Spring Snowboarding in Italy

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Keeping in contact with friends made abroad is always rewarding, and even more so when you can go and visit them in some awesome and exotic destinations. My friends Daniel, Aurelie and Steph all moved to the ski resort Livigno in Italy to work for a season. I had worked with them in Dublin and jumped at the opportunity to head over to the Alps for a little more snowboarding.

I was terribly sick with the flu as I boarded the plane to Milan (thanks Sue for looking after me), but I was determined to make the most of my time off work and I had booked the flights already. I arrived in Livigno early evening and had a great welcome from my mates, we started the week off with Italian wood fired pizza and tiramasu.

Despite my flu the others convinced me that the best thing for it was a day out on the slopes, so I collected my gear (rent free) from Daniels shop and we headed up the Mountain. The conditions were quite good, although Spring had made the snow a wee bit mushy. The last time I boarded I sprained my shoulder so I set forth gingerly to the slopes but with some encouragement from Steph I was racing down with confidence again.

One evening a group of us got the chance to take skidoo rides up the mountain to a restaurant upon high, from here we had a beautiful view of the valley. We then had an all inclusive Italian feast of meats, pastas, all we could drink and then to cap it off we rode black rubbish bags back down the Black Piste (slope) to get back to town.

The true highlight of the week for me was the Telemarking festival that was occuring in Livigno. Telemarking is the original style of skiing, where the heels are not locked down and people ski with one leg in front of the other with one knee bent. For the festival there was a day where everyone took the lift to the highest point on Motolino - Fun Mountain, then went over the back for an off piste (off trail) track down into the other valley. This was my first real attempt at off piste boarding and was a huge ammount of fun. When we got down to the bottom there was about 2,000 people all partying hard to the huge sound systems and drinking 1€ beers. Off piste can be quite dangerous at times and this was highlighted when we got to see our first live avalanche happening, a small one but a good reminder for us to take care.

Livigno is a duty free area of the Alps, so I got to sample lots of tasty food and drink for cheap prices (for Europe!), and even got a couple of home cooked meals from Daniel and Aurelie.

At the end of the week I can genuinely say my boarding improved, to the point that I didn't fall over everytime I went down the natural half pipe, and even kept my feet after a few of the babiest of jumps. As always when the ski season ends I feel I have only just begun to unlock the potential for my boarding. Oh well I will just have to wait till the next season (and really summer isn't all that bad!!!).

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Photos

Daniel telemarking
Note the bent knee