last year.) It was so exciting for me!

Unfortunately, I was so excited that I sort of stayed out on the mountain way to long and rode way too hard. By the end of the day my whole body was exhausted and all my muscles were shaking. On my last run I just could not go one little bit further. I had gotten myself stuck in a gully and needed to get out in order to make it back to my car. I was half way up one side of the gully when I decided to just take my board off and walk the rest of the way up. I sit down, dig my board in a bit and then unstap my left foot. I then unstrap my right foot, take a deep breath, and remove my board. I relax for a minute, working up the energy to stand up and carry my snowboard the rest of the way over the hill. Feeing ready, I reach for my board... and it ever-so-slooooowly sneaks down the hill a bit. I pause and think for moment, oh this can't be good... "No no no", I tell the board as I point in its general direction. And it then starts sneaking a bit more... so I stand up and start walking behind it, still pointing, now demanding, "Hey hey hey! You... board... stop right there." And then it starts moving faster, and I start running down the hill thinking I might actually catch it... well then it just TAKES OFF! The sides of the V-shaped gully we were in kept the board on course and so it was able to just pick up more and more speed. Foom! Down the mountain it went. Whoosh! Just missing another skiier. ("Sorry!" I yelled). Wheee! Up over an embankment at the bottom of the mountain. And then BAM! Right into the side of a house. (D'oh)

The board survived, and just missed a window (by about 6 inches!!) so I was able to laugh about the whole episode.

Sunday was more of the same, blue sky, great snow... but with less running into houses, so that was good.