Has anyone finished something big and just felt that sigh of relief shower over them?  If so, add a week of no school to that wonderful feeling!  Finally, after weeks of monotonous class and studying, the students of ERAU got their break.  I chose to go back to Southern California with my friends Adam and Adam.  The week was highly anticipated and none of us could wait to get on the road.

Our first stop for break was Mammoth Mountain for a weekend of snowboarding.  The drive was very daunting from Prescott to the mountain.  The drive took about 10 hours plus stopping time for gas and food.  Once we met up with my family in a small town right before the mountain, we traveled to the cabin and passed out for the night.

After a morning that came way too soon, we finally got up and ready to go.  There had been a storm during the night (and as we were arriving) and the mountain was coated with fresh layers of powder.  My friends and I decided to head straight to the top. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While we were at the top, we saw and interesting sign.  The resort actually caused avalanches during the night with explosives so that people would not start them while riding the day after a fresh coat of powder had befallen the slopes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a day of crashes and great fun, we hauled ourselves back to the cabin, sore and ready for a good shower.  What we found instead was that the hot tub was open and we immediately chose to hit up that option.  While in the hot tub, we made an even better discovery: a sauna!  After sitting in the hot tub for a while, we turned up the sauna and relaxed as we dried off.

The next morning proved to be just as difficult to wake up.  After much prodding and constant annoyance, we gathered ourselves and got ready for another day of shredding.  The mountain was just as beautiful as it had been the day before, but this time, we decided to try out the slopes on the back side.  Having been to the mountain countless times since I was young and having never gone on the back side, this was an exciting new experience for us all!  The snow was still fresh on the backside, and the trails were amazing.  The tough part, however, was that there was only one way back to the front of the mountain and we needed to go to the complete other side for lunch in one hour’s time.  After many fast runs and slow chairlifts, we finally made it back in time for lunch.

The rest of the day proved to be very difficult, because one of the Adams got lost on the mountain by taking one wrong trail, believing that the other Adam and I had gone that way.  Instead of waiting around for a while to let him catch up, we went back up to the top of the mountain and decided to try a trail that was extremely nerve racking.  This trail went along the ridge of the mountain, stretching only 3 meters wide at some points and dropping off vertically into rocky chutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, we made it to the end of the ridge and it was time to shoot down and dodge various trees and obstacles until we reached the main runs.  On our way down, Adam and I split up because it proved too difficult to stay together in the trees.  He made it down no problem.  I, however, got stuck in the heavy powder amongst the trees and had to hike over a quarter of a mile in all my snowboarding gear and with my board to reach the slopes once more.  After getting down to the bottom of the mountain, Adam and I finally realized that we did not know where our other Adam had gone.  After freaking out and assuming the worst for about 15 minutes, we saw him walking towards the car.  Needless to say, I was exhausted that night.

Finally, our last day had come upon us.  We woke up and hit the mountain for the third day.  We decided to explore some of the runs that we hadn’t yet been on around the mountain, since we were all getting pretty sore by that point.  During out adventure, we came across something none of us had ever expected to see: two girls riding on the mountain in bikinis! The three of us could not believe our eyes.  Never in our talk about the moutain did any of us even consider that there would be girls there wearing beach outfits!  After seeing that, the rest of the day seemed so obsolete that we couldn’t help but hope to see them again.

Finally, the weekend had come to an end and we had to make the drive to Huntington Beach.  Thankfully, my dad had stayed and was the one driving us home.  My friends and I just slept for the drive.  So ends part one of my spring break adventure.  I’ll be back with more adventures soon!