Marsh-Mel-O's Adventures: air boarding

9/1/15

Firstly, my apologies for the amount of photos in the blog post...

We were up and out by 8.30 am this morning, heading into town to take the gondola up Tschenten. It is the mountain opposite the Chalet, a total 1946m above sea level. At the top we were able to hire air boards (like a mini blow up mattress) for the morning. We were only able to stay until 12, as Mara had to be back at the Chalet to work by 1 pm.

Going up the Gondola

Rachael wasn't overly keen

Charlotte, Mara and I with our boards

Air boarding is when you go down a sledge or specific air boarding run, on an air board. You lie on your stomach and control the board by leaning left or right. When you want to stop or slow down you either dig your toes in to the snow, slide your body off the back of the board or just flip over and fall off. The boards had a elastic strap attached to them to attach them to your wrist, kinda like what a surfboard has. It seems like a funny idea, however when you get going and fall off, it may take a while to stop and the airboard just doesn't stop. They just keep sliding down the hill.

Though the snow conditions were quite good, it was mega windy and hard to both keep on the track and get some speed up. We ended up going of piste to get enough speed to get to the bottom. The snow there was even better and it made us go even faster! Rachael wasn't so keen, so she stayed to the track and just went slowly down the hill, whilst Charlotte, Mara and I zoomed down.

The wind picked up quite a lot towards 11.30, the gondola was swinging alarmingly and we decided that this would be our last run. Rachael was waiting conveniently at the bottom for us when we got there and after taking some photos we headed off to catch the chair left to the top. A big gust of wind decided to come at that point, Rachael had taken off her glove to take photos, and the wind took her air board over the edge and down the hill about a 50 drop. The gondola man laughed and told us that it was ok to get it, so Mara climbed down the hill and saved the wayward air board. We were able to catch the chair lift to the top, return our air boards and get on the gondola with no problems there after.

We headed into town and into the Co-op, to re stock up on supplies. Katrina picked us up at 12.15 and we got driven back to the Chalet. We hung out at the Chalet until about fourish, when Rachael, Charlotte, Chloe and I decided to head down into Boden, and to the World Ski Village.

The Ski Village was still being set up so there wasn't much to do, however it was nice to see it before it would be teaming with people. We walked into town, and found the Maritplatz. It was just off the main street, you couldn't miss it - it was where everyone from town was. There was free zip lining from the top of Berner Bar. Rachael and I both had a turn.

There was also a live stage with a band and presenters for the World Cup. We found some cheese fondue in a roll and some gulwein. The band was called Dorfrocker. As described on the Ski Cup website - "the three brothers combine leather pants and electric guitar".