Sunday, January 4, 2015

Day 30 Bad Dad Day!

Today was the first ski day.  we all had our gear sorted but there were no lessons today so it was to be a relaxed day figuring out where everything was.  Eilian was up at the crack of dawn.  I think he was excited, but he said it was because I was snoring.  Well I can't believe it (ha ha). Poor guy.  So he had made use of his time up & bought fresh bread and pain au cholate. Yum.  We finally set off with all the gear in tow and while it was only a short distance caught a cool little bus/train to the gondola.  



The gondola was fabulous. It goes for miles up into the mountain & you just chuck you skiis & boards on the outside. Great views & nice & warm.  Unfortunately it had started raining again & visibility wasn't great up top. Eilian went off to organise a locker on the mountain for us which meant we could leave all our gear up the mountain for a week.  Meanwhile the kids were excited to be skiing again & immediately started on the baby slopes with great gusto.  Shows the lessons at snow planet were well worth their while! I watched because I hate pommels when snowboarding & you have only just got you board on when you reach the bottom.  

Eilian returned with. Locker organised.  We went on a few shorter runs but I was shocking & fell over every 20 seconds on the slush and when hydro planning over the water saturated snow.  So eilian decided it best to head up higher.  The start should have told us it wasn't going to be a great run with me missing the chair lift because Cody had his pole blocking my path.  Cody was so excited watching the lovely runs as we passed over them from a height (they look much flatter from high up!). It all started well until it got really steep.  We think we crossed over some black and definitely red runs.  I was finally loving it, but the boys couldn't control their turns and had some bad falls. 

The top of the mountain in the middle is where we took them !!

 Then Cody lost his confidence and I spent lots of time on my knees reasoning with him & trying to get his skiis back on on a really steep slope.  Needless to say it was hard work all round.  We finally got them both to a easier run and then safely made our way to the bottom with the boys gaining confidence & excited by their achievement!  That was their first 6 km run made up of black, red & blue runs.  Pretty good for beginners.  And bad dad for thinking that the run was of a suitable level for them. 
BAD DAD

 Eilian thinks that Sean would have done the same.  Builds resilience this sort of stuff.  Learning from bad experiences and enjoying the last quarter made it worthwhile.  
Anna back down to earth
Love my new board


They celebrated by doing lots more runs on the baby slopes with ease Luke wanted to do more. While I collapsed with a tired body and relief we were all I'm one piece.  Needless to say when we left the mountain by a 100 percent consensus we went straight to a bar! It was really convenient at the bottom of the gondola.


confidence returned


Confidence not lost 


Happy campers returning.


Ditto



Beautiful valley

The way down.

Then we went to the pool, sauna and steam room they loved that. I started making up for being bad dad by going back to get Luke's goggles. It was great knowing how relatively cold it was outside.
the pool sorry no other photos there were nude people in the spa pool.

Then we went to the hotel welcome where we felt like outsiders and drank a glass of Rose and went to change Cody's broken boot and met up with the team from Zig Zag ski school to check on tomorrow for the lessons we have booked. Done

Had dinner

Returned to the hotel chilling now 

More tomorrow.

Aurevoir


1 comment:

  1. Sean says he would have done the same right up to the bit about skiing with the kids. Looks like an awesome if character building day but I bet the kids will remember that story forever! We've done the same freaking Riley out and he survived! By the end of the week they will be flying down the slopes! Enjoy!

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