traveling day nine - in which I carve up the local slopes

Instead of visiting a village today we went to the local ski slopes.  The village had cancelled, and it was half price Thursday on the ski fields - it cost me $16 for ski, boot and goggle hire and $12 for a lift ticket for the day.  I would have liked to go to the village, but the ski field was awesome. 

It was very modern, and the chair lifts went on forever.  We rode the chair lift to the top of the mountain - 3040 metres - my ears popped twice on the way up.  I also skied on the bunny slope for half of the day.  I took it very slowly and cautiously.  I had no desire to be helicoptered out.

Looking from the top of the mountain down the slope was a bit terrifying - I was glad I had decided to just take photos and not ski from the top.  There were people parachuting from the top, launching themselves off on snowboards, and small planes circling (not really, but it was that high).

My knees are a bit sore and sorry for themselves.  I did a pretty awesome stack while trying to get onto the chair lift and slipped off again.  After that I requested the support of the strong lift operators' arms every time I got on and off the chair lift.

We had lunch in a lovely café, and watched the squirrels play outside on the snow covered pines.  Postcard.

It was an amazing day in the snow.  My ski pants were fantastic, and the beauty of our surroundings was quite overwhelming.  I really wish Chris and the girls were with me, they would have loved it.  I am pretty sure Chris would have launched himself from the top of the mountain on a snowboard.

Some pictures...

 

on top of the mountain!

Granny ahead of us on the chairlift

getting ready to parachute off the mountain



Tomorrow we go to a village all day where there are a lot of kids with cleft palate.  Our translator is going to learn a lot, and so are we!
Onwards