Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Snowboarding in Nunavut: Doing it the hard way

We got out on the land snowmobiling yesterday and this time we took out Nathan's snowboard. This is something he has been meaning to try for sometime now. The idea was that I would drive him up the hill on my machine and then he would snowboard down and we would continue this cycle for maximum fun. I however was not going to board. I can not and will not. I like my legs in one piece, in fact I like my entire body that way.

We finally came across an acceptable hill and realize it's just too steep to mobile up. Nathan decided to park his snowmobile half way up and then crawl up the rest of the way. It seemed like an eternity passed as I watched him wade through waste deep snow and then use his board to climb up the rest of the way.
When he got to the top, we proceeded to try and have a muffled conversation about which way he should head down to avoid the mine field of rocks. It was a nerve racking moment while I finally communicated with hand gestures that he need to stay to his right so I could take him home in one piece. Why are men lunatics sometimes? And why do woman get to suffer watching them do insane things?

He finally took off over what seemed like a cliff of snow that was a straight drop. He kept it together for most of the way down and then...
Wiped out. But remember how hard it was to get up the hill because the snow was so loose and powdery?

Well he survived and got back up...
And went down the hill a little more.
At the end of Nathan's trip down the hill, my friend Morena and I drove up to Nathan's machine where we both promptly sunk our machines into the really deep loose snow. Getting them dug out was (insert bad word here) hard. We were wading through thigh deep snow, digging out our machines and doing it all wearing enough puffy clothing we'd put the stay puft marshmallow man to shame. It was -30C outside and I was still sweating.

This next photo might look like a crime scene, but really it's just Nathan taking a nap and Morena INGENIOUSLY rolling herself down the hill, saving herself the pain of wading through the snow. Its defeating walking a few steps and then sinking in to your hip. In the end, we made it out. I hope if anything came of that little adventure, I might have burned a few postpartum calories!

10 comments:

Matt, Kara, Hunter and Cavan said...

ahahaha I love the rolling down the hill technique! Pure genius!

So did Nathan just do one run?

jen said...

Kara, Yeah it was too exhausting climbing back up again. Every second step he'd sink in and he also wasted a lot of energy using his man strength digging our machines out of the snow. We'll have to investigate an easier hill to get up.

Aleks said...

"snow machine" hah hah. Soon you'll be saying "Hows you gettin' on cocky?"

Anonymous said...

I'm surprised by how much snow you seem to get down there. Up here there are still spots where the "grass" sticks up.

Anonymous said...

These are awesome.

Julie said...

Don't you watch Survivorman!! you should NEVER sweat in -30! how dare you! Survivorman would be so upset with you right now.. but I guess you were just going to go inside your warm house to drink warm coco and not spending the night outside.. So we forgive you.. this time..

Unknown said...

Vertical rise? 200 feet?

Matthew & Michele said...

What's wrong with saying snow machine? It's more accurate than saying snowmobile. Snowmobile sounds like you’re saying the snow is moving.

Everyone here says snow machine. Local dialect I guess. It's like saying ATV, 4 wheeler, Honda it all means the same thing.

I may have come up with a new blog post if no one beats me to it.

Where were you guys? It looks like you were in back of Nipple Mtn.

Unknown said...

Did you find any hills safe to snow board on?

Unknown said...

We are moving in a month there and I have an avid snow boarder who can't wait to tackle those hills ugh