Not to rub it in or anything, but my home mountain of Avoriaz opened today and I went snowboarding. Unfortunately this year I made the decision to buy a powder board. As a result, there’s definitely a lot less snow than when I turned up last year on opening day with my brand new *ahem* park board. So, we can be fairly sure I’ve cursed us all to a winter of slush and rocks.

No matter though, snowboarding is still the most fun you can have, even if you are just charging groomers and giving yourself brain freeze from on-piste face shots. Even better, it opened with a park! Not an Olympic-themed monster like Stubai, but still enough rails and kickers to get us hyped/terrified.

Seeing as I’ve already written about how to make the most of a powder day, I thought it would be prudent to write an updated version for that little niche of the resort, the snow park. Shame, fear, pain and excuses are all essential parts of the experience. But here’s how to minimise that side of things and get the most high fives, smiles, whoops and stoke possible – all while hanging with the raddest people on the mountain.