SURFING DOWN THE MOUNTAIN!

What girl doesn‚Äôt love a weekend mini break… the one I have just enjoyed was three days of snowboarding in the beautiful Austrian Tyrol with seven mates.

 

The first morning was straight up the mountain in flat light and tinged with the inevitable nerves, as it had been over a year since I had last strapped myself onto a snowboard and fired myself down a descent gradient. It was not until I executed my first turn successfully that I breathed a sigh of relief that I had remembered how to do it! That is not to say that there weren’t plenty of tumbles and failed applications to turn my board but generally things were going well.

Several runs, a hearty dinner and a few Gluhwein’s later and I was tucked up in bed in anticipation of what the next day had in store.

After a whole day and night of snow, the morning sun broke through to reveal the beautiful sight of fresh powder… and as it is the early bird that catches the worm we were up there at first lift to peck our own fresh tracks in the perfect conditions. The boys I was with (a seriously well qualified mix of ex pro‚Äôs and multiple-seasonee‚Äôs) helped me work on my technique, suggesting that I stopped trying to surf my way down the mountain (snowboarding is all about the legs and less about the arms). Although a quick stint in the half pipe felt like surfing a perfect point-break and unleashing the arms just felt natural!

With our smiles frozen in position and our faces rosy we reflected on an amazing day.

 

The third morning was a few dawny runs before our lunchtime flight home. the freshly bashed pistes glistened and greeted us as we indulged ourselves in our last few runs before heading off to the airport and back home…. As the plane took off I wondered to myself when would be the next time that I would be breathing the mountain air and sliding down it sideways.