Snowboarding and Elevation
Saturday, February 20th, 2010
Some friends are visiting from down the hill (near sea level) and wanted to learn to snowboard, so yesterday I took them to Eldora to give them a taste of snow surfing awesomeness. A few inches of new snow and riding on a weekday made for near-perfect conditions.
After getting them set up with equipment, we trekked off to the bunny slopes where I showed them the basics of strapping in, weight placement, turning, etc. We then hiked up the hill a bit, strapped in, and started riding.
Turns out we should have just taken the bunny lift and started on the steeper parts. The hikes up, maybe 100 yards, plum tuckered ‘em out. My older bud was struggling to breathe and took a nasty digger that pretty much wiped him out. His son caught on quickly, though we learned his natural stance is goofy and his board was set up for a standard stance.
Still, it was a great afternoon intro to the sport. Both are now hooked and poppa has found new motivation to get back in shape. They’re coming back next month (traditionally Colorado’s snowiest) and we’ll go hit one of the bigger hills for more fun in the snow.
Next time, I’ll be wearing my heartrate monitor so I can get a more precise meaure of caloric expenditure than “a lot.” I’m guesstimating that we burnt 1000-2000 calories over three hours of hiking, falling and riding. We’re all feeling the effects today. ;o)
