Monday, December 13, 2010

The New Biker is now The New Snowboarder

Hidden Valley Resort

Winter has hit the Pittsburgh area making cycling not too appealing.  Snow + 8 degree windchill + me + bikes + hills just don't equal anything positive.  So what am I to do for the rest of the winter season you ask?  SNOWBOARD!!!!  This past Sunday, a friend and I headed to the Hidden Valley Ski Resort in Pennsylvania.  The official opening of the resort season occurs on December 17, 2010; however, because of early season snow, they opened this past weekend.  Sunday was Free Ski/Snowboard Day when you bring 2 canned goods per person.

The morning of, the weather was pretty rainy....actually very rainy and after much coercing, I finally convinced my friend to get out of bed and drive the 1 hour to the slopes.  To little avail, it was raining still when we go near the slopes.  After more coercing and resorting to my "sad face", we decided to go into the resort anyway and check out the scene.  Guess what we found!  SNOWBOARDERS, SNOW AND LIFTS, OH MY!

Too excited, I rent my gear and hit the bunny slopes.  The only way to describe the first hour of my snowboarding experience is "too fast, too soon".  My friend was impressed by my apparent need for speed and disregard of personal well being.  My "style" was to bend my knees so that i was lower to the board. Good for seasoned racers, Bad for beginners.  I learned quickly that falling is the most energy draining and butt hurting experience and I was tired of doing it.  I signed up for lessons to speed up the quest for snowboarding awesomeness.  Lessons were being held for $15 and lasted 1.5 hours.  Because there were not many people at the resort I ended up having not one but TWO teachers for the entire lesson and THREE for 30 minutes of the lesson.

By the end of the 1.5 hours, I was a "leafing" Princess and my friend could not believe his eyes.  I must say, I was pretty proud of my natural athletic abilities and the transformation I made in just a few hours of practice.  Next time, we take on the big slopes muh ha ha ha (evil laugh)!!!!  It was a good day!

Next time videos and pictures will accompany the post but until then, Adios!

3 comments:

  1. Nice, I've wanted to try out snowboarding/skiing for years! You've definitely inspired me, though there are little opportunities for such sports in the Midwest (no hills!).

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  2. You are offcially "Not Southern" anymore. Sounds pretty awesome though. :)

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  3. "Snow + 8 degree windchill + me + bikes + hills just don't equal anything positive"
    Yes it does! Awesome clips on youtube of people biting it ;)
    Sounds like you had a blast. Mos def jealous you are an hour away. Takes us about 4 hours to get to the first area of Tahoe. Hope to hit the slops in 0-11.

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