Too cool for snow school

Just as there is nothing funnier than a dog wearing one of those cones around it's neck, there is nothing cuter than twins on skis.  I don't know if it was the mini pink helmets and goggles, or the cute un-coordination, but there was some unbelievable adorableness going on there.  There would want to be. Ski School aint for tight arses.

Apparently they loved it.  I say apparently because all we saw was a glimpse of them snow walking, and hot chocolate all down the front of their jackets at the end of the day.  I want to take credit for the photos, but it was in fact, all part of the Ski School package.  To be honest, we just dumped and ran.

Call me cold hearted, but just remember that for the last 2 years, 8 months and 17 days I've had the little monkeys climbing all over me 24 hours a day saying (or conveying with their wails in the early years), "I WANT".  Plus, it snowed 60 cm last night.  This was on top of the 50cm yesterday.  That is a lot of serious snow.  It was blue skies this morning too, so we were on that chairlift quicker than you can say "So long suckers", and off into the child-free a-bliss.

See, so cute it makes you want to vomit all over your keyboard.

You know when someone says "there was too much snow", and you think "yeah right - what a show-off"?  Well if you've ever had to walk out of waist-deep powder for an hour you'd be of that show off-y opinion too.  It's amazing how a huge powder dump can change a mountain - and make you braver.  You can catapult off a ridge, head first into a frozen creek bed and find it amusing rather than a necessary excuse for a morphine drip.  Gone were those concealed icy moguls that broke my bum bone two days ago (I'm angling for some outside sympathy by the way, - it's all high and dry around here now). I must admit though, after a fair bit of time on the slopes, I was absolutely finished by the end of the day.

It was like some disgruntled thug, hiding in an alley with a snooker ball in a sock, had taken out his woes on every square inch of my body.  A one-two sucker punch from the mountain translates into sleeping in the cafeteria, with your head on the table, while someone prods you with a chopstick to tell you they want your seat.  After I dragged myself back out, I was doing really stupid things like crashing into metal posts and heading straight for tree wells - my Great White Shark of the mountain.

I am much more scared of tree wells than avalanches.  At least when buried by an avalanche you just have to let a mouthful of spit dribble out, thus finding out which way is up (i.e if it goes up your nostrils you're upside down).  Then, just aim for the exit and dig.  But with a tree well, you're in much more serious trouble.  Apparently, experiments were done,  and it was found that if you go head first into one, you typically suffocate within 20 minutes.  If you have air you can be "lucky" and slowly starve to death - as once you're in, you're not getting out.....Hmmm good times.

On that cheery note, I'll say sweet dreams.  We are off to another mountain tomorrow, and another ski school, where I can pay a small fortune to watch my children fall over in the snow.  Like mother, like daughters.....