After 5 days of sun, and of course...

SNOW :)

Sierra Nevada is where I am writing from at the moment, and I totally recommend you to come if what you want is good snow, sun, and a lot of "fiesta". Even though it is a ski station that requires 100% of your attention because of its numerous cross roads, it is a very nice station to enjoy it with you friends.

It is Friday, and tomorrow is supposed to snow again. We are all waiting for it to happen, because the snow and the sun usually don't get along for too long. Either the sun melts the snow, or the snowy clouds cover the sun, so let the snow fall again ;)

This is how the evenings look from the highest apartment in Sierra Nevada.
I promise, I will write something more interesting soon, hehe.

Waiting for the snow season to start

Just a small post...

It is the beginning of December, and the snow has not reached our mountains yet. It snowed a bit in the Pyrenees, but it's not enough. In the south, surprisingly there is up to a meter of snow, so if you want to ski, you should go South.


This is Astún, a few days ago. Credit to Nacho Delgado.

Adrenaline

Adrenaline is the result of many breath taking ski runs, and risky situations in which us, skiers, like to put ourselves into. There is a point in which going down fast in a piste is not good enough, because the "rush" it gives us is not enough, and that is when we seek the "freeride rush". Like with every drug, each time you need bigger doses, and if the "rush" is not enough, you look for more.

When I go skiing, unconsciously, this is what I look for, my adrenaline shot, my drug.

The moment I'm in the edge of the slope and about to go down, that is the moment in which the heart accelerates, and it does because I'm thinking about all the risks that I'm taking just for fun. It is that rush what makes it all exciting, the danger and the pleasure together in one.


So yes, I'm addicted to this sport, and it is the result of a biochemical reaction. There is no return.

Do you feel like me when you practice skiing, or any other "risky sport"?

The day I crashed a snow wall

What I am about to tell you is something I learned by myself, and that everyone can find useful when skiing. I was only five, and yes, it is a good thing I learned it so soon.

It was my first week skiing, and I could already do parallel turns and break whenever I needed it, so I felt very comfortable at trying new things. On the Wednesday evening, my mom and I were skiing around the easy slopes, and we decided to move to some more complicated ones. On our way there, there was a long straight slope and it was going to be the perfect place to practice my "chus", which was the position I needed to practice for my race the next day.

So I curled myself into a little ball and passed my mom, at what seemd then like an astonishing fast speed, and as I passed her I was screaming: "Look mommy, this is how I'm going to win the race tomorrow!" Yes, I was very competitive back then, but not too careful. As soon as I finished the sentence I saw my face into a white wall of snow.

So I learned the lesson of that day: If you are going to race someone, make sure that you are always looking forwards because you don't know if you might run against a snow wall, or something worse.

Do you have any story ski-related you would like to share???