Bailing at the Grassgeheren in the Allgäu 
Grassgeherren: where everyone learns to snowboard
This is the off-piste element of the day, if you look carefully you can see that I am exhausted, eating Wurst and drinking coffee.
Christian gave us the basics of snowboard training and then gradually took us higher and higher up the slope. This learning concept works well for people under the age of eighteen but perhaps needs some refinement for the elderly.
We spent a week in the Allegäu snowboarding. Christian (my brother in law and professional Ski Instructor) is almost military in his training technique so it is appropriate that our Bad Lieutenant helmets are modelled on the military. I think I fell off the mountain eight times before the level of my exhaustion reached acetone production level.
Fortunately we had a large supply of Rauchpeitschen, dried dates, pineapple and water available in Red October so I retreated to the truck for refreshments. I actually got my skis out for a less strenuous bit of snow ploughing and stacked them on the tonneau. Then I got in the back and fell asleep for 15 minutes. Of course the alpine sun soon turns the car into a sauna and it wasn't long before I was cooking and woke up. When I went out of the truck I remembered I had stacked the skis on the back. I put them back in and went and took some pictures instead.
My biggest problem that day was that I had so much gear on I was cooking and soaked in sweat. I was wearing those hi-tec ski long johns and long sleeved vest. They are a sort of knitted nylon, a bit like women's tights but they have an unbelievable insulating ability. Contrast this to the fact that it was cold enough to get glacier burn, a combination of sun and frostbite, on my lips.It was a very exhausting day for me and I promise this was the first time and I quit as soon as I tasted ketones on my breath. Susi actually went up the ski left and made a reasonable effort at getting down the mountain. This was before we had practiced enough to know how to scrape down a mountain, so it was a pretty impressive effort. At some point we will return to this piste and give a more full report on the slope but as I recall it looked as if it would provide a good run.
Grassgeherren: where everyone learns to snowboard
This is the off-piste element of the day, if you look carefully you can see that I am exhausted, eating Wurst and drinking coffee.
Christian gave us the basics of snowboard training and then gradually took us higher and higher up the slope. This learning concept works well for people under the age of eighteen but perhaps needs some refinement for the elderly.
We spent a week in the Allegäu snowboarding. Christian (my brother in law and professional Ski Instructor) is almost military in his training technique so it is appropriate that our Bad Lieutenant helmets are modelled on the military. I think I fell off the mountain eight times before the level of my exhaustion reached acetone production level.
Fortunately we had a large supply of Rauchpeitschen, dried dates, pineapple and water available in Red October so I retreated to the truck for refreshments. I actually got my skis out for a less strenuous bit of snow ploughing and stacked them on the tonneau. Then I got in the back and fell asleep for 15 minutes. Of course the alpine sun soon turns the car into a sauna and it wasn't long before I was cooking and woke up. When I went out of the truck I remembered I had stacked the skis on the back. I put them back in and went and took some pictures instead.
My biggest problem that day was that I had so much gear on I was cooking and soaked in sweat. I was wearing those hi-tec ski long johns and long sleeved vest. They are a sort of knitted nylon, a bit like women's tights but they have an unbelievable insulating ability. Contrast this to the fact that it was cold enough to get glacier burn, a combination of sun and frostbite, on my lips.It was a very exhausting day for me and I promise this was the first time and I quit as soon as I tasted ketones on my breath. Susi actually went up the ski left and made a reasonable effort at getting down the mountain. This was before we had practiced enough to know how to scrape down a mountain, so it was a pretty impressive effort. At some point we will return to this piste and give a more full report on the slope but as I recall it looked as if it would provide a good run.
Comments
Post a Comment