The first time I started skiing at Crystal Mountain (December 2020), I met two snowboarders with avalanche beacons, they invited me to follow them and have some crazy off route adventures. We all decided to warm up with a black diamond. This was the first time I was going to experience a real black diamond in U.S. All the previous ones that I did was with my dad in European mountains when I was 14-16. I can’t really say I aced them.
I was amazed by the difficulty of the black diamonds, realized that my muscles were burning a lot, and decided to part my ways with the friends that I acquired 35 minutes ago.
3 years and numerous heartbreaks later, I can now ski not single, but double blacks like I ski blues.
However I still need to improve myself on the following:
- Leg muscle endurance, after consecutive double black runs, my legs start burning.
- Courage, I have commitment problems on some of the turns that I have to do. I also get scared while jumping ramps.