Titlis

The weather held out for our last day of skiing, which was great, but I was a little skiied out. I have improved immensely this week, but in the end, I need to work on the same things I did before. Small things, like to lean forward in my boots more, use my poles properly, having a rhythm to my turns, unweight my skis before turning, keeping my skis parallel and close together, and facing down the mountain and so on. But the major hurdle is still my confidence on skis and fear of speed and falling. I can ski beautifully (if I do say so myself) on shallow smooth slopes, but put me on a steeper or bumpy slope, and I ski like I did back in December, particularly if there is nobody around my level to follow down the slope.

Anyway, we tried some deep snow skiing today, where I really think it would help if I wasn't so scared of going fast. As soon as I got any speed, I would try to turn and stop, which usually ended up with one of my skis under the snow, which meant sometimes meant falling over and having to dig my way out. Luckily, the snow was soft, though it was getting heavy the second time we tried it. It was still heaps of fun though.

What was more fun though, was the planned camp activity after lunch, which was a short ski race. The camp director asked the resort to prepare a short slope for us, and the instructors set up a salom course on it with red and blue markers. We all were timed going down it with varous handicaps depending on our skill level. The first group were allowed to go down normally, with both skis and poles. The second group weren't allowed poles. The third group had to go without poles and through the first gate backwards before turning around and doing the rest of the course normally. The last group then had to go down on one ski and with one pole. Here is a photo of the group after the race at the bottom of the slope.


After this (and a group snow fight and photo) we had a free snow afternoon without instructors, but I decided, with the guys I had been skiing with all week to back up to the top of the mountain again for some photo taking since it was a lovely day. When we got up there, there were clouds swirling around the station, and so we moved from side to side of the viewing area, taking photos while it was clear and moving when it got cloudy in that direction.

I have now been on the top of quite a few peaks, but I don't think I will ever become immune to the beauty of the views. It's times like these that I'm glad I have a camera that I can put into my pocket and safely ski with. Though no camera can really capture the experience of being at 3000m, above the clouds, and looking down 2000m metres to the valley below. The glimpses of the blue glacier ice through the snow as we were heading up in the cable car was also amazing.

Oh, the floor of round cable car you see in the above photo roates during ascent and descent, and was supposedly the first one to do so. I think it's a little unneccessary as we spent the rides sitting in the centre, though I guess if it was really packed it would be nice to get a chance to see the glacier. It is a little strange going up actually, with the mix of tourists and skiiers. It must be very disappointing to have the mountain day of your holiday tour be cloudy and snowy, though I guess there is always the ice grotto inside the glacier to see, as well as movenpick icecream to eat and Swatch watches to buy and staged photos to take at the station. But still, to miss out on the view must be a little devastating. At least we got the chance to see it.