Since I’ve neglected to mention it so far, Russians have a saying, that is tantamount to a cultural inside joke, about fools and roads. Since Sheregesh was an 8-hour drive from Novosibirsk, we expected to experience first hand the bad roads…only no one took into account my ability to sleep through almost anything. The group we were driving with, Serge, Alex, Andrey, Regina, Nick, and myself packed into a mini-van and after two hours of driving stopped into a Russian truck stop for the traditional mid-drive feast enjoyed by our hosts. After a warm dinner, it was back on the road!

Upon arriving in Sheregesh, I awoke to a rug burn on my head which was proof of the bumpy roads we had been warned about. As it was 4AM, I really was not able to get a good view of our surroundings and instead hurried inside our rented flat for warmth and sleep.

In the morning I awoke and looked out the window straight into picturesque winter wonderland. I have never seen so much snow! The other members of our entourage had arrived several days before included Anya, Alex #2, and Igor. We enjoyed a traditional pre-slope meal of tangerines, meat and cheese, pastries that looked like walnuts but had chocolate inside, and for Alex and our hosts, Vodka! We eventually headed out to the slopes!

Now one of my goals of this journey was to finally snowboard. How cool would that be? Finally being able to try snowboarding and it to take place in Russia! Unfortunately, the largest snowboarding boots available were a size 12 which just really didn’t work…so skiing it was destined to be. The owner of the shop was highly amused to have an American Kevin in the shop and kept calling me “Kevin Costner”. According to our hosts, we might have been only the second Americans to visit Sheregest and to be prepared to be viewed with curiosity…since Sheregest is off the beaten path even for Russians! Sure enough, three girls in the ski shop started giggling and talking amongst themselves. Andrey told me that they couldn’t believe that we were speaking English and were Americans and they said, “Goodbye!” and ran out the door giggling!

After properly kitting up, Nick and I were off to the slopes. Nick had snowboarded before so was a good sport and decided to try skiiing with me. Poor guy. All I can say about skiing is I hate it! In my gallery, please see pictures of the mountain. I managed to get very good at picking my ass out of the snow. My “skiiing” went something like this. Go about 20 – 200 feet, fall, get up, repeat. I eventually got ok at going forward and stopping…turning to the right was ok as well. The left turns were killing me as little kids blew by me with no problem. I would say I spent a good 80% of my ski run falling down the mountain. What did surprise me was how warm I stayed while skiing.

After two hours of falling down the mountain, I decided to relegate myself to the warmth and comfort of the ski lodge/cafe.

Next up…the banya.

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