Saturday, December 29, 2007

To look down when riding back country

I was teaching a friend how to snowboard today and took a quick break to explore a small run that went off into the woods next to the slope. I maneuvered through it perfectly until just before the end when I went down hard. After the wall of pain ebbed I looked around and I after thinking about it I think I finally know what happened.

The path was on the left side of a hill and was mostly straight. To keep my balance I had to keep my toes dug in and lean a little into the hill. I swerved around some trees and just as I leaned forward to stabilize myself my knee hit something and I went down hard. I looked back over the path I covered and there was a 18 inch stump about as think as my fist sticking up out of the snow. I missed the stump with my board, but I was leaning so far forward that my right knee hit it.

Lesson Learned : Turns out there are more things to consider than just the trail when you are off the beaten path.

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