Oh we tried

Jen and I tried to go skiing yesterday. We got up early, we hauled our skis all the way across town to the gondola station and we decided to go up the mountain even though the sign said "It's really windy up there" Well, that's my translation of the German.

It took us an hour to get up the mountain in the gondola because of the high winds. It was awfully frightening the way it swayed when it came to a complete stop (which happened quite a few times). I was trying to decide what I would do if we did suddenly plummet to the ground. Does anyone know? Are you supposed to jump right before you hit the bottom?

When we did make it to the top we were greeted with gale force winds and blowing snow and zero visibility. We had to dig our edges in and protect our faces while the gusts passed.

We did get two really good red runs in before we gave up. Well, we didn't really give up: they shut all the lifts down. We were on the back side of the mountain when this happened, so we had no choice but to ski back to town. That was exciting because the ski path is just a road they are too lazy to plough and it makes more ski runs I guess.

We skied down from Silleren past the adventure park and into Oey (for those who know). It was awfully flat, but I'm an accomplished cross country skier so it was no problem.

When we got back, I got a refund on my lift ticket--which I didn't think I'd get since I bought it about 3 hours before, but it was no problem. We went home, dropped our skis off, ate lunch in the hallway and then hit the slopes (or, the bunny hill near our house) again with our ski-bocks. We went down about three times before we got tired of walking up the hill, so I buried Jen in the snow. For some reason she got cold and we had to go home.

Then...I packed my suitcase. This is a problem. There is simply not enough room in my suitcase for my Stuff. I've already sent one 13 kg box home. Guess I'll be paying the Swiss Post more money to deliver packages a month later and in crummy condition.

In other news: This is a ski-bock. They were invented by kids in Adelboden and don't seem to have expanded in popularity much--but everyone under the age of 12 owns them here in town, and us of course. We're the only adults you ever see carrying these things around. Lately it's been my main form of transportation.