Beginner's Trip Report From Sauze d'Oulx

coillcam

I posted a while back looking for some advice for my first trip here .... http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055790847

So I decided maybe I'll help out anyone who is a first timer and post up my experience.

Booked all the flights through Ryanair cheap as chips and checked in a bag to split luggage with a mate. We flew out on Saturday morning to Turin from Dublin and just made it in time to catch the majority of Ireland defeating the old enemy in Twickenham .

On the snowboarding front, unfortunately the first day was a literal car crash for me. I rented boots, board, pants and a helmet from the local ski shop(@ €80 for 5 days) as I already had borrowed the jacket and bought goggles + thermals/layers. We managed to shake off the beer from the previous nights celebrations and get on the slopes for 9.30am, not before I managed to negotiate getting on a chairlift first time without making an arse of myself or so I thought. That was until one of the lads being an experienced boarder noticed that I only had my toe bound, my board was about to fall off and him starting to shout at me as we went up the mountain. I never realised their were ankle bindings at the time . So cue much laughing and messing, trying to get the board onto my foot on the chairlift. Slid off the chair lift grand and off we went.

So my mate Frank then proceeded to show me toes/heels and how the edges worked fairly quickly and a bit of stopping. All on the baby slopes of course. So I kind of just stayed with that for a while after finding out there were no lessons available until tomorrow. Then some of the skiers in the group thought it would be great to bring me onto the blue slopes. I was a total mess to be honest. After plenty of falling over I ended up tripping pretty bad at speed and whacked my head fairly daintily.... not (thank you very much mr helmet for saving me ). After that I took it very handy until I found myself hurtling down a slope, out of control, far too fast and catching an icy-ish patch then some soft powder and I couldn't bail but ended up going head over heals and twisting my already dodgey knee pretty bad. I struggled back home after and missed the next day as I was barely able to walk never mind escape my bed. I was fairly pissed off at that point to be honest as there were only 3 days left and I was unsure about what I was going to do.

Lucky enough I wasn't too bad on the 3rd day and quick trip to the pharmacy next door provided me with an extremely necessary knee support. I stuck to the baby slope and was worse than the first day much to my dismay . Lucky enough I managed to get an hour of a 1 on 1 lesson for €35. This made a massive difference and I was delighted afterwards. I was no longer spilling left right and centre, getting to turn goofy/regular both frontside and backside. Tbf I was in serious pain at first as my legs were in bits but once the instructor corrected my form I was in good shape as the pressure on my knees, calves and ankles were both from bad form and over tightened boots. I just stuck to practicing for the last couple of hours of the afternoon and I was pretty happy with the turnaround.

On the 4th day I had the same instructor booked in for 2 hours @ €70. I had an absolute ball as he gently egged me on and I was gliding down the nursery slopes with faster longer/shorter turns, bending/extending the knees and not falling at all, well almost. So he said time for the black slope. Obviously a joke on his part until he actually told me we were going to head down it as we stood looking at it . Tbf it was a virtually straight and short slope with only one steep section that I had to use the heels to slide from side to side on a bit. But I was surprised with my progress and I was well chuffed to traverse it reasonably successfully. Onwards and upwards via chairlift to a short red slope home and I was delighted with myself. I headed off with some of the mates after to some higher up slopes and had savage craic. I was even passing some of them out and out-manoeuvreing them the odd time :cool:. I ended up taking a long red slope that meandered into a blue and back to red home. It fairly took it out of me but I was delighted to get to the bar at the bottom of the slope for a well deserved pint.

For the final day I tackled a few different reds that frustrated me at first as there were a lot of uphill and flat sections. After that I was in my element. I can only describe the rush when snowboarding as close to the one you get on a motorbike (in my case off road on a crosser). It was only a half day as we had a 3 hour trek via bus to Bergamo and back home but I tried a few new slopes and found myself being shouted at to go off piste around a snow blower. No hassle, sure it's only a little bump about a foot or so and a little turn to the left back to the slope. All gravy until I had some momentum acquired, the bump now had mutated into a nightmare spot. Two more hidden bumps underneath that turned further off piste to the right and were even deeper. Not much I could do at that stage but go for it. I actually nearly made it but caught my tail on the 2nd "step" and spun board-first under the snowblower. Lucky enough that moment will not be making it's way onto youtube!

Overall I had a savage time. I will definitely be going again and I have to say, an arse protector and helmet are a must for beginners. I got absolutely pummeled on occasion. Lessons from an instructor ,preferably an enthusiastic one are worth their weight in gold. Not only did it make things safer for me, but they gave me a great sense of progression and some confidence to go out and enjoy the last few days on the proper slopes with my mates.

I have not even mentioned anything about aprés ski or the town itself here. But trust me I had definitely the best of holiday of my 23 years.

Again thanks to everyone who posted advice in my first thread. If anyone has any questions I would be happy to pass on my experiences from the trip.