Planche à neige? No, just say "snowboarding" with a French accent.

Living in the Southeastern United States, there aren’t many good ski resorts nearby without going up to West Virginia or New England or all the way out West; I have actually only been skiing about 3 times but have enjoyed it every time, and I wanted to try on slopes that were better than the ones in North Carolina, which are usually icy. One of my goals this semester, since I’m living in the Alps, was to go skiing, though I have to say, I wish I hadn’t waited until this late in the semester to go. I was debating between skiing, which I know I like, and learning to snowboard, which I had never tried but always been curious about. Because I went with Shana, who is a pretty avid snowboarder, I decided to try snowboarding, and hey, it’s not a bad story to tell when asked, “When did you learn to snowboard?” We went on a Monday, skipping class, because it was the day in between months where the new students take the placement test, so for those of us continuing with the program, it’s pretty much a wasted day with little to no curriculum taught and no attendance taken. Shana and I met at the bus station around 7:30, with no idea about whether or not we would actually be able to get tickets for any of the buses to Les Deux Alpes (our first choice of ski resort). Luckily, there were plenty of buses and plenty of tickets (for only 3,80 each way too), making things far less complicated than I had anticipated. While we were waiting for the bus, we ran into Kelly, another member of our program, who was also going to Les Deux Alpes; we were actually planning to go with him the day before but just by coincidence neither of us went Sunday and instead skipped class to go Monday. The bus ride was longer than expected, 2 hours by the time we got there, and I would have tried to sleep but was too excited :) The town right around the resort is a cool little ski town with tons of ski shops and cafes and hotels; Shana and I weren’t really sure how to approach the rental thing, getting more discouraged after we went in the first place and couldn’t convey to them in either French or English that we wanted to rent snowboards. Luckily the second place we went into was more successful (probably because it was a Billabong store and therefore awesome haha), and we were able to rent our boards and boots for 17 euros for the day (I have no idea if that’s good or not). After somewhat awkwardly making conversation and putting on our boots (snowboard boots are not easy to be graceful in under the best circumstances), Shana and I were ready to go. We weren’t sure how to get to the bunny slopes, so we asked someone on the street; he was really nice, speaking in English and tolerating our French, and helped us get our lift tickets (which were only 31 euros with the student discount; much cheaper than expected) and telling us where to go. We found out he is from Biarritz in the southwestern part of France, and from how he talked about it, I would definitely like to go there; it sounds like a pretty cool surf town. Unfortunately, the language barrier somehow caused confusion about the fact that it was my first time touching a snowboard (even though I know I said multiple times “Aujourd’hui est mon premier fois” or “Je n’ai jamais fait du snowboarding”) so he took us up to literally the top of the mountain, where he said the runs were really long but “easy.” No, they were not; my first day I went on what ended up being a blue run so that was special. I was already nervous, and once I saw where we were, I was convinced that I was going to die.

"feet, i'd like you to meet a snowboard; snowboard, meet my feet"

First of all, because we were at the SUMMIT of a mountain, it was super windy, and the snow was stinging our faces and making it really hard to see. Immediately after the flat part where we strapped on our boards there was a pretty steep drop with certain death (i.e a cliff) on one side of the trail. Now, normally that wouldn’t be a problem except that I didn’t know how to 1) stand up 2) stop or 3) steer. Basically, I knew nothing. Eventually we got to a little flat part where I could even stand a chance at getting upright, but the whole day it was alternating little flat part with giant steep hill, so I spent a large part of the day walking or sliding down hills on my butt. It took us literally 4 hours to do the run, but it was absolutely beautiful and Shana has the patience of a saint, so I think we both ended up enjoying it, despite everything. Once we got to some flatter parts, I did get the hang of standing up and later of how to stop without immediately resorting to falling on my butt; “Instructor Shana” seemed really pleased with my progress even though I felt like a failure walking down the slopes, so I guess it was a pretty successful first time. Unfortunately, even though sliding down the slopes on your butt is technically easier, it’s also significantly more exhausting, so between that and having to pick myself off the ground every time I got close to a steep hill and wanted to stop (i.e a lot), I was absolutely exhausted by noon. Since we were on one of the longest runs, we kept hoping the lodge would be over the next hill, and it was…about 5 hills later haha at this point in time, I’m absolutely exhausted (with my butt and wrists being the most sore), and I look a hot mess with my hair literally frozen in places, and face chapped-but for some reason, I was still in such a good mood, probably because I was so stubborn about wanting to learn to snowboard and actually did :D We ate lunch at the lodge, which consisted of the most expensive but also most delicious pizza I may have ever had. We were going to try another, more beginner run after lunch, but by the time we got up to the téléphérique (gondola thing) and rode it down to where the next run began, I realized that I was far too exhausted and that we were too cramped for time (since we didn’t know when the last bus left) for me to spend another 3 hours on a run haha I rode all the way down to the lodge, which ended up being really beautiful and scenic, and planned to wait for Shana at the bottom. It turned out that the run she had gotten off at required transversing another run or something and then going down a more difficult one to get to the lodge, so we just decided to call it a day. We turned in our gear and walked around for a few minutes before the bus left at 5 (I successfully made it into and out of both a Billabong and a Roxy store with buying anything…anyone who knows my obsession with surf brands will appreciate my struggle haha). On this bus ride home I slept with no trouble, still excited like I had been in the morning, but my exhaustion was dictating everything by this point. I would say that I am sufficiently hooked on snowboarding; I love skiing, but I want to get better at snowboarding, and think it’s more my thing :) I guess I’ll have to live somewhere where I can surf in the summer and snowboard in the winter! I’m so glad that we finally did it; the mountains were absolutely gorgeous, even more so than in Grenoble where I was already enamored with them, and I really did like the runs, just would have preferred those more geared towards my level. I’m so grateful that Shana was so patient and helpful with me; she says it’s not a big deal, but it really does mean a lot to me because I’m sure she could have had a much more enjoyable day of snowboarding without my slow self stopping all the time. I would love to go back if time permits, but I am so grateful I got to go once and that I finally learned how to snowboard :D I was sore all night and woke up the next morning more sore than I have ever been before, but that and the goofy goggle tan lines that I still have 2 days later were unquestionably worth it!