Playing Catchup: Being the slow one on the mountain during a ski/snowboard vacation

I slowly slid to a stop at the edge of the cliff, where my 13-year-old son was waiting for me. “You’re doing great, dad!” he yelled, then put out his mittened fist up for a fist bump. Our mittens collided, and I exhaled. He jumped up on his board and sped down the hill. I exhaled slowly, and the snow crunched softly beneath my snowboard as I chased after him.

Over 10-years-ago, my family headed to Mont Tremblant for a ski trip. We had spent one other time at a mountain in New York to see how we would fare in the snow. I didn’t grow up skiing or snowboarding, but always wanted to try snowboarding. I rented a board and spent the next few hours falling awkwardly. My kids, however, took to the snow immediately.

From the first trip to Mont Tremblant to the most recent, my kids have been taking ski and snowboard lessons. I’ve taken a few lessons here and there. My problem is, I only go once a year, and because of that, spend a lot of time trying to pick myself out of the snow. My son is the only snowboarder besides me and the others are on skis. That meant, for the most recent trip, my daughters were on skis and my son and I were on boards.

My son is fast on the board and aims his snowboard straight down while snow and ice skip from underneath his board. I slowly make my way down a mountain, making round turns along the way. Honestly, it can be a little embarrassing how slowly I go down the mountain.

On the second day of our ski vacation, my son and I had a morning lesson with David, a snowboard teacher at Mont Tremblant. When we arrived to meet him, I noticed my board didn’t have boot straps. I went into panic mode, which needs a little backstory.

Back in November, I attended the Snowbound Expo in Boston. At the expo, I found a deal on a snowboard, boots, and bindings. I bought all three with huge plans for the winter ski season. Finally, I could use the snowboard items. Because I am the way I am, I’m not the most attentive person to details. After our first day in the snow in Tremblant, I picked up my youngest daughter from ski school. When I went to where I placed my board, I didn’t see it. I looked all around and couldn’t find it. My kids and I went into a frenzy trying to find the board. My son walked about 30 yards to another place where boards and skis are stored, and picked up my board. Now, my board has a distinct design, and I have seen no other like it. When I saw him carrying my board’s design, I noticed nothing out of the ordinary. I continued to carry my daughter’s skis and my son’s snowboard. We stored them in our lockers and went about our day.

As you can assume, my son picked up the wrong board.

Back to my panic mode.

While my son started his lesson, I ran around trying to piece together what happened. There were no straps on my board, and sadly, my first reaction was that some jerk played a trick on me by stealing the straps. While asking around about what possibly happened, someone at a hotel informed me that my board has a clip for boots and no straps. The bindings were completely different from what I had bought. I ran to the lost and found and inquired if they had a board like mine. And they did. They had my board.

What happened was, someone picked up my board by mistake. After realizing it, they took it to lost and found. I exchanged boards and headed up the mountain an hour later and met up with my son and the instructor. With adrenaline pumping from all the drama of searching for my board, my shaky legs descended the mountain.

The lesson was going smoothly, and I was boarding the best I’ve ever done. Then, I was coming down the hill and went for a speed check and caught an edge and crashed into the snow head first. The instructor and my son were at the bottom, looking up at me. The world was spinning and a nearby instructor on skis made a sudden stop next to me and asked me if I was okay. I lied and said I was fine. He told me to stay still for a moment and do a system check. I assured him I was okay, and he went off with his students. I got up on my knees and tried to get my bearings. After my head was on straight and the mountain stopped moving, I slowly slid down the mountain to my son and the instructor. David, our instructor, asked me some questions to make sure I was fine. And I figured I was, and we went on with the rest of the lesson.

Later on that night, I had a terrible migraine. When I went to bed, it felt like I was on a cruise. The bed seemed to bob up and down. When I woke up the next morning, I dropped off my daughter and had a slow start to the day. Unfortunately, I hit my head again on another run.

The trip wasn’t going as planned. My head and neck hurt and I couldn’t keep up with my kids on the mountain. Regardless of what was happening on the mountain, we still had a great time in the evenings. If you haven’t been to Mont Tremblant, I highly recommend going. The snow is great, but the village put the ski trip over the top of great places to visit. There are many great restaurants, bars, and activities. There’s always something going on.

When our time on the slope would end each day, we would have a maple syrup snow popsicles, then head to the room for a brief rest. After our rest, we would hang out in the hotel’s heated pool and hot tub. After that, we would head out for dinner and end our night at the ice skating rink.

But the main reason we were in Tremblant was to go skiing and snowboarding and I was failing miserably. On our last day, we arrived at the gondola early. My kids were ready to hit the slopes fast and hard. I was ready for an “easy-does-it” day. My youngest two left the mountain first while I trailed behind them. They were kind and didn’t make me feel bad about being slow. They lied frequently by telling me I was doing well. I could tell, though, my son wanted to shred.

Seeing how well my 9-year-old daughter was doing on skis, I allowed them to go on without me and set a time to meet back up. While I enjoyed moving slowly on the mountain, they sped up and down and occasionally lapping me. After a few runs, my son asked his sister if she was done, because he wanted to go down the black diamonds. She was done and even though I had another run or two in me; I said I was finished. My daughter and I said goodbye to my son and the two of us went off for some delicious hot chocolate.

The trip wasn’t perfect, because of my limited snowboarding abilities. It was still a successful trip, despite my wintery head-banging activities. Since the trip has ended, we’ve been brainstorming about other places to go before spring arrives. I’m going to try some solo snowboarding trips to get better, so my kids won’t have to wait for me anymore.

Mont Tremblant is already on next year’s calendar and will be on the one after that. Might as well learn to shred before it rolls around.

@onegooddad

My kids are much faster than me. @Tremblant #tremblant #snowboarding #skiing #travel #adventure #ski #snowboard

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