While Anna was off with the school skiing, Kate stayed to participate in Activities Week. Since much of the school is away, the rest of the school participates in various week long activities. Kate took dance classes in Eindhoven with some of her friends, trying out various hip-hop moves.
The other families are quite experienced skiers, so we were the beginners of the group. We were able to take three days of family lessons with a great teacher. Here are some scary statistics: I realized I had not downhill skied for about 23 years, and Peter realized it has been about 32 years for him! We had a real mix of weather, some bright sun, and a couple total blizzard days. Skiing in whiteout conditions is certainly unnerving. Fortunately, we had our ski teacher to guide us around! I was surprised how much I remembered and was really glad I had spent 5 months in the gym trying to strenghthen my legs! By mid-week, Kate got her balance and flow on the mountains and was doing very well. Anna found the Alps a bit intimidating as even many of the blue (easy) runs were challenging. After the first day, Peter was skiing past the blues and following with the other families on some of the harder slopes. Every day, we were able to ski a different set of slopes.
One morning, we skied into Switzerland and skied along the top of the mountain ridge. Though it was a beautiful day, the wind was blowing quite strongly and although we were on blue slopes, there were few fences to protect against skiing off piste. We managed fine, Anna snowplowing much of the way. But, I had quite a few nightmares that night picturing various family members skiing off into oblivion!
Each afternoon, we would come back to coffee and cakes waiting for us in the chalet, and then have an amazing gourment dinner in the evening. We spent most evenings recounting the skiing adventures from the day, before we all wandered off exhausted to bed.
We had some excitement as Aled, Anne and Phil's older son, got lost off piste one blizardy morning with whiteout conditions, but after a few hours, he managed to find tracks and follow them out to a marked piste and come off the slope. Fortunately he is a great skier and kept his head in a frightening situation.
We almost made it through the week without any broken bones, but Phil, at the end of the week on Thursday, took an unexpected leap of a 8 foot drop and fractured his ankle. The rescue teams do quite a good job on the slopes, making quite a business out of it. The rescue skiers came and took him down so quickly that some of our best skiers had trouble keeping up with them!
We said goodbye to the snow on Saturday morning, and started back on our 12 hour ride to Holland. Little did we know that we would drive most of the way home in a snowy blizzard only to be greated with snow in our backyard! It was a great trip, but Peter wondered if it would be the last time he would ski! He is not sure he would be able to ski again if he waits another 32 years!
