12 January 2008 – What to do in Winter

 

 

As tempting as it was to just leave this picture without the accompaniment of text, other than the heading, it does come with a story which some may find solace in.

 

Switzerland had an uncharacteristically large and early snow fall in the mountains.  In Geneva people get excited when they can see snow on top of the French part of the Jura mountain range.  They would also get excited if they could see snow on top of the Jura in Switzerland but for an entirely different reason as the range only enters Switzerland in the canton Jura, which is a couple away from Geneva (and roughly 150km).  The reason les Genevoises get excited when they see the snow is because it means it has settled low enough to be able to hit the slopes.  When there had been snow on the Jura for a couple of weeks it was time to venture on my first snowboarding trip.  But today was not the first trip.  It was the second where the slopes of Verbier put me in my place.

 

My first snowboarding adventure had also been in Verbier, when I went out with Shaf, Pratikshya, Sumeet and big John.  On that occasion we were boarding on a few feet of fresh powder and ended up caught in a snowstorm.  I think the adrenaline rush of trying something new,  the soft bed of snow to land on and not being able to see what I was going down (due to visibility of about 10 meters), meant I was fearlessly able to get the hang of things by the end of the day.  I had fallen many times, cart-wheeled at one point and felt like I’d done a couple of rounds in a boxing ring.  All was good though.

 

My second snowboarding trip, was with Jayson.  He had done boarding a few times and I was full of confidence from the last trip, convinced my linked turns were now coming on and I would probably master the whole thing in another day.  This day was a little different from the first however.  The pistes had been groomed so the snow was now fairly hard packed and visibility was perfect.  It really hurt when I fell and I could now see what I was going to fall down.  The blue slopes I had been doing looked like black ones in my mind.  Very timidly I made my way down, fearful to even pick up the slightest bit of speed.  By lunch I was telling Jayson I should switch to skis.  He told me to wait after I had eaten and through lunch conversation I decided to stick with the board and not give up.  Having since gone 16 times last winter I’m now in love with snowboard and starting to tackle black runs like they’re blue. 

 

The best bit about snowboarding is that I now look forward to winter.  This is something I never thought I would be able to do.