Winter 2012

For those of you who might actually read this, you will notice that I have not written often over the last few months. The reason was WINTER. Those magical weeks when the world is frozen and white, when I live on the edge and my weekends are spent waking up early and exploring mountains on my snowboard. I love winter and I am sad to say good-bye to what was a pretty good ten weeks.

Three years ago I tried an alpine snowboard and haven't stop smiling since. Alpine boards very different from the regular snowboards you see on the hill; they are stiffer, narrower, and designed for speed and carving. I love carving. OK, a clarification - I love trying to carve. I am getting better and more consistent, but after a week in Vermont watching really good carvers I remember how much I have to learn.

Apart from evenings at my local hill, my trips this winter included a jaunt down to White Face (Lake Placid), a day trip to Mt. Blanc in Quebec, four days in Vermont for the Eastern Carving Expression Sessions, a day trip to Mt. Tremblant, a few days at a nice little bump close to my parents place and several early mornings at Calabogie.

The hours spent on my board I feel alive. Everything else in the world disappears and I am on the mountain just loving life. It is hard to describe the peace I feel while out there or the magic in turning around and seeing 20+ good carvers coming down a mountain - it is like watching ballet on snow. There is a certain satisfaction that comes over me after 8 hours riding hard and not stopping for anything other than an ice-tea (consumed on a chair lift), in falling in love after two turns on a hill while demoing a board, a board that I tried two years ago and kicked my ass! Or suddenly realizing that your warm-up run is a Black Diamond, under the gondola. I dance at the bottom of runs while still locked into my bindings because I am completely content, and have to check myself halfway down a run because I am laughing from sheer joy.

So today I will leave you with some video of me (I know; narcissistic). This is an opportunity for me to share with you what I actually spend so much time doing. This is the first run of the day at Mt, Blanc, I am really not that great here. This video is of the whole group at Mt. Blanc which shows what really good carvers can do. Eight minutes from my last day out this season -Tremblant (this one is tricky because both Ryan and I are wearing blue pants). And if you are into something really long; here is 18 minutes from a day at Calabogie after a big snow storm, so conditions were really not that great and there is some good video of my friend Chris bailing under the chair lift.

Happy Spring!