Lots of Mistakes

I make a lot of mistakes, and I don't want that to change!

Learning Opportunities

"The bigger the mistake, the bigger the learning opportunity."

I started snowboarding at age 18 when I still lived in Nebraska. When I was 21 I moved to Colorado to be closer to two of my favorite outdoor activities: camping and snowboarding. My first full season out here I went snowboarding over 20 times, mostly by myself. One day I was riding a lift at Copper Mountain and saw some other snowboarders hiking UP from where the lift lets you off. They were hiking up this great ridge that allowed access to both the back bowls and a wonderfully pristine face on the front side of the moutain. When I was almost to the top I caught the beginning of one snowboarder's decent down that face.... I HAD to do that! (That's the first sign of me getting into trouble)

I began the hike up thinking "Just a little hike and I'll be there and I'll ride that like a boss!" Ha. Ha. Ha. The top of the ridge is probably 100-200 vertical feet above the lift, and close to a quarter mile hike. Normally that would be just a little hike, but dressed in full snowboarding gear hiking in the wind, exposed at over 10,000 feet it's a different scenario. I arrived at my anticipated starting point and decided to sit and catch my breath for a while and just soak in the view. As I sat there, the immensity of the slope I was preparing to ride hit me with full force and I knew with every bone in my body that I was not prepared. But, before I even started thinking about hiking back down, two things stopped me: my pride, and my ignorance.

One regret: No one was there to take the video, it would have been hilarious!

I strapped my boots in, took a deep breath, and jumped. The following 30 seconds were probably the most exhilirating and terrifing of my life! I was flying down a massive slope in waist deep powder and I had never ridden on real powder before. At the bottom of this slope just before where it met up with the other groomed runs there happened to be a 8' tall snow drift that I just rode straight into. I imagine that upon moment of impact there was just the outline of "Ryan plus snowboard".

After that one insane run, everything else on the mountain that was so daunting earlier that day seemed easy now.

My Challenge

I want to set aside dedicated time every week to do something that will likely lead to a mistake I can learn from. A few ideas on my mind are:

• Debian Installation race (how fast can I get a new VM up and running?)
• Try a small project in Python
• Replace the screens on windows around our home (dang cats)

Get out of your comfort zone and improve yourself!