The up and Downs ( injuries ) of snowboarding

So you may or may not be aware that Helen and I have taken up snowboarding in a big way. Basically every weekend this winter we’ve been to the mountain.

I’ve progressed pretty fast, from never snowboarding in my life, to tackling a black diamond run (even though it was completely by mistake).

This weekend (August 25th, 2018) we heading to the mountain once again; Whakapapa road was only allowing vehicles with chains, including 4WDs. Of course I left my chains at home ! So we headed to Turoa for the first time ever.

Turoa in the morning

Nice drive up Moutain Road, really pretty scenery, with snow dusting the trees.

I stopped a got a couple of pics of Helen on the mountain:

The visibility and crowds were both pretty bad.

By lunch time I’d had enough of the lack of visibility; The mountain report tells me Whakapapa has better visibility so we head there.

Whakapapa

Well, the report was wrong !! It is BLIZZARD conditions ! But I convinced Helen we should head up to the Delta Chair.

It is crazy windy ! and snowing, and cold, and, well, blizzard conditions. I decide I still want to snowboard down, even though we literally cannot see the snow under our feet, and Helen follows.

Of course I take a big tumble, and get back up with pain in my left ankle; I ignore it and carry on down the mountain, heading towards Hut Flat and the Rock Garden. Helen follows.

We rendezvous at the top of Rangatira Express chair; Helen bails out, she’s taking the chair down, and headed towards Happy Valley, I (ignoring my now quite sore ankle) take the Rock Garden down.

We meet at Happy valley, and bump into Katrina, Sarah, and Ross

We have a few runs down Happy Valley, after 3 I decide my ankle is too sore, and needs to stop.

Home by 7:30pm

Well, we get home, and off comes the boots, bad news….

So we spend Sunday morning getting x-rays, waiting around in Accident and Emergency, to find out nothing is broken, and with some care I should be back on the mountain next weekend. Phew! Got to have a hoon around on a wheel chair though :)