Snowboarding in Italy : 1

The baby slope on which I spent my first day.

Wow, long time no blog entry, I am so lazy.  Well, I can't say I have done anything very exciting this Autumn, some time back in Tenerife and then in Thailand again.  Still, something a bit different now - yes, more snow sports, but this time I am trying something new, learning to snowboard in fact!  It seemed like a thing to do, my brother and all his family 'board, and I have grown a bit tired of waiting for them on my skis while they faff about with bindings and so forth.  So, can you teach an old dog new tricks?  We shall see...

The circumstances aren't exactly perfect for this - we've come at New Year, to the Aosta Valley in Italy, Dan has a hotel in Champoluc but sadly my nearby hotel cancelled on me, and the best replacement I could find was the other side of a mountain, or something like eighty minutes by road.  We do have a hire car but the long drive on mountain roads to meet up on the first morning isn't ideal preparation for my initial attempt at snowboarding.  Dan has very kindly offered to coach me on the nursery slopes, obviously I respond by getting somewhat frustrated with the stupid plank strapped to my feet and yelling at him.  Yes, I can appreciate that one of my feet (the left one apparently) is the 'front', but can't you just call it my left foot?  I can manage to slide down the hill well enough, but the thing doesn't feel at all under control and I'm really not sure about turning.  Maybe I will improve over the course of the week?

With the board.

Well, the next morning I do indeed start to get the idea of turning, maybe enough to try a blue slope?  This proves doable although I do fall over a lot... at least this is my 'local' area, Staffal, so only a twenty minute drive, and it is accessible from Champoluc via various runs and lifts so Dan and family are able to join me for lunch.  Food is good here at least, we are in Italy after all, we consume much pasta and pizza.  In the evening I find a bar which again does pizza, but on several nights they provide me with so many plates of tasty little snacks that I don't bother to order anything - except several beers anyway.

I grow bored with the single blue run I've been doing, but this resort is really not learner-friendly, there is a longer blue higher up which I manage OK, but the only way up from it is a chairlift leading to a really tricky steep, narrow bit that I don't enjoy at all, so I decide to head back down.  I have a choice of returning on the gondola or taking a red, well, how hard can the red be?  Not a great idea it turns out, particularly as I take a wrong turn and end up on a very steep bit, which I have to slowly come down on the edge of my board, and then a combination of board and bottom!  I do very few turns, still don't really have the hang of this at all... I have a pretty nasty fall too, travelling at quite a speed I flip over and smack onto my front, my goggles in a jacket pocket take much of the force and transfer it to my ribs, ouch.  Nothing to do but get up and keep going of course.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.