We’re having a good time skiing in Obertauern, but the weather is kicking our butts. It’s negative 20C outside and the wind makes it even worse. Freezing cold sand-pebbles of snow pelting you in the face non-stop. Visibility is pretty bad, but once we got a little higher on the mountain it was better. Most of the lifts were closed over the last two days.
After skiing in the morning, Elora skipped one afternoon of ski school because the wind was just too much. She was even wearing a ski mask that covered her whole face! It didn’t seem to be the cold that did her in, but the combination of the wind and having no nap. She’s half the age of the other kids in the group, and after skiing for 2 hours in the morning with them, she’s pretty tired at lunch time.
But she was much more excited to ski with Mom and Dad on this afternoon, even though it was still pretty cold. Her ski instructor said every 45 minutes or so she’d take all the kids inside to warm up. But Elora was able to tough it out the entire time with us there, so there’s something to be said for Mom and Dad and not a stranger…
Elora is getting really good at skiing, she can control her speed really well, turn, and stop! We are so proud. And she loves it, which is awesome.
At the end of the day, I (Chris) skied over to the kinderland to pick up Ollie. He was really insistent that I take him skiing — “Ollie Ski! I like that! Ski! Go!” So I took him up the lift into the face of the freezing snowy winds. As soon as I started skiing while holding him, Ollie had the biggest smile on his face. He said “Weeeeeee!” and “Yaaaaa!” for about 2 minutes. We’ve noticed we don’t have a lot of pictures of Ollie this trip, so I decided to stop and put him down to take a picture. He wasn’t happy to stop skiing as you can see in this picture. But once I picked him up and skied back down the mountain to the hotel he was much happier.
And finally, here’s another picture from the top of one of the lift stations. This picture just can not convey how cold it was. My face was burning. Fingers stinging, my teeth even started to hurt because the wind was so cold (and because Karen borrowed Chris’ face mask, because Elora borrowed Karen’s)! Karen’s ski instructor said it is about 12 degrees colder than normal for this time of year. But surprisingly enough it was still fun. With half of the lifts closed, most of the crowds were packed on to the blue and red runs. I didn’t want to dodge skiers left and right, so I stuck to the black runs for the entire day!
Here are some pics of the kids in the hotel our last night. They were having a great time playing with Elora’s ski helmet and goggles, they are so cute!
Even though she got really tired out skiing, she would still be excited at night and asking about skiing the next day (although she really prefers skiing with mom and dad to going to ski school… nice to know we are still the fun ones!)
I love this pic because of Elora in the background. She was so excited to share her helmet with her brother and to get him excited about skiing.
Here is Elora teaching Oliver the important “pizza” ski position. He has a pretty good stance, she must be a good teacher. They really loved the end of the day when they could play together after being apart all day. Next year they can take ski school together!
