As part of the Alt Summit awesomeness, we were all given lift passes for one day at Solitude Mountain Resort just outside of Salt Lake City. On Saturday after the conference, rides were available up the mountains to the resort to use said ski passes. I knew early on that I would forego a day of more design (design overload, anyone?) for some athleticism. I wanted to try something new, and be physical while doing it.

Yes, new. I had never done any sort of recreational winter sports, unless you count indoor ice skating, which I don't really.

I knew I wanted to snowboard, not ski. I realize that's a little weird in some circles, but it's just what I wanted, so I did it.

We were lucky enough to have a great guide of sorts give a mini lesson once we hit the slopes, and we were really lucky in that we got to meet the wonderfully friendly owner of Solitude, who was kind enough to offer us free official lessons.

I like to think that by the time we left that I was a pro. Just like I like to think that I'm really a 5'10" lovely Italian woman with the voice of an angel.

What I do know for sure is that I'm in love with snowboarding. I usually hate being cold, and the snow, but snowboarding is awesome. You're so busy having fun that you don't notice that your nose is frozen, and you're really working up so much of a sweat that the only thing that is cold is your nose, which you're not even noticing.

And what a workout! The days after snowboarding were fantastically painful. Serious ouch. The most painful part? My arms. Weird, huh? It's from picking yourself up all those gazillion times you fall down. Just goes to show you how often I fell.

Really though, I could not have imagined a more beautiful place to have my first snowboarding adventure. The video clip below was taken on our first ride up the slopes. So. Beautiful.

A huge thank you to Alt Summit and Solitude Mountain Resort for the perfect ending to a wonderful week. The resort was exceptional, and I will definitely be back.

Now time to get myself to the ski resorts around home. I think I'm going to be a snowboarder now.