Snowboming - Being there

So a post dedicated just to the snowbombing now, you can skip the story of how we got there hehe.

You rock up to snowbombing, they give you a wrist band that is impossible to get off without destroying (they put a metal ring on the band and then use a pinch tool a few times to clamp it together and hold the band in place). The idea is that there are a whole lot of venues at night that have different snowbombing exclusive events you need the wrist band to get into.

One of the biggest venues was the racket club, which was just a huge shed converted to a venue by the looks (think sheds small towns use for when the show comes to town). It had a main stage for the big acts, and then around the back a smaller area called 'Narnia', where smaller bands could play. So once inside you could check out two seperate shows going on.

In theory, very awesome venue, but DAMN it was hot in there. After dancing around to a few songs had to walk outside in just my t-shirt for 5 mins to try and cool down. No seats either, which made it a bit excrutiating after a week in snowboard boots.

The main meeting place for snowbombing was the Strass Hotel. This place was where you first checked in to get your tickets for wrist bands, lift passes etc... Also had free wifi so hung out there a bit (as it was the only place i could get internet on my phone). While having a beer there, also turned out to be the place where Dave was staying so got to catch up with him there as well.

So the next day finally got to go up to the snow! (no snow in the town). It's a bit like new zealand in that you don't stay in the snow, but instead of a half hour bus ride up the mountain, you get a gondola! Let me just say, not the thing for you if you are afraid of heights! The first day up my heart was in my throat for most of the trip up, took a lot of to not freak out! Was fine the rest of the week, just took me by surprise that first day. 15 people jammed into a tiny space the size of a lift, dangling many many meters up in the air. looking down at rocks. Quick google image search of "mayrhofen penkenbahn" will give you some idea.

Then you finally come over the final lip and instead of sheer cliff faces.... SNOW! EVERYWHERE! A proper normal looking snow resorted. such a relief :)

Oh... and that first day I was rushing to get up for a lesson. So we had to meet outside the Strass in morning. I got there.... then realised I'd forgotten my lesson ticket! nooo! asked an instructor if we had to have it, and he said yes we did. I ended up having to call a cab to rush me back to our flat, look for the ticket, then cab back to gondola and get up there before lesson started! So waited frantically for cab... got to room... looked around... and couldn't find it!

... then checked my snow pants, was still in pocket i'd put it in the day before. so i'd had it all along. gah!

Anyway, the lift got us up to snow, and got there in time for my lesson. Had a good group of about 5 or 6 people the first day. Really appreciate having lessons on a new mountain, as you get the feel for which lifts go where and the good runs to take. I'm not too good at reading ski maps. After a few days realised that every run has numbers and arrows constantly showing the way though, so settled in comfortably after a few days.

Tristan ended up choosing to have afternoon lessons, while i prefer morning lessons, so only got to catch him up for lunch each day. In the arvo though usually got to catch up with Dave and Sam and did some boarding with them. They liked to explore so got to see a lot of runs on the mountain I probably wouldn't have ventured to otherwise. Also means a few days we almost got stuck up the mountain hehe.

On the first day up, a cloud came down over the mountain in the afternoon. We'd done a couple of runs on the seven in the afternoon and it was a long windy but downhill trail with a few more open bits every so often. We'd done it a couple of times, but the third (or maybe even second) time we got on it, the cloud totally obscured your vision and couldn't see more than 5 meters in front of you. We tried to follow a group of skiers in red jackets down, but didn't manage to keep up. Eventually we made our way out to the bottom.

We'd tried to arrange to meet tristan at the bottom of the seven run (where a lot of other runs end up). We took a lot longer to get down then we thought, but finally got there. Tristan sms'd to say he was also running a bit late, so waited a while for him for about half an hour. My phone was out of service at this point, so dave tried calling him, but tristan said there was so little visibility he was just walking out. Eventually sent the other guys off, and i waited for Tristan.

Finally at about 10 to 5 (with only one gondola running down to another village), I figured I would just head down the mountain since I didn't want to get stuck up there, and if tristan was trying to contact me he wouldn't be able to while I didn't have reception. Catching gondola down, got reception back so sent a few texts to see if he was alright... but got no response. was worried he might have had an accident or something!

Got down to bottom, waiting for bus to take us back to pension... when tristan appears behind me! must have been a few gondolas back. Apparently my sms was ambigious, so instead of trying ot meet us at bottom of seven, he actually went up seven to try and meet us at top! then tried to come down the long long non visible run we'd done. On top of that, his phone had gone flat!

Ended up cabbing back, had missed last bus.

On Tuesday, caught up with Sam and Dave again in the arvo and we hit up some back country. It had been snowing since the day before (with all the cloud) so there was a lot of powder about if you could find where someone hadn't already wrecked it. Found some really good runs along the edges near the snow machines, since most people don't want to run into these was still pretty fresh, got to do some proper powder riding for first time ever!!!

We love the run so much, that by the time we tried to get back down the mountain, all the lifts were shut. We finally managed to get out to even ANOTHER gondola, that this time took us to a town up the range (instead of down the range like day before). Was so beautiful, as the gondola came down you could see if had been snowing on the village all day, covered in white. Hadn't seen anything like it before. Unfortunately didn't have camera handy, so can't share the image with you.

So Tristan failed to meet us up that day as well, but we all managed to get back to the Strass lobby for some beers afterwards.

Rest of the week lots of fun snowboarding, and a few parties, but not too many as pretty exhausted at end of the day, just want to sit down with a beer not jump around.

Oh, lessons were cool near end of week, got to try jumps, just going of lips along the edge of the seven. There were about 6 little jumps in a row you could do. Instructor tried to teach us grabs and 180s, but mostly was happy just to land straight. In one lesson though got a heap of air off a jump and instinctively got low on board... so low, my hand hit front of board. I had done my first ever grab! just pretend this is me: http://media.photobucket.com/image/snowboarding%20grab/mtbryanmtb/snowboarding.jpg

On the last day on the slopes, we had a lot of jagermeister left to use up, so took it up the mountain with me for some dutch courage. It had been so hot (18 degrees C) that had to keep stopping to take off jacket and gloves to cool off! so decided ice burns don't matter too much last day, so just wore my shirt (no jacket) and gloves. No helmet either, just goggles. Was such a fun day! Had a few slips but nothing bad enough to really hurt myself, and with a bit of jager under my belt got me to commit to the jumps a bit more. Managed to land 3 180s! never been able to do one of those off a jump before, let alone a lip! was quite happy about that :)

The last night was the Eristoff forest party, which was a huge party in this forest clearing. Was sooooo nice to be outside in the cool air instead of in a stuffy shed for a change. DJ Yoda played, followed by De La Soul, and then finally fatboy slim! the crowd really got into it it was all great! Especially good was that around the edge of the clearing was tables and chairs, so when not dancing actually got to sit down! such a wonderful thing after a week in boots.

That's the bullet points of the fun stuff I can remember :) If I ever see you down the pub I can give you the LOOOOONG version hahaha. Oh well hopefully enough info here to prompt my own memory in the future which is the main reason to write this all down someone in the first place :)