Current Music: Battlestar Galactica - 1x06 Litmus (i.e. SciFi on TV)
Current Mood: Ok, I guess

This was my 3rd company ski trip at work, and indeed the biggest one so far (about 2,500 people). The logistics were pretty incredible. While I had to wake up at 04:45 on thursday, the first bus did leave at 05:30 from Mountain View, and I was on the slopes at Squaw by 10-ish.
That was good news in theory, except that being a good lazy snowboarder, I thought it was better to take the Far East Express lift off the parking lot and board down to the gondola instead of walking across the parking lot to go there directly. I kind of knew that the terrain would be icy and dicy, double black equivalent, but it wasn't the first time I had done terrain like this, and I was ok with it. My mistake however was to kind of set aside the fact that I had also changed my board, my bindings and my stance, and that I was riding with those brand new combinations for the first time. But eh, just to make it interesting, I also took the straight way down the face of the mountain, to where I was going, instead of the longer path around. I'll blame lack of judgement on lack of sleep.
End result, I missed just one jump turn that I overshot due to the new stance I wasn't used to, fell, and rolled once or twice. No big deal at the time, and I went to enjoy the rest of the day.




Enjoyable it was, since I was the only person to show up on time for a ride with two celebrity snowboarders who were there for us. It was definitely an honor to ride with them, and I had extra pressure to keep up with them down the interesting terrain we used (not counting that one of them suggested that I adjust my stance to something less aggressive, which took me some way to re-learn on the way down).


Yeah, don't mind the silly hat, it was a google hat that they gave so that we could recognize one another on the slopes

The day was great, and I had a good time at the Squaw Creek resort chilling in the hot tub at the end of the day, waiting for the evening party.



The party itself was impressive: huge tents in the middle of the Squaw parking lot, with 5 different themes and music. While the beginning was fun, it kind of went downhill when they closed 4 of the tents and everyone ended up in the main one: not only was it a bit too crowded, but the band, which was playing 80s music (fairly well actually) was also playing way too freaking loud, making it nearly impossible to have a discussion with anyone I met there. That was a shame, really, and I ended up going back to my hotel around 23:30, and was in bed by midnight, instead of past 03:00 for the previous years.












My night wasn't stellar due to some pain in my right ribs, linked to my first fall on icy moguls in the morning, but I still made it to the slopes the next morning and had a decent time until 13:00 or so. By then, the pain became increasingly noticeable, until I had to bail, almost an hour early because I was unable to snowboard properly as a result. I still took the unchartered black diamond down instead of the long boring path filled with obstacles (I mean people), and while I made it down, I could tell that I was starting to push my luck and my much reduced abilities. In the end, when I got to the bottom, I walked 2mn to the red dog lift back to my hotel instead of taking KT-22 and some other mogully slope.



While I had a good time during the trip, but the time I got home by 20:30, the pain was bothering me more, and this morning I went to an E.R., where 2H and some X-Rays later, they at least confirmed that I didn't break anything, but that I most likely badly inflamated the connection between my lower right rib and cartilage (which explains why the pain got worse over time)
Recovery time: 2 to 6 weeks worst case, damn. I'm not in huge pain, although lots of movements do strain that area, and daily life will be fine, but sports are out of the question for now I suppose. Well, we'll see how it goes....
Either way, I have no right to complain, with the kind of ridding I do, this is really no big deal considering :)

Oh, and all the pictures are here