The Scenario
For a while, my college roommate and good friend Alissa Winters (aka Lis) and I have been scheming about trying all types of riding together: snowboarding, longboarding, and surfing. I grew up skiing, and switched to snowboarding at about age 10. I was happy to teach her, but aware of the fact that the first time snowboarding is the definition of frustrating, and almost always ends in tears. Lis is one of the bold and wanted to take it up anyway.
Just this year, shortly after our conversation about wanting to try it, I bought my first longboard and taught myself to ride it. I see it as a supplementary hobby for snowboarding, living in a land of no snow or hills (Charleston, SC). All that was left was to share these two hobbies with Lis. We both had a long weekend for Presidents’ Day, so we planned for me to make the drive up to Lis’ current home in Fredericksburg, VA, so that we could make a day trip to Massanutten to snowboard. I would bring my longboard too, and with that, we would knock out two of our bucket list items together.
The Gear
- Gnu Snowboard, Burton boots, helmet, and goggles
- SixEightSix snowboard jacket and Columbia snow pants
- Patagonia light winter jacket
- Quest longboard and wrist guards
- Adidas NMD R1 shoes
- Coleman alpine sleeping bag
The Road Trip
I had packed the night before my trip and loaded my car the Friday morning of. I loved that feeling of loading my car in the cool morning air, knowing that by evening I would be in a totally different place. What’s more, the items included in my trunk made it look like I was setting off on an adventurous weekend.
It was a half day of school, but I had a teacher workday until 3:30pm. It turned out that I finished my meetings early. You’d think I would have hustled out of there given that I had a 7 hour drive ahead of me, but I’ve adapted to the southern lifestyle during my time here. That is, I talked to people for an hour and a half and stopped at a local coffee shop, which by the end put me in the car at the originally scheduled time of 3:30pm.
I had a feeling of pure joy as I turned opened up Spotify and entered Lis’s address into the Maps on my phone. It was about 65 degrees and sunny in Charleston, so I rolled the windows down and sipped my caramel iced coffee in jubilee. I praised God for a good weekend ahead, during which I could just release and have fun with an old friend while letting go of the workweek.
Along the way, I caught up with my current roommate over the phone as well as my sister, which was a good way to keep me occupied for a bit. About 3 hours in, I stopped at a place right off the highway that killed three birds with one stone: gas, food, and bathroom. It only added about 15 minutes to my travel time, and was a conveniently placed break. The rest of the drive I listened to some podcasts and music while cruising straight up I-95 for some several hundred miles.
When I got closer to Fredericksbug, I realized how familiar I had become with this town over the past year or so. Lis had moved to Virginia after graduation like I had moved to South Carolina, and this was my third time being back to her new town. The first time was a planned visit during Memorial Day of 2019, during which my roommates were all able to reunite and celebrate my birthday weekend together. The second was the week after Labor Day, when Hurricane Dorian caused the evacuation of Charleston. Lis had been in Charleston visiting me, and we ended up caravanning back up to her place so I could have a place to stay while the city was shut down. Because of that, my class pet rabbit, Poppy Sprinkles, was along for the entire journey as well. I got a good glimpse into Lis’s Fredericksburg life from that week long “hurrication”!
So this time when I pulled off the freeway, I felt the familiarity of the town and got excited about being back in this place with one of my best friends again.
The Adventures
On Saturday, Lis and I made the 2-hour drive to Massanutten resort. It had been two years since my last time snowboarding, so I was growing in anticipation to ride again while also warning Lis of the difficulty of learning. She planned to take a lesson while I did a few runs on my own for the first hour or so.
Lots of winding roads took us to the mountains and closer to the action. When we got there, the parking was so full that we had to park three lots away from the lodge and hike down, me with my board bag in tow. Fortunately, it was sunny and there was no snow or ice on the ground–except for the slopes themselves thanks to the artificial snow machines. This also meant that the snow was not very fresh on the slopes either, though.
We got our lift tickets and Lis paid for her lesson and gear, and then we went into the rental shop to get her suited up. At 2:15pm it was a hectic dash, since there were lots of people there rearing to go to the next available lesson at 3pm. We got her boots, board, and helmet and layered up within the next 45 minutes. I took the rest of our bags so that she could scurry off in time to meet her instructor. I felt like a proud mom carrying her things and watching her meet up with the others in her class.
Once I saw her off and took care of our bags, I went out and found a ski lift to hop on to start my first run. It was my first time at Massanutten, but I figured I would just explore the trails by going on them. Since I was a solo rider and there was a long line, I asked the two girls in front of me if I could go up the lift with them when it was our turn. It turned out that they were two very sweet girls in ninth grade. On the lift, our conversation went like this:
Me: Are you here for the long weekend?
Girl 1: Yeah, we technically have a half day of school on Monday, but it doesn’t really matter, so we’re just skipping.
Girl 2: Yeah, I HATE school!
Girl 1: I HATE school, too!
Me: I’m a teacher!
We laughed and they shared that, sadly, their high school experience wasn’t going so great because of their classmates. They were at least encouraged by their friendship with one another, and had known each other since their preschool years. It was sweet to talk to them for the ride up and they told me a bit about their trip. When we got off, I called out “Have fun!” and they skied away while I buckled in my board and tried to figure out where to go next.
The first lift had not brought me very far up the mountain, so I took a connecting catwalk trail to the next lift. It read that it was a blue square and black diamond, so I hoped it would take me up a good bit further. This time I rode with a mother and her daughter, and they gave me a bit of info about the trails. I had never seen a lift like this, but you could decide to either get off halfway and take the blue square trail down or go all the way to the top for the black diamond. I figured I had better get off when they were, so I got off halfway. I later regretted this, since I realized the lift had yet again not brought me much further down the mountain. I boarded down to the same lift again, determined to get to the top. This time, I stayed on the whole way up for the black diamond trail and hoped for the best.
Going up, the hill did not look so bad. I noted that it did have moguls, though, which are not super fun for boarders to weave around. It still looked manageable. When I got off, however, the slope was so steep that I had to start going over it before I could see the hill. I hesitated, but was prompted by the fact that several kids under the age of ten were all going down the same hill.
Finally, going down this slope, I felt the thrill of being back on my board again. Before, it had just been a cautious ride between lifts, but now I was really gliding through the snow. I could feel my board catch the snow as I shifted my weight back and forth and made a rapid shot down the hill. Of course during my moment of thrill I caught my board the wrong way and fell, which was my big spill of the day. Still, I made it down the rest of the way feeling great. I was thankful to be back on my board again.
When I got finished with one more run, I kept a watchful eye for a message from Lis, thinking she might be done with her lesson soon. She messaged me and we met up at the lodge.
She rehashed what she had learned, and had concluded by then that snowboarding is “no joke.” After a short break, we went back out and she tackled a chair lift for the first time to get to a nice long green circle run.
This type of chair lift was pretty daunting, especially for a beginner. It seated four people, and because it was so busy they really tried to make sure they crammed you in with just that many every single time. Not only that, but to get on the lift, you had to push yourself down onto a magic carpet (a treadmill sort of floor) that pushed you up to the spot where the chair would come around and scoop you up. I think it was supposed to simplify the process so all you had to do was stand there and wait for the chair to come around instead of pushing all the way up to the line, but many people lost their balance on it or got pushed too far ahead for the chair to get them in time. So the operators had their work cut out for them.
When Lis and I were getting on, she got scooted off the magic carpet, but was able to push herself back on well. We were with two other snowboarders, and it turned out that both pairs had one experienced and one novice boarder. The other experienced one and I had put ourselves in the middle, and laughed that were were like the “buffer” if our friends fell at the top when they were getting off the lift. This is just what happened. Both new snowboarders were close to getting off without falling, but wobbled just a bit too much and did end up going down, while the other two of us helped them up and out of the way for the next group getting off the chair.
Lis and I had a few good runs before she took a break again and I went down the black diamond for one more thrill run. We then went down the longer green circle trail, but that proved to be our limit. By then, Lis was justified in her frustration with snowboarding (it’s hard to get even a few feet without falling on your butt the first several times you ride) and my legs were so tired that I was about shaking trying to stay upright. We called it quits and made it our mission to get her gear back to the rental shop, pack up, and find food.
One of the best parts of spending a day snowboarding is the relief of getting warm and eating good food that comes afterward. We found a restaurant that was part of the local resort. It was a barbecue pizza place, and we got…barbecue pizza! It was about 8:30pm by the time we got our dinner, but it was worth the wait after the day of riding the slopes.
Our snowboarding trip was just the beginning of our boarding ventures that weekend, though. The next day we got up early for church, had brunch and ice cream at some local favorite places, and then went longboarding on a trail nearby Lis’s apartment.
Lis found that learning to ride the longboard was a bit more rewarding than the snowboard. You certainly fall much less and get to enjoy riding on it even if you are wobbly. By the end of an hour or so, she was pushing herself along like a pro!
I had been learning to push myself around on flat surfaces for the past few months, so my big interest was in trying to ride down some hills. Charleston is nicknamed the Low Country for a reason, so I saw this as an opportunity to test it out for the first time. I wore my wrist guards the whole time, because I wanted to fearlessly try riding down new things, including the several bridges we passed on the trails.
My big mishap occurred when I saw a pretty steep hill that had a curve and led down yet another hill with a curve. I was excited to test my control by going down both of them. I ended up picking up more speed than expected, and apparently my trucks were still loose because my wheels started wobbling more than I had ever felt before. My thought process was, “I’m pretty sure I am going to lose control and fall off, so I better go over the bridge to slow down instead of down the next hill. Also, I would rather jump off and catch myself than get thrown off.” That didn’t work out so well. When I hit the bridge, I was still going pretty fast. I jumped off, but I was going too fast to catch myself and ended up sliding forward like a penguin. However, my fail safe, the wrist guards, saved the day and I came out with only a small scratch on my elbow.
Lis and I had a laugh about it once I got up and told her I was okay. We really laughed when I realized I was covered in dust and had to literally “dust myself off.” We finished out our time, since I felt like I had maxed out on my adrenaline rush for the foreseeable future. The sun was setting and tones of orange and blue streaked the sky behind us as we drove back to her place for a more relaxing evening.
I’m thankful for a best friend who has an appetite for adventure like I do so that we can quench it from time to time together, all the while laughing hysterically due to our sense of humor that permeates all that we do. For even more about our weekend together, go to Instagram and watch the vlogs on @theweekendlifeofalissawinters !
Written by Hannah 