Snow joke… It’s cold!

We were definitely spoilt yesterday, with crystal clear blue skis and stunning sunshine.  This morning we awoke to see the tops of the mountains shrouded in cloud, and when we arrived at the top we had our first snowfall – which stayed with us all day.  We had wind too – nothing to do with the food, but blustering down the mountainside, so much so that the chair lift taking many of our beginners to their skiing area stopped frequently.  As soon as the anemometre (‘the wind blowing thingy’) at the top of the lift gets over a certain speed, the safety override kicks in and the carriages stop, which can leave travellers literally suspended in space.  There was talk that the lift would close down for the day if conditions deteriorated, and we did ask how we would get the children down.  Hoping for tales of gallant emergency rescue vehicles hurtling up the slopes to liberate stranded skiers, or hardy adventurers hunkering down in primitive snow caves until rescuers could eventually make their up to relieve them, the truth was not so glamorous: one of the lift operators simply climbs up a ladder and stops the anemometre with his hand so the cars can run!  One of our groups did get stranded when they skied on the other side of the mountain, and had to take a bus round to bring them back to our side of the mountain where the lifts were running.

Despite the weather, however, conditions have still been good for skiing and once again the children have had a blast.  We will have to talk to Maths teachers when we get back, as quite a few of our children could not remember the simple three digit number of the locker that their skis were left in; hence, halfway through the morning several of the children had to descend back to the ski hire place to change their skis – they hadn’t noticed they were skiing in the wrong ones!  In fact, the incident led to our first 'concerned parent' incident.  Noticing that her daughter Martina wasn't with her group at lunch, she asked the other children in the group where she was.  "Oh, she had to go down the mountain with the nurse!"  Just what any parent wants to hear, especially when the others were unable to clarify why it was she had gone down!

Great progress is being made by our skiers and snow boarders, and after a windswept day we all came of the slopes glowing and exhausted, but glad to begin the walk back down to the hotel for showers and a couple of hours of ‘chill time’ (this of the sort not requiring thermals).  As the snow began to fall a little more heavily, we were taken by coach down into the piazza for our pizza evening, where despite the best efforts of all the pizzas finally stopped coming as no further slices could be eaten.  By now the snow was falling thickly and heavily, although Simon was the only one inclined to involve himself in a snowball fight – if having one thrown at him by Mr. Suter counts.  A few more were thrown back at the hotel, but the arrival of another group’s coach curtailed our efforts – but watch out tomorrow, as the snow is perfect and we’re sure full scale escalation would be encouraged!

Ciao!

Quote of the day: explaining the picture of her ‘fall’ on yesterday’s blog, despite the photographer had seen her ski down and then fall over, Georgie Gikas explained that she “…didn’t fall, I just sat down.”