Day 1: For someone who has never ski nor snowboard in her entire life, it just so happen that I went on a day with blizzards and white out. I kept asking for reassureance from my companions, “is this really truly suitable for snowboarding?” They were giving me muddling answers. ^^;;; But I cannot give up after I paid over $100 for an private instructor and chair lift ticket…
This is the Main Lodge area, the largest all the chair lifts and ski slopes in Mammoth.
I used to swear I will never ever get on these chair lifts (planned to learn snowboard with little kids at downhill ^^;;). The beginner slope was closed that day dued to danger of avalanche…so my instructor (an Australian) brought me up to a supposedly gentler slope up perpenticular to the regular slope. Then I realized a lot of my fear were completely blown out of proportion: the chair lifts feel quite safe, even though we were shaking rather badly against the wind. The scariest is to learn how to get off the non-stop chair lifts at the destination O_o|| (my instructor hold me hand the entire way so it’s not so bad…)
While the wind made me grasping for breath, the snow cutting my face and I can hardly see anything in the snow storm, the stormy snow was unbelievably powdery and soft. It feels sooo good to fall down, like throwing myself on cotton candy land. 😀 The cushiony up-to-my-thigh high snow also suck you in, so you can stop easily if you feel like. It was an ironically perfect day for a snowboarding newbie! I felt I did good…at my last run, I only felt down once…
Day 2: so I thought I got the basic down and went another day when the weather was clear with beautiful blue sky and blinding sunshine. I went to the Eagle Express chair lift nearby our house (10 mins walk). It was such a beautiful day.
I borrowed my entire outfit (excluding beanie hat) from Vero.
I went up on a beginner slope with Adam, being confident at first. But after I got off the chair lift I knew it is trouble. The snow was very icy, slippery and hard. The speed picked up really fast and I found myself unable to stop as easy as before. This is the REAL snowboarding condition. Poor Adam tried to guide me down but I just…keep on falling down HARD. It HURTS! I couldn’t even get back up without wasting mountain moving strength. I get so scare of the speed it picked up that I kept sabotaging my seemingly good run. It ook me nearly two hours to get to the bottom, tumbling down mostly. The other two snowboard-newbie collegues of mine fell down so hard and got so scare of slope (they went on an advance steep slope) that they ended up walking with their board down. My body ended up too bruised and painful (still got the pain a week later) and mentally defeated and frustrated that this ended snowboarding for me (at least for this trip ^^;;).
There’s a bar, cafe and restaurant in the tent. The Turkey veggie soup is very salty but just what I needed.
The one-day chair lift ticket cost about $60, rental (boot + board) $80-ish. o_O
Tags: Travel Report
The weather in the first day looks so scary yet you had a great time, while the second day is all blue sky and nice weather but…
Cute outfit!! But it looks so thin – is it warm enough??? No pics of you in action?! ^^;;
Is it a “mammoth” in the second pic??
lifts are the worst part for me too.
plus my fear of height doesn’t help either…-o-
to this day I have never successfully gotten off a lift, I always have to FALL off a lift.^^;
but I oughta go again some day…
haven’t gone since 1st term at Art Center…
Wow the first photo was exactly like a postcard o_0! So funny that you got an Aussie coach in the US, and your first day went unbelievably smooth for a newbie! So is snowboarding easier than skiing???
It gets too hot and inmobile if you wear too much clothes ^^;;
The aussie coach travel around the world’s ski resorts to get a job teaching so they can just ski/snowboard all year long. In a way it’s the best job in the world (just like surfing/diving instructors who go to different beaches in the world :D) He said that snowboard is harder to learn for beginners than ski, but easier to ‘master’. For ski, you might started off stable and balanced, but you can hardly get improved to the next stage, you even suck or just very good. While snowboard, once you praticed enough you’d be like a pro (or so he say). ^^;;;
I’ve heard horror story of people who can’t get off the lift and dropped after the chair already gone off to a high slope, or once they drop down they accidently spun around and the chair hit them in the face…^^;;; Also the entire way on the lift, you have to buckle one foot on the snowboard, it feels scary to have this heavy thing dangling on your feet all the way…