First snowboarding backcountry tour since my stroke

My hope in sharing this story is to inspire you all that with hard work and dedication you can set yourself achievable goals with the help of those around you. Each stroke is different and we are all affected by it in different ways but that doesn't mean you can't look forward to the future.

There I was lying on the ground of the airport, unable to see or balance, my mind trying to comprehend what was going on, little did I know that I had just had a stroke. I'm 30, extremely active and fit, how did this even happen? It rocked me hard. After a stay in acute care at hospital it's been a hard road of commitment to rehab and physio. I've pushed my body and mind in the effort to get back to what I was, I'm still not there yet, but the improvements have been nothing short of amazing, the brain is an incredible thing.

The snow and especially the backcountry is a huge part of my life, on Saturday I got to head out on my first tour since the stroke 9 weeks ago. My balance has changed and I still get regular dizzy spells, something I needed to remember as we headed out. Visibility was atrocious, we faced rain and white out conditions most of the way, at times navigating by compass, but we pushed on to our objective, Blue Lake.

The walk out

Navigating by compass

We arrived at the top of Blue Lake and almost on cue the sun pushed through the cloud to reveal that familiar place that I love so much. We looked down over the massive cornice at The Amphitheatre and assessed the snow pack to check risk of avalanches etc. Rain scallops with ice 5cm below, perfect Aussie spring conditions. Erryn dropped the cornice and rode down, he then tried to climb back up for another run but fell short 50m from the top due to the sketchy snow.

Erryn dropping into his line

Erryns attempt at climbing back up

Going back down

Erryn at the bottom

Now it was my turn, riding safely was my goal, there was no room for errors. Erryn warned me the snow was not ideal and to be careful at speed. Calculating the risk, checking and double checking with Erryn the line I needed to take, I dropped. It was not pretty, nor was it super fast, but I didn't fall and I was snowboarding. It's hard to explain how good it felt to ride this line, I genuinely thought 9 weeks ago I would never get to ride in the backcountry again.

Me cutting across to my descent point.

My view as i rode down

Me at the bottom

At the bottom fatigue started to set in, a significant side effect I've been battling since the stroke. We decided to have lunch, rest and try and find a feature for some photos. We spotted a huge glide crack after lunch and went to check it out. It looked good and Erryn decided to hit it. After much consideration I hit it as well, I landed it and was super psyched.

Erryn jumping the glide crack

Me jumping the glide crack

There was a big storm forecast for the late afternoon so it was time to head home. As we arrived back at the car the skies opened with torrential rain, perfect timing. I was wrecked, dizzy and tired but totally stoked to get back out there even if I'm not quite the same as what I once was. I paid the price with severe fatigue for the next two days, but it was ok because you never get today back, ever.

A huge thanks to Erryn for saying yes to coming out with me. Unfortunately my days of solo adventures are over. There was a certain element of risk with us going out there and Erryn was happy to come along. We made calculated decisions and had safety measures in place should anything have happened out there.