Making friends with Black Diamonds at Cypress Mountain

Olympic Rings still on display at Cypress Mountain

After a lengthy deliberation of my options on Sunday morning, I dragged my husband out of bed to go snowboarding with me.  I was on a mission to make friends with some black diamond runs on Cypress Mountain.

The mountain was busy, but fortunately enough Cypress offers enough terrain that none of the runs were crowded and the lift line ups were short.  Of course, being the mediocre snowboarder that I am, I’m always ok with a line up to allow me to catch my breath before heading back up again.

We did a few quick warm-up runs on Fork and Lower Fork and then another round on Jasey Jay and Cascade. Fork is the run that Maelle Ricker won her Olympic gold medal on, and Jasey Jay is where .. you guessed it .. Jasey Jay Anderson won his gold medal last February.  Ashley McIvor won her gold medal on Cascade.

The views from Cypress Mountain are stunning

The next time up Eagle Chair we turn left and started down Panorama to connect with Benny’s, a narrow blue run, which would take us down to Raven Chair.  Raven Ridge Quad Chair was a part of the Olympic upgrade to Cypress Mountain.  This was my first time on this chair, and my goal was to try Shoreline, a black diamond run.  We won’t get into a discussion here about whether or not you have any business attempting black runs when you still fall frequently getting off the chair lift.  I’m ok if I’m on the far right or don’t have anyone beside me.  Put me in between two people, or worse, with skiers, and I usually end up in the off-loading area on my knees.

At the top of Shoreline, we strapped in.  My husband stood up and leaned forward to look over the edge.  Not being able to see the run as you stand on the top of it is never a good sign.  I put my brave face on and said, “Go on, you’ll be fine. I know you can do it.” He disappeared over the edge and I followed.  It was a fairly forgiving black run and not very long before it levelled off for some relief.  We stayed on Shoreline, which turned into Benny’s again, and then back up on Raven Chair, eager for more.

Face first in the snow on Cypress Mountain

Next time down we came down Shoreline and veered left to catch First Sun.  This side of the mountain was basking in the midday sun so the snow was softer. The top part of it was pretty good and I was giddy with delight at being able to do it.  Then I remembered I was afraid to go fast, turned too sharply, hit a lump of snow, went bump-bump-bump and ended up face down in the snow.

I have never been able to stand up on my snowboard facing forward.  Sitting on First Sun, I had no problem, thanks to how steep the run is.  The next part was so steep that it was more like turn-brake-turn-brake-turn-brake with a whole bunch of slide slipping.  We sat down in the snow to discuss the insanity of thinking we could do this.  Oh well, we had to get down, so I stood up again, facing forward of course.  The bottom part was good again and I cruised down it.

For some reason snowboarding gives me short term memory loss. No! I’m sure it’s not related to the number of times I’ve bumped my head doing it.  We got to the chair lift, and on our way up, we picked out our next black diamond run too try. The consensus was that First Sun was just a bit tough in the middle section and we’d be fine on another black run.

This time we connected to Panorama, and then cut into Coyote 7.  Because we were cutting from one run to another, there was this odd little lip that we had to jump over – I’m not cool enough to jump anything, so I ended up with the end of my board planted in the snow on one end and my face planted in the snow at the other end.  I lay in the snow on my shoulder, laughing too hard to dislodge my board. This should have been a sign to head down an easier run, but clearly I don’t read signs well.

We headed over to Coyote 7 which was lumpy and bumpy from too much snow that was too soft. I attempted a few turns gingerly.  It felt fine at first, and then quickly went awry.  I tumbled down the hill helmet over board a number of times. The slope was too steep for me to stop myself I just rolled over and over – my feet were up then my head then my feet. I was able to dig my feet in to slow myself down at some point and marvelled at how much abuse this old body is able to take.  Thank goodness my husband was further down dealing with his own challenges and didn’t witness my freefall.

It takes a long time to stop when you fall on steep runs.

I posed for a picture, righted myself very carefully and stood up once more – hell yeah, facing forward.  I could see the end of the run and knew this was probably my last shot and tried to squeeze in a few more turns. Again, it was more turn-brake-sideslip-brake-turn-brake.  I was on a toe turn and braked really hard when I hit a lump of snow and went bump-bump-bump again.  My board stopped but my legs were still moving and I felt this sharp pain in my ankle.  I saw stars and felt myself gasping for breath as the pain seared through my ankle. After I hurt myself, I go into super systematic mode; it comes from experience ok.  I sat down and calmed my breathing. Ok I was alive. I could feel pain but it was not agonising. The initial pain had lost its edge, but I had to figure out how I was getting down the mountain.  I could put weight on it, so knew it wasn’t broken.  Moving it one way hurt more than the other.  Walking out up 3 Bears was one option to get back to the car, but my foot was too sore to favour that option.

We headed back up Raven chair one more time.  At the top, I turned the magic device on my left boot two more little turns to cinch it as tightly as possible.  I tightened my binding and took the easiest way down. Heel turns felt fine, toe turns hurt.  I didn’t remove my boot until I got home.  Boot removal was a painful process. There was some swelling and bruising.  Two days, lots of icing and some pain killers later it’s still tender if I step unevenly, but doesn’t hurt nearly as much now.  On the other hand, my grin from having had a great day on the mountain is still firmly in place.