It’s been a crazy year and I’ve seen to have forgotten how much I miss the snow. It’s always such an intense realization when you finally start packing all your gear. Pulling out the long johns and the mittens and digging around for the helmet.  Waking up at 6am it all starts to sink in. We’re going to play in the snow.

But first… Ah the helmet. I spent a good 30 minutes yesterday stressing about where my Orange Smith helmet was. Adam and I spent a good deal of coin on these prize possessions last year and I wasn’t about to spend the first day out on the snow without it.

Lucky for me while I was tearing my world apart looking for this beautiful and live saving piece of gear Adam was able to recover it – so, all was well.

We’re big on safety. Adam and I. To the point that, I knew if I couldn’t find my helmet it meant I wasn’t going riding.

Especially since we’ve had close calls ourselves or friends who’ve been injured. It doesn’t take much. Just a few weeks ago Adam went skiing with some friends and one of the guys caught his edge and shattered his helmet in two pieces with a huge crater in the place where his brain would have been had he not been wearing a helmet.

So. Long johns. Mitts. Brand new Woods Canada jacket with a million pockets. Hand warmers. Other stuff. Helmet.  Go time.
Adam and I both ski and snowboard.  Which makes it great to accommodate our friends and what we feel like doing that day. Actually… To think of it lots of our friends ski and snowboard. Cool. I have cool friends. Moving on!

Today was a snowboard day because our friend Jay was on his board and had upgraded all his stuff so he was pumped to take the tags off and put it to the test.

We spent the day running through and close to trees. Navigating through moguls which burned my unconditioned thighs. I have no problem taking falls. That usually means I’m pushing my limits or too tired to take the next turn. Either way I’m outside and having fun.

I’m a big believer that it’s not how good you are at something but rather how hard you try.  You won’t know how good you are at anything if you’re not willing to fail.

So all in all first day out not so bad. My knees and anterior bits of my shins hurt. Attempted a few 180’s and succeeded at a couple. Slid out a few times and cursed at the moguls for burning my quads. Sitting down to a pitcher to myself while the guys push through a couple more runs. All in all. A good day.

 Oh and as I was writing this in the chalet… Adam comes back and says he smashed his helmet on the last run and it separated in three parts….. Weird. But his life got saved. Moral of today’s blog WEAR YOUR HELMET !!!