The snow boarded me

The hubby, the Boy and I had planned to go to Crystal Mountain today - a much bigger and nicer ski area than the one we usually go to. The one we usually go to - the Summit at Snoqualmie - is fine, but it's the lowest in elevation in this state so typically the snow is the worst, and often it rains instead of snows.

But it was pouring here and it's been fairly cold, so I woke up with a feeling that today was going to be a good day at the Summit, so why spend the money and twice the travel time (at least) to get to Crystal. Our season passes are at the Summit, so it's already paid for to go there.

Was I ever right! It snowed all day and clearly had been snowing all night - the groomed runs had maybe six inches of powder on top of them. And the highway to get there was pretty bad, so I think a lot of people were scared away. For a Saturday in February, the lift lines were extremely light (if there were lines at all) and the runs weren't congested.

We decided John and I would board, and the Boy would ski. These were good decisions - the snow was so great that I forgot what a terrible snowboarder I usually think I am and I felt completely fabulous. I waxed my board last night, so that combined with the fab snow made my turns so easy and comfortable - so much so that I went looking for steeper and steeper runs with more moguls and jumps. And yes, I got air quite a few times, and of course at least a few times I landed on my face, shoulder, behind, and once did a big somersault before I came to a stop. But it felt amazing! It really did feel like the snow was moving me along - all I had to do was stand up and maintain my balance, and the snow would switch edges for me and get me down the mountain.

The Summit at Snoqualmie is really four separate ski areas under one umbrella organization. There are crossover trails between some of the areas, and we decided to take one of these trails over to another area. Well, the trail was really flat with a bunch of uphill parts (and some downhill too, but those were easy, obviously). So on a snowboard, I definitely got a good workout when I had to get out of one binding and push myself along. And the Boy did too - John had forgotten his poles, and without them he had to shuffle quite a bit. But as usual, he was a champ and didn't whine or complain about it - and only complained a little bit when we told him we had to take another crossover trail back.

So today I felt like a snowboarder again! I didn't miss my skis at all (they were in the car just in case). I'm likely going to pay for all those falls and jumps tomorrow when I ride Chilly Hilly, the first bike event of the season. But it was worth it to have such a fabulous day with the hubby and son. We got about five and a half hours of solid boarding (well, including lift rides) in - which is like 2200 calories burned for me. Yay!