ELI students and CAs posing for a picture while snow tubing at Cypress Mountain

Last Sunday, I went snow-tubing with students from the ELI and CAs. Before our departure, I didn’t know much about Cypress Mountain. When I asked my home-stay family, they said that it is located near Whistler so it takes about one and a half hours to reach it. I was worried, since the schedule for snow-tubing was from nine o’clock to one o’clock in the afternoon. It made me think we would be snow-tubing for only thirty minutes. After we took the bus to Cypress Mountain, the journey only took about thirty minutes.

When we arrived at the place, we borrowed equipment and had some time to look at the mountain scenery. Like we saw from the bus, there was snow as far as we could see. Our part of the mountain was surrounded by sea, and lots of other mountains had snowy peaks. To be honest, there is no such scenery; mountains that still have snow when it is sunny in Korea makes me feel like I am on the set of a movie. Nothing inspires me like pictures of the Alps or Mount Everest. The landscape of Cypress Mountain was so vivid to me that I cannot easily forget that day.

I think we didn’t snow-tube exactly on Cypress Mountain itself, because Cypress Mountain is too high to ride a snow-tube. The height of the hills we did ride was somewhat short, but there were slides in the hill so people of all ages, kids and parents, could enjoy the fun of sliding. There were about four slides. Also, staff modified the difficulty of the slide. We could ask for a mild slide or a harder one. I asked for the most difficult slide for my last turn and I felt weightless, like an astronaut in space. The key point though, was joining tubes with other sliders. People could hold their friends’ hands and feet and slide with two to eight other people. For me, riding with two or three people was the best.

By Sunday, I had a bad cold and I have no confidence that I will get better soon. Nevertheless, it was definitely worth going to Cypress and sliding, except for the pain in my waist. It was such a great experience, and I recommend it to everyone.

Peak: Noun, the pointed top of a mountain or ridge.

Weightless: Adjective, being without apparent weight and feeling free falling.

Astronaut: Noun, a person highly trained for space adventure.

Recommend: Verb, to urge as advisable.