Living in Minnesota, one must find ways to enjoy the ice, cold, and snow. Popular methods to find happiness include ice fishing, snow mobiling, snowball fights and hockey. Today I chose to indulge in another Nordic pastime: snowboarding. I have been downhill skiing for many years but never considered trading my skis for a board. That is, until last month.

Sometime around Thanksgiving, I began to get the urge to expand my alpine knowledge. Unfortunately, there was a distinct dearth of snow in Minnesota at the time, which conspired with warm temperatures and a lack of time to postpone my boarding endeavor. Not so on this break.

Now, some of you, dear readers, might be pondering why I don’t just go boarding in Indiana. Those who pose that question apparently have never been to Indiana. But I digress.

I spent the past few nights looking at the web sites for the various ski hills in the Twin Cities area. My goal was to find the hill with the best introductory snowboarding package (lift ticket, rental, lesson). After considering all the options, I realized that I was more confused than when I started. So, I decided to go with what I knew, and chose Afton Alps.

I spent today at Afton. I started with several hours of lessons then spent the remainder of the day practicing. And falling down. And practicing. And falling down. And practicing. And falling down slightly less. And practicing. You get the idea. Anyway, I had a great time. I started the day barely able to skate the board on level ground and ended linking turns. A small triumph, but I’m happy with my progress. Overall, I had a great time. Snowboarding is fun!