7 April, Day 87, Last Snow

I went snowboarding with Paddy and Michael one last time this season. We picked Monte Rosa, (the highest mountain in Italy) in hopes of finding some traces of decent snow. Once we got off the autostrada, the drive turned into a beautiful winding road though increasingly steep valleys. Halfway there we passed the village of Varallo where I could see the Sacre Monte perched up on a mountain that I hoped to visit a few weeks ago. We continued into the mountains without seeing many traces of snow as we drove alongside a river beckoning the kayaker in me to try to navigate its waters. Later we passed signs for a rafting camp verifying that the water could be piloted.

We finally arrived at Monte Rosa to find it packed with people there on Easter holidays. But it’s a huge mountain, and though we did wait on a few lines for the lifts, they weren’t too bad. The snow was heavy and grainy in the blasting sunlight. In spite of using sun block, I got a goggle tan-line on my face. But I guess that’s OK because it says I probably had more fun this weekend than anyone else that doesn’t have one.

Early in the day I really started cruising down the mountain until taking a violent tumble that left long a skid in the snow behind me. I shook myself off as I began to rebuild my confidence taking it a little slower as the snow continued to soften. We had a great time exploring nearly the whole mountain that day going on and off piste. By the afternoon the snow was pretty much slush so I began looking for jumps off the growing moguls and various rocks and lips beyond the confines of the trails.

It started to rain as we got to the bottom after the last run, but everyone was content to end the season on such a beautiful day. I’ve been to the mountains 8 times this winter. I started off struggling to remember how to snowboard and finished being able to hold my own on some of the expert runs. I’m not sure where I’ll be living next winter, but I’ll be sure to take a few days to go snowboarding.