Today was the first day back on snow and I spent most of this week full of uncertainty about how it would go. I got up shortly before 6 am and made it out to the resort around 8. Road conditions were pretty great and there wasn't too much traffic either... but the cops were on the prowl 0_0
I got a pretty good parking spot and skated around a bit to feel out the new board (Lib Tech Box Knife). The base has a Phantom 2.0 treatment which will help keep me moving on the snow whenever my wax runs out... unfortunately the first few days of riding are quite slow. I tried to convince myself that I would keep to mellow terrain and avoid the steeps today... for about 30 minutes before the lifts started running, I stretched excessively and visualized myself "taking it easy".
I got up on one of the first several lifts at Hogsback Express... exited left and rode down to Tye Mill which leads to the back side....which wasn't yet open. It was a twenty minute wait, which ended up being quite unpleasant because it was around 14 degrees (F) x_x
I never had a chance to take it easy... first ride on the back side could have been mellow but I found myself on icy and uneven terrain just playing around with turns... and just towards the end, I wiped out and lost my GoPro Hero9 that was mounted to my backpack strap. -_- ... I noticed it was gone at the lift line and then head right back over to find it. Thankfully, I was riding in a spot where no one else would really want to go and found it pretty easily right where I had fallen (tumbled is a better way to put it).
With such cold conditions, the snow was icy and crusty all over... despite having a few hours of sunshine... but thankfully I spent a decent amount of time last season playing around on icy & crusty snow so I felt quite comfortably challenged... but for real though, my knees are now aching from all that chatter that came up through the board.
My biggest struggle today though was riding switch. The new board is a 157W (157 cm long and slightly wider than the standard size), which has more surface area...requiring more effort to maneuver. I tend to ride with a fairly narrow stance and I found that just outside of my binding I was creating pressure that would flex the board enough to snag the snow and send me tumbling. It may take a few days on the mountain to learn how to ride this one switch so I'm looking forward to that ^-^
Overall it was a successful trip. I called it quits around 1pm and left quite exhausted. My legs are going to need to catch up as well as my cardio... so that I'm not gasping for breath after just a few turns on the steeps. The rib didn't hurt that much and it was mostly soreness... very reassuring given how hard I pushed it today.
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