One of my college buddies, Tim Sullivan, let Jess and I use his family's condo up at Mammoth over the Thanksgiving weekend. We left Thursday morning and came home Saturday evening. It was a great time to rest, relax, and we even went snowboarding on Friday!
It was my first time snowboarding, so I knew it would be a rough day, and that it would be even more rough for me since I know very well that God did not build me to spend extensive amounts of time in 30 degree weather.
Jess had been snowboarding a few times, so she was able to give me the basics, and help me to get started. However, learning to snowboard is similar to learning to drive a stick shift, in that you can only have so much "book" knowledge, before you actually gotta get out there and tackle that unpredictable clutch pedal, and learn as you go.
According to Jess, I did much better than most beginners she's known, and by my fourth trip down the run, I wanted to document my progress, so I held my camera in my hand and took video of my descent. I usually fell pretty consistently towards the beginning of the hill, and then I'd get going ok, and even link a few turns, but the mountain was crowded (as only two runs were open on the whole mountain), and I was not confident in my skills of turning sharply or stopping, and I'd take the dive to avoid a collision, or to just stop when I thought I was going too fast.
True to everyone's words, my whole body was sore immediately following, and even as I write this, I'm still moving pretty slowly from soreness. I admit it, I am somewhat of a wimp. I don't like being really cold, and I complain when my limbs don't move without pain. Despite the pain, snowboarding was fun, and I may do it again someday (although I might like to try skiing, as the mechanics of skis just seem like they make much more sense).
We got a lot of reading in over the few days, and had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner of spaghetti on Thursday night. Other than the extreme cold, the weather was gorgeous, and the mountain was certainly majestic to take in.
So thanks to God for creating such an awesome, amazing place, to Tim for letting us use the condo, and to Seth for letting us borrow his snowboarding gear. Here's a few pics from the trip, including the video of my awesome snowboarding skills...
(blowing snow on the mountain Thursday night [the snow machines, not us])
(Jess and I; I'm already really cold here)
(Jess reading by my killer blazing fire)
(Jess on the slopes)
(Me towards the end of the day; my fingers are numb)
Here's my trip down the hill caught on video:
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