Day 7

Today was our last day snowboarding this trip. We went back to Banff Sunshine and were excited for another blue sky and sunny day. We went directly to to the top to do a blue run we had really enjoyed on Tuesday but wanted to try with decent visibility.

The views did not disappoint. The views during the lift ride up were amazing. As we got closer to the top I noticed the terrain in a new way. It looked steep. The blue run we'd thought we'd been on...it was definitely not where we had been. We'd been on a black section.

Had I known, I wouldn't have tried it. But without seeing the full terrain, I trusted I could get down slowly a turn at a time and if I fell, well, there was plenty of fresh powder to cushion the fall.

So after realizing our mistake in the low visibility on Tuesday, I was pretty excited to give this another go now that I could see and better plan my run.

Except it didn't go as I expected.

I couldn't make my toe-side turns. I couldn't understand it. I just wasn't getting to my front edge fast enough and I'd either fall or have to abort and ride across heel-side. I ended up skidding heel-side most of the run. I was annoyed and tired and confused.

I was tired after a week of snowboarding but this didn't feel like fatigue. Or was it?

We did a few more runs and my toe-side turn came back, although still a bit inconsistently. I was frustrated. This was our last day and I wanted to hit every run I could.

After lunch, we went back out. We went back to the black section at the top. This time it went much better. I went slow but made almost every turn I attempted and had no problems navigating down to the blue run where we finished.

We went on to finish the day at Goat's Eye and did a great, long blue run called Sunshine Coast. I had a blast.

It didn't make sense to me. I should be more tired in the afternoon. Things should be more difficult, not easier after another full day of snowboarding.

But we sometimes give things too much weight. Assume something is having an impact where it's not. We can miss opportunities because of that. I almost skipped that second black/blue run thinking I was too tired to do it well. I almost skipped Sunshine Coast for the same reason.

Neither of those things was true. I don't know what my problem was with morning session, but my afternoon was amazing. If I'd let a sketchy feeling take hold this morning and written the whole day off as "I'm too tired to do much" then I would have missed some great runs, amazing views, and a whole new side of the mountain.

Sometimes you just have to shake off the sketchy and do it anyway.