This year, rather than spend our winters freezing our butts off at, and shuttling back and forth between ice rinks, we managed to keep the kids out of any ice sports and pursue other options.
The boys all played indoor soccer and Emily and Thomas joined the Nancy Greene Ski Program. Emily would have loved to have played indoor soccer but unfortunately her games would have been on Saturday which simply wasn't conducive to the lifestyle that we wanted this year. At least when the kids are skiing we get to indulge as well.
One of the things that the Nancy Greene program enables the kids to do is participate in ski races, something which Caroline and I were certainly excited about, regardless of whether Emily and Thomas thought it would be particularly special or not.
With our other commitments and fun (like holidaying in the Caribbean) we didn’t actually get to as many of these events as we’d have liked, but we did make the one that we considered most important - the Jasper Junior Olympics.
It was held the week after we arrived back from our cruise, so we went from the sand to the snow in a very short space of time. Caroline and the kids went on the bus on the Thursday, whilst I worked through Friday. Then I caught the plane to Edmonton and drove out in a little Hyundai to meet them in Jasper.
It almost uneventful except for the bit where I was driving along at the permitted 110kms/hour and looked up to see the back end of what I think was an Elk wandering off the road to my right. I hit the skids, veered into the left lane and set the heart racing to about a billion beats a minute. I slowed down and considered just how bloody lucky i was that there hadn’t been anyone in the lane along side me, not to mention that it hadn’t been the front end of the animal that I’d seen! Otherwise it would have been a very very messy experience.
Eventually I controlled the heart and made it the rest of the way and by the time that I’d managed to make it to the Rockies proper, I was in a suitable frame of mind to admire the absolutely stunning view as the bright, silvery light of a very full moon cast its ethereal glow across the snow-capped mountains. It was truly wonderful and I would have given a lot to have had a camera handy (not to mention some decent photography skills) so that I could have captured it to share.
The following day we were up bright and early to pack ourselves onto the team bus so that we could head up to the mountain to do some skiing (oh and um, watch the kids too). The kids were split into age groups and genders for racing and the older kids skied on a tougher course. That meant that Emily would be skiing down a green run near the base of the mountain whilst Thomas would ski at the top on a black run! Caroline was kind enough to do our volunteer duty so that I could fit in some extra skiing (something about having missed most of the Christmas ski adventure).
It was going to be a delicate task once the kids were ready to ski as all we had to go by was the number of their bib as to when they would be coming down the mountain. Michael and Sam and I did some exploration to make sure that we’d be able to get from one to the other in time the waited near Emily’s run for her first race.
It was very cute to see the little kids skiing their hearts out as they weaved in and out of the gates to get the fastest time that they could. On the first day they would each have two timed races to see who could produce the quickest time.
Emily fared very well in her event, coming in 11th in her age group, which was just one place short of getting a ribbon! After her first run we raced to the bottom, caught the lift back to the top and skied across to Thomas’ course. We had to repeat it for the second run in the afternoon.
Thomas skied well on his first run, but unfortunately on his second, lost his edges about 5 gates from the finish. He got up quickly and kept skiing, but hadn’t realized that he’d missed a gate in the process and sadly ended with a DNF (did not finish). That meant that he didn’t get an official time for his runs, but from his first run he was around the middle of the pack. When you see the speed some of the kids that have been skiing (and racing) for many years achieve, middle of the pack is bloody good.
On the second day, the racing was a team event, with the various ski teams competing against each other. This meant that each skier would participate in two tandem slalom races, weaving through the gates side by side against their competitor (based on their time from the previous day). Apparently there’s then some mathematical wizardry around which teams win how many of their races to determine the overall winner.
Again Emily was the first down the mountain and she managed to get over the line first, smiling as she came over the line. I had a little more concern for as although he had put a brave face on the disappointment of the Saturday, I knew that he really wanted to be able to say that he had won something.
In his first race he managed to well and truly beat his opponent over the line. Then we raced off to see Emily again. In the first race they came down one side of the course and then in the second race came down the other, I assume to even out any slight imbalances in the positioning of the various gates. Emily went close, but was just beaten over the line before we scuttled off to the top of the mountain for the last time.
Thomas skied his best and again managed to get himself over the line, coming out with a double victory and happily, a good story to tell about his efforts at the Jasper Junior Olympics.
From there it was just a casual bus ride back to the Mac. All 10 hours or so of it!
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