Snowboarding Adventure

"To this day, after this trip I have never snowboarded the same, now I take more cation in my boarding"


This is trip took place December 27, 2009. After living through the adventures a few days before "Prairie Mountain Adventure" and "Between Two Perils", the day after I went for a snowboarding trip. Most of the trips having there scares but this one had an event in particular that was worrysome for me, in ways more than the other ones. During this time of my life I called it "Living in Outragous Times" because the days of adventure felt like it would never end. It would be one thriller after the next, until this trip, then things took a turn for a while. Me, my friend Sean, and Cameran head up to Steven’s Pass to go snowboarding once again. It had only been one week since we went snowboarding, and this would be a record for the amount of mountain trips I have ever had in one week. As we were heading up to Stevens Pass we were so excited to get back to snowboarding.

When we hit the slope it was a bit icy so when snowboarding I had to be careful although it was not too bad. Evenually as we were snowboarding we decide on Big Chief hill which for some reason I sorta got a little over the top on my speed and my friend saw that (most the time snowboarding I am not going super fast because it is dangerous). It was so thrilling going down so fast, there are few activities that can compare with this. Part of my motivation was seeing others speed, although I never went as fast as those who go super fast downhill.  He told me to slow it down some which I listened to but after that hill we went up Hogsback to Haggen.

At the time I figured "It’s just Haggen although was slightly annoyed because I don’t like flat areas very much, espeically when things are icy, but Sean kept insisting I do it. After the flat zone zone we get onto Dasey which things go bad for me from here. I will confess I was going a little faster than I should have, but not too fast like I see of others. The sign said "Go with the Flow" and my thoughts were "Ha! I am Flow". One could say I got what was coming. As I was going I some how triped over ice that had a bump. When I fell, it was on my side, and falling on ice/snow rather than softer snow hurts a lot. For a while I just layed there in pain wondering how I was. The first few seconds it happened I felt a serge of pain through that spot, and I worried about internal bleeding or damaging any internal origins. I have taken some nasty falls in the past where I was scared I injuried something, but this time, it had me worried for a long time. I must have been laying in the snow for about 15 minutes, fortunately a nice person comes to me and asks if I am ok, I tell them "I hope so". I check out the damage, fortunately no outside damaged, but my side hurt very much, so I was recommended to see the medical place below. The guy checked me out, he could not see any visible damage, so he gave me an ice pack and I waited for a while waiting hoping it was minor. Fortunately it was not terrible, but as I go back to the lodge, I had to miss out on snowboarding. After well over an hour, mabe two hours of recovery I feel well enough to snowboard again, although was at first affraid to do so, and it still would be painful just walking around.

When back to Snowboarding I at first took it slow, but my friends convinced me into going a little faster. The evening was beautiful, with very nice colors from the sunset but like most mountain trips we had to leave not too long after dark.

The damage did not seem extreme but I tell you what, for the next day I was worried about internal bleeding and from that point on I made up my mind not to go fast on icy slopes which this changed my perspective of snowboarding speed perhaps forever. This happened about 6 months ago, and even in recent times have had that same spot hurt when hit there, or sleeping to hard on it. Incase anyone was wondering, most of the photos were of Glacier Peak.