Indoor rock-climbing snark on the alphabet at Mission Cliffs

R grabs onto a hold that is in the shape of a letter "T", but she can't reach the top so she wraps her fingers around the tips of the serif at the bottom.

Me: "Good thing that "T" wasn't Helvetica."

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This is my second time doing rock climbing (aside from a few visits 5 years ago).  I'm doing 5.9s well but I think I need to improve my technique.

Leveling up on the snowboard?

 I'm imagining a little skill tree of snowboarding skills that I'm gradually filling out.

At this point, I can go down most blue runs with relative ease, I can handle powder at a basic level of competence, and I can deal with slightly uneven terrain.  Sugar Bowl has four levels of classes.  Level three is a bit too easy, and four is probably still a stretch. 

What should I level up on?

- Handling bumpier terrain?  I can handle runs that are black-diamond levels of steep, but the moguls tend to throw me. 
- Handling large-scale bumps and making little jumps?  Sugar Bowl has an area called "the river", which has lots of banked turns and large but smooth terrain features.
- Becoming less scared of areas with trees? 
- Carving turns properly?
- Getting more flexible in my motion in general?  Riding goofy, helicoptering etc.

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I'm looking at helmets.  There's a helmet that looks and fits great but is $140.  There's a $70 one that's not quite as good but is as good as anything I would get at Sugar Bowl.  I'm thinking that safety equipment is like sushi -- it's not worth spending money on the cheap stuff.