Guess what, losing my hand hasn’t stopped me hitting the slopes. Well, no big surprise there since I snowboard – which isn’t heavily dependent on the use of one’s hands. But, nevertheless, it’s great to get back out there after missing the end of last season.

I typically do day trips with my good friend Robert Greene. We’ll drive up to Kirkwood, or perhaps Squaw, Saturday morning and back again that evening. This way we miss that crazy Bay Area traffic.

Last year we use to drive up in my Jeep Wrangler, but, I had to sell that last year when I bought my Prius…luckily though Robert bought, so now it’s his turn to drive!

Whilst I didn’t expect loosing my hand would stop me from boarding I did use my loss as an excuse to upgrade my equipment this season. I wanted to find some boots that would be easy to manage with one hand and while I was wandering around a shop in Lake Tahoe back in September that’s just what I found.

These boots are just great, the dial allows me to easily tighten them with one hand…hell, even if I had two hands I’d want these boots. Of course, it didn’t stop there, new boots meant I’d need new bindings (my old bindings were specific to my old boots) and why not get a new board while I’m at it too!

So I ended up with a completely new setup but have had to wait until now to get back on the snow and give it a try. As they say, good things come to those that wait…

And the other good thing is, as an amputee, I get half price lift tickets at Kirkwood and at Squaw it’s only $25! Now, I don’t recommend you rush out and chop of your hand or leg just to get cheap lift tickets, but, I’ll take whatever upside I can get thank you very much.