Lessons - yes, really. Again.

I wasn't going to do it. I really wasn't. I'm sure you're all groaning, wondering, "What more could she possibly have to say about these ski lessons?" But the fact of the matter is this week's lessons have too many stories to resist a blog post. So, here goes.

The lesson coordinator sent out a quick email Thursday night that said, "The ski school has just called to say that they have LOTS of snow. As most of you will have noticed, the roads in Switzerland are no longer guaranteed to be cleared and salted. For this reason, I advise you to leave with plenty of time in the morning!" Sounds reasonable, right? So, we headed out early.

We just didn't understand the Swiss definition of drive-ability.
There was a good foot of snow on the road. We passed many cars that were either stuck or broken down on the side of the road. In California (yes, it does snow in parts of California!), they require chains if there is a 1/4 inch of snow on the ground. With a foot of snow, the roads would be closed. No question. So driving in these conditions without even a requirement of chains was a new experience for us. At least we had a 4 wheel drive SUV with snow tires. Most Swiss have some version of a smart car. Sure, they have snow tires, but they aren't exactly big, sturdy vehicles that can plow through snow.

The roads were clear compared to the parking lot. We would have doubted whether we should drive/park in the lots, but there was a person waving us in. The parking lot had lots more snow; it came up to our headlights. Several cars chose their parking space based solely on where their car stopped.
The snow at the base of the beginner's area wasn't packed or plowed, so the kids had quite the hike to the meeting area.
C.J. said that while waiting for his lessons to start, he fell over. His head was lower than his feet, and he couldn't get up without the help of a few friends. The conditions didn't bother the kids, though. They happily headed off to their lessons. The groups were mixed up a bit as many instructors didn't make it -- getting stuck on the roads or public transport. The groups were still smaller than usual. C.J., for example, only had 3 of the 7 kids. Here's Abbie heading up the t-bar. Her group spent the day on the "big" lift.
Brendan was glad to make it up this lift twice. In the afternoon, his instructor took him back to the bunny hill, but he piled snow into a ramp and taught them how to jump. C.J. made it up the big t-bar in the intermediate area -- a 20 minute ride. He also learned how to do 360 spins on his board. It was part of a level test, so he's graduating to the next lesson level. Here's a video of him boarding:


I also got a snapshot of the people mover/conveyor belt for the 6 person chair. You can tell that I find this lift design fascinating.
The ski conditions were rough. The groomed runs had over a foot of snow. I had a really hard time seeing where I was going. I was wearing glasses with goggles, and one or both kept fogging up. One time, I skied off the more groomed snow, and I ended up stuck in snow up past my waist. John typically skied in areas where the snow was up to his waist. And, no, he wasn't skiing off course!

Now, the Swiss are normally incredibly polite people. They are also quiet. So, you can imagine my surprise when I took my first fall and heard laughter. It wasn't just the chair with obnoxious teenagers either -- every single chair that passed until I got up and resumed skiing taunted me. It isn't a friendly laugh either, it's a bit evil. John didn't believe me until he got stuck off course up to his armpits. The people on the lift found it hilarious. John, not so much.

Between the lack of visibility, the piles of powder, and the freezing cold, John claims he knows exactly where Abbie inherited her whining abilities. I admit, while I like a bit of powder, snowing in stuff up to your knees with no visibility and frozen toes isn't my idea of a good time. I was wiped after a few runs. The kids were tired as well. All of them were ready to head home as soon as their lesson was done. There weren't any requests for "just one more run."

Here's the beginner's area at the end of the day. The skies were starting to clear and you could actually see the lift.
Now today probably would have been an amazing ski day. Too bad C.J. has a school project to complete. Just goes to show, you can move across the world, but the homework still follows you!

Right now, the kids are off shoveling the driveway. They heard that Uncle Craig used to make money shoveling snow, so they rang our neighbor's doorbell and asked to do their driveway. They didn't get any money, but they did come home with two boxes of cookies. They seem to think it was a fair trade.

Night Sledding

Abbie and I (as her co-leader) had a Daisy Investiture ceremony tonight. She sang this great song:

I'm a Little Daisy (to the tune of I'm a Little Teapot)

I'm a little Daisy, dressed in blue

I am a Girl Scout, you are too

When I go to meetings, I sing and shout

I love being a Daisy Girl Scout!

As cute as it sounds, imagine having it sung over and over and over in the car and around the house. After awhile, it just kind of sticks in your head and you can't get it out. The good news is that Abbie loves being a Daisy and was thrilled to participate in her ceremony tonight.

We left the boys at home by themselves with instructions to do their homework, which one seemed to do while the other... played on his iTouch? I'm not sure, but mysteriously the homework wasn't done. Of course, when we got home at 7:45 they asked to go sledding -- not being able to resist the 6 new inches of snow today. With a tone of "Are you out of your mind?" I immediately said, "No, it's time to get ready for bed."

And then they pulled the trump card. Both boys said, "But we were waiting for Abbie to get home. We didn't want to go sledding without her. It isn't as much fun by ourselves."

Apparently, they are quite good at working me as I sent them out to sled for "just 10 minutes" in our yard which, of course, turned into a half hour. There are a couple of reasons why they might think it is more fun to sled with Abbie: (1) they know the magic words to get their mother to agree to anything, or (2) they have more fun when there is someone to run over, knock down, and/or be on the receiving end of snowballs. Of course, I'm choosing to believe that our international jaunt has strengthened the sibling bonds and they truly do enjoy being together.

Lessons - week 3

This week brought yet another beautiful snow day.

Brendan has obviously made good friends in his group, as we heard yells of "Brendan, we're over here!" as soon as we approached the meeting area. Those cheers always warm a mother's heart.

Have I answered the number one question I get, "How's your knee holding up?" Well, my knee is doing just fine! I have a sports brace for it, so I'm actually not at all worried about my hurt knee. I did/do worry about the other knee though! The first couple days, I was very cautious skiing. I have slowly come to realize that my shredded ACL was the result of a freak accident and not something that I'd easily repeat. For one, I fell from a practically standing position, so my skiis didn't pop off. I can now reason that if I crash on the slopes, my skiis will pop off and chances are that I'll be fine. So in theory, going faster would promote a better fall -- or at least that's what John is trying to convince me every time he waits for me at the bottom of the hill! I'm beginning to regain my speed and confidence -- and remember how much I love skiing. Plus, I tell myself that the whole reason I had the surgery and 3 months of therapy was so that I could ski again. Not skiing would defeat the purpose!

People tend to be more safety conscious over here. I don't think I've seen a skier without a helmet. Many people also wear back braces. We haven't gone that far, but I could see the desire/need if C.J. starts doing tricks on his board! The flip side is that I haven't seen a single ski patrol on the mountain.

This week, John and I decided to skip the evil t-bar and head to the chair area of the resort using the trail that C.J. takes. It seemed like it would be easy enough. Let's just say that I got quite the workout and next week, I'll happily ride the t-bar to the top!

We met up with another couple and skied with them for most of the day. John and the other dad went off-trail for a bit. They said the first 1/3 was a bit rough, the middle 1/3 was mostly fun, and the final 1/3 was a lot of hard work, skiing in a gully and trying to get back to a lift. Considering they stuck with the girls on the groomed, easier runs the rest of the day, I'd assess that the extra work wasn't worth the thrill. Either that or they are getting old and tired. Once again, we had lunch on the mountain. This time we had bratwurst with our fries. The best part of lunch was the gorgeous view of the Alps.

It's fun to see all the different lesson groups out and about. The instructors really understand the kids and what they enjoy. We saw groups of kids following their instructors through wooded areas, and other groups going off jumps. Abbie said that her group went off a jump 4 times. She made it off the bunny hill this week. We spied C.J. practicing a 180.

We ran into C.J.'s group on the final run and had a lot of fun seeing his progress and his interaction with the instructor. If you ask C.J. what he thought of running into his parents, he'll tell you all about his mom taking out a kid. Obviously, not my greatest moment. Why can't kids remember the good stuff about you? The final trail has an uphill component. I tried to maintain my speed to make it to the top, but I just couldn't get there. Just as I started to ski backwards, I thew out my poles to stop me. Of course, some 5 year old takes that moment to ski next next to me. My pole hit him across the knees, and, according to C.J., he practically did a full summersault. C.J. thought it was quite comical. I felt a little bad. Fortunately, he popped right up, gave me a good glare, and continued up the hill.

We're really going to miss these lessons when they are over. We can obviously sign the kids up for lessons at other times, but they won't be surrounded by their friends. And the biggest issue -- the lessons won't be in English, unless we arrange for private lessons and request an English speaking instructor. When we're out skiing with all the other international families, it's easy to forget that we are living in German speaking territory -- Swiss German just to complicate matters a bit more. We are loving living over here. It's gorgeous and we are doing things we wouldn't normally do, but it isn't without its challenges.

Ski/Board Lessons - Week 2

Last Saturday was our second ski day, and we had a new challenge for the lessons this week. C.J.'s group was promoted to the intermediate ski area. If you remember the ski area geography lesson from last post, this translated to 2 lesson drop-offs, located a half mile or so apart, starting at the same time. We opted to start with the youngest and dropped Brendan and Abbie in with their instructors a bit early. We began to understand the check-in "window" of 15 minutes as we waved goodbye and hopped in the car with C.J. to speed him up the street to his lesson group. C.J. joined his group to cheers of "C.J.'s here!" We also noted that C.J.'s instructor's name is Martin. Apparently Martins are good snowboarders, as it was John's cousin Martin who was C.J.'s first snowboard instructor.

The ski area was a bit busier this week and we had to *gasp* stand in line to buy tickets. John brought his ski-watch with him. It has a chip where the resort loads the "ticket" and you can then load the lifts hands-free. If you recall the "employee reduction plan" from last post, you'll note that there are none to one employees at the lifts. To make sure that you are ticketed to ride the lift, you have to pass through an automatic ticket gate. You can either insert your paper ticket much like you would insert a train ticket for BART at home, or you can wave your watch or other chip-device by the reader. I say "other chip-device" as I was able to purchase a plastic hands-free card for 5 CHF to use for the day. I have a special pocket for if on my jacket sleeve and I can just wave my ticket, saving me the step of digging for the paper ticket. (Paper tickets weren't an issues the first week, since we only had to use them for the 2 lift rides, but we were hoping for more runs this week.)

This week, we had blue skies. Instead of only seeing the chair in front of us on the ride up, we could see white peaks, trails, other lifts, and a scattering of restaurants, houses, farms, etc. It was beautiful! These were the views we anticipated when we thought of skiing the Swiss Alps. One quick about this resort is that the lift is across a road from the ski area. The first week, we couldn't figure out how we were going to ski across the road to get back to the parking area. We never should have wondered -- being Switzerland, there is a tunnel! they pack it with snow, and you simply ski under the road and continue on your way.

Once again, we had to take the T-bar. We will never complain about poor lift layout at Heavenly again. This T-Bar is at the top of a hill. In order to get there, you have to ski very fast (our choice the first week) or side-step your way up the hill (our only choice this week as there were mobs of people doing the same thing). We were exhausted once we got to the top. Plus, there is no concept of waiting turns in Switzerland, so everyone is trying to side-step the fastest to push their way to the front of the mob/line. Our first attempt to load the bar resulted in a near-miss head collision for me, an almost fall, and a decision to take the next bar. Fortunately, we caught the next bar and had a smooth ride to the top. It was a lot less nerve-racking than the prior week. We could see the trails and could also clearly see where to get off. The first week we weren't entirely sure how we would know when to get off. After a long ride, I spied a sign and at the very bottom was a phrase in English (you know, after the 3 official languages of the country), "Exit lift now." I yelled, "Let go, let go!" right before we would have been pulled into a mountain of snow. We had actually been debating how to exit the lift the entire ride up and were beginning to wonder where we would exit. Of course, like at the bottom, there isn't any employee around to direct you. Anyway, this week we could see people getting off and the trail to the left of the lift. Feeling bettter about the tow but still not feeling the rope-tow love (where's the relaxing ride to give you a break?), we decided to head to a new ski area on the map which indicated it had *gasp* 3 chairs.

As we approached the area, we spotted a cute chalet restaurant and stopped for a soda and fries. To make this lunch a tad healthier, we added a garden salad. They have great salads over here with lots of extras like beets, carrots, peppers, etc. mixed in. You don't get a choice of dressing, but the dressing is almost always homemade and is delicious. Mmm. We sat outside as the sun was shining and it was relatively warm. The people next to us had the exact same lunch -- garden salads followed by a plate of fries, so it isn't as strange a lunch choice as you might think. Oh, we also saw 4 dogs during lunch. We're still not sure how the dogs get on the mountain. We've been told that they can ride a chair, but we just can't picture it.

After lunch, we mosied on over to the 6 person chair. This chair was an experience. After passing the ticket patrol gates, you make your way to another set of gates. When it is your turn to load, the gates open and you push yourself onto a people mover. The people mover moves all 6 people forward and pushes you off where you come to stop right before the chair comes up behind you. Sit down, pull the guard rail down, and you're provided with footrests. Now, this was the relaxing chair experience I remembered! Of course, as much as I love the people mover concept and can see how it can -- yes, reduce employee needs -- and falls, I still think some of the money invested in it could have gone to replace the T-bar with a chairlift. Then again, I'm a spoiled American. The top of the lift ends with another unique experience -- right before exiting, the chair makes a 90 degree left turn and then you get off. Unlike lifts at home, the exits are flat, and you need to use your poles to push you away from the chair and start skiing. It seems to work.

We skied a few trails in this area, and all 3 chairs were nice. The other 2 chairs are 4 person chairs with the same gate systems, but no people movers or sharp turns. This area of the resort is wide open, so there is a lot of possibility to go off trail into powder. There's a snow park area with a few jumps. We stuck to the trails. We finally realized that we needed to make our way back to get the kids. The trail back was interesting as it isn't entirely downhill. There are a few inclines, so you always have to watch your speed. At one point, I had to side-step up a hill again. This trail wasn't all that unique -- many of the trails are "rolling" hills, so you do need to always watch your speed to make sure that you can make it up the inclines. It also means that you can't always see the entire trail in front of you, as parts will be over the hill, so to speak.

We ran into a bit of a snag on this final run. We missed the turn to get to the parking lot, and we ended up back at the T-bar. We were running late to reclaim the kids, so we had to decide whether it would be faster to take the T-bar up to the top of the mountain again or walk about a 100 yards to the trail that would take us to the bottom. It seemed like a short, easy walk, so we popped off our skis and and started the trek. Ha! I just about died. After hiking through 3 feet of snow and crossing a small, mostly frozen, river, I was ready to pass out. Of course, I had no time to collapse in the snow, panting, and I had to get up and race to the bottom to get the kids.

We could tell that we were almost back at the bottom when you could once again smell the cows. That's Switzerland for you! After all, some of the hills we were skiing were in fact the summer pastures for these cows. John took me to the beginner area, dropped me so that I could get Brendan and Abbie, and then headed back to the intermediate area to get C.J.. We're still not sure about the start/ending times being the same for both locations, but it seemed to work well enough. Fortunately, we know enough parents that they kept an eye out for our kids for us.

The kids reported that they had a great day. C.J. got to visit a "training" park where he practiced going on a rail with his board. Brendan and Abbie had stayed on the bunny hill, but they worked on turns and stopping, which we agreed were very good skills to have. Oh, they had all had pasta and "syrup" (a kind of fruit juice drink) for lunch. Once again, there were complaints that the ski day had ended and we couldn't continue skiing/boarding until the resort closed.

And once again, we had fondue for dinner. It's actually a very quick, easy meal to make. C.J. crashed around 7pm, so you could tell he had a good day boarding.

Hoch YBrig Ski School

Yesterday was our third Saturday on the slopes. Yes, I'm a tad slow in providing you, my faithful readers, with an update of our activities, but if you're on Facebook you've gotten snippets. If all you really want to know is that we're on the slopes and having fun, you've gotten all you need to know from Facebook and you probably want to skip the rest of the post. If you want all the gritty details of skiing in Switzerland at a local resort, this post is for you.

The Parents' Association at school organizes ski/snowboard lessons each year. This year 155 kids from the school are participating -- including all 3 of ours! The lessons take place every Saturday for 5 weeks. C.J. is in an intermediate snowboarding group, Brendan is in a beginning snowboarding group, and Abbie is in a slightly-better-than-beginner ski group. Lessons go from 10am-3pm. The kids are served a hot lunch mid-day.

I heard the lessons were great and the kids had fun skiing with all their friends, but I was still a bit nervous the first day. In the past we've always skied with the kids. C.J. was worried that he wouldn't learn anything. He was pretty sure he didn't need any lessons. Brendan seemed excited, but was a bit worried about not knowing anyone in his group. Abbie is our little princess and tends to tucker out by mid-day. She's cold. She's hungry. She wants hot chocolate. Does she really have to go outside again? She seemed excited about the lessons, but we wondered if she'd make it past lunch.

More excited than worried, we headed out for our first day of lessons/skiing. The ski area is about an hour away from our house, so we left the house at 7:15, allowing plenty of time for us to park, put on gear, and walk to the resort to meet the instructor between 9:15 and 9:30. We were picturing U.S. ski resorts where you can park a half mile from the lift. Then, you have to worry about getting to the lesson meeting point. Definitely not the case here. All 3 kids were meeting at the beginner's ski area. We pulled in and parked 3 cars away from the meeting area. We looked around for the resort. Hmm. Not quite what we were expecting. The entire parking lot for the "resort" was smaller than an average parking area for a U.S. grocery store. The "lodge" consisted of a restaurant with seating for maybe 30 people. There wasn't any ski shop, and the ticket counter was a booth with one person -- right next to the lift line. And the lifts -- well, they were rope tows.

While the ski area where the lessons occur is a fairly good sized ski area for Switzerland, ski areas aren't major resorts over here -- at least not the local resorts. They tend to be a bunch of lifts that are scattered around a town or a few towns. The areas may be connected via lifts, but they aren't always. For example, the kids' were at the beginners area, and you can't access it from the rest of the ski areas. For John and I to ski, we would need to drive to another lift.

The beginners' area consisted of a toddler area with a magic carpet, a bunny hill with a rope tow, and another tow lift that went up the "big" hill.

We introduced the kids to their instructors. I was glad to see that my friends' kids were in Brendan's group and I introduced them. Brendan said "hello" and then turned and introduced himself to another boy in the group! My shy child is coming out of his shell.
We then introduced Abbie to her instructor. She didn't know anyone in her group, but she was happy enough with a female instructor.
C.J. made his way over to his group and seemed happy enough.
One thing to note is that being at the lessons is fun. You run into all your friends, and everyone around you is speaking English. It may not seem like anything special, but English isn't the norm over here. If we hear someone speaking English when we are out and about, it stands out. We often strike up a conversation with the person, because it's unusual. So, hearing everyone speak English around you is actually relaxing. It's nice to know that you can turn to the person standing by you and strike up a conversation.

So, the kids wandered off with their instructors and John and I made a break for it.

For our skiing, we had two choices. There is an intermediate chair about a half mile down the road or there is a gondola a couple miles away in another town. We chose the chair as it was the closest location and it's where all the intermediate lessons take place. The parking lot for this area is a bit bigger, but we still parked quite close to the counters/lift. Oh, and this resort is a tad bigger -- there is a ski shop! They don't need large resorts as you tend to eat on the slopes. There are privately owned restaurants scattered over the mountains.
John and I bought ourselves some tickets -- 50 CHF, so not too expensive, and hopped on the chair. It was a strange experience. The last time we skied together without kids in tow was when I was pregnant with Abbie. That was probably the last time John skied with poles as well! We looked at each other and both said, "Wow, we're skiing the Swiss Alps!" If you had said we'd be here a year ago, we would have laughed. Yet, here we were.

At the top of the chair, we realized that it wasn't exactly what we had pictured. Visibility was nil. You could see about 10 feet in front of you. Yet, we persevered. The trails are marked with tall orange poles, so we could mark our path by staying between the poles. We skied down the mountain, and came to ... a rope tow! Neither of us had been on a rope tow since high school, so we weren't exactly sure what to do. There wasn't anyone to assist either. Employee cost is really high in Switzerland, so to keep costs down... they just skip the employees. We managed to catch a t-bar and we made it up the mountain, shaking the whole way. With visibility what it was, we had no idea where the nearest trail was if we fell off our bar. I was a wreck that I'd fall and twist my knee. The furthest you could see was the bar in front of us. No other people were around. The Swiss are obviously too smart to ski on such a horrible day.

We made it to the top and found a trail to ski down. About 3/4 of the way down the mountain, we ran into a restaurant and stopped for a soda and fries. We assessed the situation and decided it was just too dangerous to ski. You really couldn't see anything, and it's easy to fall off a trail into a ravine. It wasn't fun when we had no idea where we were or where we were going. Sadly, our first ski day consisted of 2 runs.

We headed back to sneak a peek at the kids. They all seemed to be doing well. C.J. was off to try the "big" t-bar. Brendan was falling a lot, but seemed happy. Abbie was still skiing! In fact, girls were calling to her and they all seemed happy. We hung out with other parents, had some hot chocolate, and waited for the lessons to end.

All 3 kids begged to continue skiing. Abbie thew a fit that she couldn't go up the "big" hill with John and C.J. She and Brendan marched off to the bunny hill and rode up the hill together. They did 3 more runs before we convinced them to end for the day. It was so cute to see them side by side on the t-bar! Abbie informed us that she had been in 3 different groups that day. In the end, she was put with her friend's big sister's group (who happens to be in Brendan's class.) My guess is that it had been so long since she skiied that they downgraded her. When she got comfortable, they realized she could actually ski and upgraded her again. She didn't seem to mind and is thrilled with her final assignment. C.J. said he learned some new stuff, and Brendan wasn't at all concerned that he kept falling down on the snowboard.

As much as I moaned and groaned that I had to take a T-bar and 2 weeks later still don't love the T-bar ride, I think it's a great lift for a beginner's ski run. Abbie doesn't have to worry about getting on and off a chair. The ride for her is quite easy and it helps reinforce how to keep her skiis parellel. Very few kids fall off the T-bar so the lift keeps running. If you've ever been on a beginning chair lift, you'll know how many times that lift gets stopped. It can take forever to get up a tiny bunny hill!

We headed home to a dinner of fondue and then 4 out of 5 family members fell asleep in front of the TV at 7pm. Jet lag and a day of skiing had caught up with everyone.


I'll leave you with this final photo. What do you do in Switzerland if you love to windsurf but your lake freezes on you? Do it anyway!