So it turns out that snow isn't always soft.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Backstory- I just moved to Oregon from Texas. I’ve been very excited about the winter, as since I’ve never really had to deal with snow, I’ve been really looking forward to it. But since I’ve never really dealt with it, I’m still learning about the stuff.

Anyway, this last weekend I went up on the mountain to take snowboard lessons. Basically, I’m trying to embrace my inner Gen-X.

We’ve had a very… odd winter. We got a spate of snow for a while there, but it’s been unseasonably warm the past few weeks (I’m gettin’ a mite pissed about that, but that’s another story). Anyway, there really hasn’t been much snow, either in town or up on the mountain. The mountain’s still got about 3-4 feet, I understand, but it’s oldish- and fairly icy. They keep the trails groomed nicely, I understand.

Like I said, it’s been warm. So warm, in fact, that I took off my jacket. Underneath that, I was only wearing a short-sleeve shirt. Those of you who’ve skied before are probably already wincing.

Yeah, I fell. And it turns out that icy snow is only so much wet sandpaper when you hit it. I’ve got the worst elbow scrape of my life right now. Holy crap this thing hurts.

There are two especially bad things about The Scrape From Hell:

  1. It’s completely my own fault. I didn’t have to try to learn snowboarding.
  2. I’ve got another lesson next Sunday. There’s no way this monster’s going to heal by then. And I just KNOW I’m going to fall again.
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Yep, long sleeve shirts and vest or a ski jacket. Without a doubt.

Be lucky you didn’t fall hard on your ass/tailbone - that’s a real painful common snowboard injury when you’re starting out. And that hurts just as much, and there’s no graceful way to lie about why you have to sit down so gently.

But you will fall on your ass at some point, at a minimum the first time you tackle a mogul field or a terrain park. You might want to consider a little padding in your seat like a towel until you’re comfortable falling at speed, or safely and quickly stopping from a high speed.

At least with your arm, you invent all kinds of cool scenarios to tell people how you got that 12 inch length of oozing raw flesh.

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And wear wrist guards and a helmet.