First ski experience was grouse mountain north vancouver 1991, I had left England to make my fortune planting trees in the bc Interior but it was still too early for planting so one one afternoon two of us decided to bus and hitch hitch up to the local mountain, clad only in jeans the ski rental guys took pity and lent us jackets and trousers, we skied under the flood lights, zero skill but full of enthusiasm we had a blast
Fast forward to the summer of 1992 and I was determined to ski a whole season, I picked Switzerland as the quintessential ski destination and proceeded to hitch hike around what felt like every hotel in every resort until I got the magic yes, a great life lesson that was to pay dividends in later years - it pays to be persistent and every no gets you closer to a yes
The first 6 weeks were spent on ex rental Olin 195 racing skis and hire boots purchased for the princely sum of 50chf before getting in to the snowboarding for the rest of the season
Over the next 20 years I snowboarded occaisionally with a couple of summer trips in the mid nineties to hitch down to tignes in France for the glacier skiing, back then the glacier was large, well covered and we would ride fresh powder in July
Fast forward to 2012ish, I was visiting friends in Vegas and took a trip to Utah for the legendary powder, too early in the season for the powder I tired of riding the groomed piste on a board so decided to hire some “carving” skis and had a blast, after a 2 hour lesson with an ESF instructor in les deux alpes I was hooked, really enjoying the technical challenge
10 days on the mountain since 2012 plus 6 days in both uk and Dutch indoor snow domes
Next trip will be Christmas
