FOG MOVED UP THE MOUNTAIN A BIT

PARTIALLY CLEARED SKIES REVEAL CITY BELOW

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

Everything got a bit better for day 2 of the snowboarding season.

Grouse Mountain was hit with drizzles of rain all week until the weekend when the rain finally turned to snow. Without the new snow, I doubt whether I would have gone snowboarding yesterday. As the sky was, the drizzles returned for Sunday with freezing temperatures overnight, but I was confident that the new snow had provided enough coverage for at least a few hours of snowboarding.

The advantage of freezing temperatures overnight and during the day is that even -1 Celsius triggers the mountain’s snow making abilities, which can provide an important topcoat of machine made snow over tough icy sections. 

Snowboarding, at least the way I snowboard, can be quite physically exhausting at the beginning of the season. With the low turnout on Mondays, the line-ups are near non-existent, and I was able to go from the run directly onto the chairlift most of the time.

The downside to this continuity is the substantially reduced recovery period between restarts of aggressive riding on fairly steep terrain. Similarly, to other small mountains on the British Columbia Coast, such as Mount Washington, the trails are more literally runs, and the runs are steep for a lot of adrenaline riding.

Snowboarding requires a lot of full body movements, especially carving, and this strain on the system requires several days of recovery. Even after midway through the season, I typically require a full day of recovery, likely because I ride even more being in better shape.

I ate a lighter meal of pasta and a quarter slice of left over pizza early in the evening the night before. And then I had a lighter breakfast of cooked oats in the morning. I had a double portion of oats, though. I like to stir in a bit of cinnamon just as the water reduces and the oats expand. Once in a while I also throw in a dash of nutmeg. These two spices add a bit of uniqueness to a breakfast that can get boring after repeat orders from the breakfast menu. Two servings fills the breakfast bowl just nicely, and then I add on top about a tablespoon of Quebec Maple Syrup. If I have a nice ripe banana, which I did yesterday morning, I will place chunks around the edge of the bowl and gradually eat bits as I eat the cooked oats mixed with cinnamon and marbled with maple syrup.

I managed to get out the door on time.

The challenge this day was to go snowboarding without a backpack on the public transit bus. When you drive your car to the mountain, you can use the trunk for a storage locker, and you can always ride back to the parking lot in the middle of the day, to add layers of clothing if it is too cold, or take off a layer if the day is too warm, or to have a bite to eat from a small cooler. But when you take the transit bus to the mountain, you have to put everything in a backpack. The problem with a backpack is that it is always in the way on the chairlift, and if you should fall, which everyone is bound to do at least once if you are constantly pushing the envelope of your abilities, the backpack can make a spill a bit more dangerous for injuries.

So, I wore the snowboard boots, which were actually comfortable enough to walk in unlaced. Last time I wore sneakers, and I carried my boots and helmet, but then I had to put my sneakers in the backpack once on the mountain.

I put my gloves, goggles and helmet in a reusable grocery bag that could be stuffed in one of my jacket packets once emptied of contents on the mountain. I also reduced my wallet size to something less bulky that could discretely fit in my pocket with my house keys, etc.

I kept my mountain pass and bus pass in my pant pocket.

The only problem really was remembering where everything was. When I went home, for example, I could not find my bus pass. And the bus was getting ready to leave. The driver had turned on the engine, and the hydraulics hissed, and the bus began to beep. I eventually found my bus pass stuck to the mountain pass, which I did not immediately notice because the colored side of the bus pass stuck to the backside of the mountain pass. Of course, when you are looking for something, there is always that possibility that you left it behind on the mountain, in the snow somewhere, lost forever, even after the Spring runoff.

I had eaten light over the previous 12 hours because you are not supposed to carry so much around on ‘race day’. I also wanted to stretch out, as long as physically possible, my second day riding of the season by breaking for lunch at the chalet. I had hoped that the lunch break would give my legs a chance to bounce back, thus enabling me to ride until 3:30 pm, or thereabouts, when the ‘one time express’ bus to Downtown Vancouver left the mountain bus station.

For the most part, the strategy worked well. I had a great first 3 ½ hours riding on the mountain, down The Peak and turning hard left down toward Blueberry and the Olympic Lift, and then back up again without nearly any line-up at the lift.

I added a few longer rides on the trails to give my legs a bit of a break. I also checked out the terrain parks on either side of the Cut. Grouse Mountain has three levels of terrain park on the trails beside the Cut: beginner, intermediate and then expert with Olympic size jumps.

I had lunch at the bistros about 12:30 pm. The chalet has a cafeteria and a bistro, as well as a fine dining area and a ski shop. Grouse Mountain has spectacular views of the city and surrounding mountains, which guest services uses to lure sightseers into the dining areas.

Unfortunately, for the sightseers having lunch at the time, the clouds had moved up the mountain blocking the city view, and the fog had rolled onto the runs, which was one of the reasons I had decided to take a break.

I had the Peak burger and a pint of draft, and two glasses of water, which went down a bit too quickly because I had worked up such a good appetite with the light breakfast and the aggressive riding while inhaling fresh mountain air.

Of course, nothing was the same after that lunch break, even though I really did need to break for lunch. The adrenaline had left, and everything had slowed down a bit too much.

I still managed to get another 1 ½ hours in riding before heading home with pretty exhausted, shaky legs. I had also strained a neck muscle in the cold, that one set of muscles used for looking sideways while riding parallel with the board. This neck muscle seemed to be pulling at my left shoulder, and in the process, unbalancing everything else resting on tired, shaky achy legs.

The bus connections went well. And I was happy to immediately relax at home for a few hours, being rather bonked at the end of a great, eventful day.