Day 4 dawned with snow falling from the sky and some significant wind which didn't make for the greatest start to the day, but hey, who's going to complain about snow when you're skiing?
After a couple of runs whilst we all sorted ourselves out for the day (including Michael deciding that all these early starts were a bit much and procuring an extra hour's sleep after breakfast) we headed over the mountains to try and find some runs that were better sheltered than where we started. That was successful enough and soon we were exploring a nice little area with a few groups of trees and some left-over powder for us all to play in.
It was during this little venture that the kids found a little but of a bump they decided to do some jumps off. Thus began what I like to call Stackarama.
Michael was the first to go down, deciding that he'd try a 180, only to find that the lack of a descent on landing did nothing to help him and down he went. Thomas had a go at something that can only be called a half-hearted attempt at a 180 because he managed to get half way through it before panicking and backing out ... landing with his skis at 90 degrees to where they should be pointing. Not conducive to landing at all.
Even Sam wasn't immune, finding that the fact that what they were jumping off wasn't really all that ideal and managing to basically get it wrong and land with one ski pointing directly down at the snow. Man down!
It was at that point that we decided that if there were going to be jumps, perhaps they'd be better off in the terrain park where there were jumps actually designed for that sort of carry on.
We stopped for lunch first and a slight delay whilst Michael and I hunted down a good spot to eat saw Thomas, Emily and Sam clambering about in the snow. They managed to make a good start on a snowman before we dragged them off to eat.
On our return from lunch there was a bit of an effort to finish it, but it was interrupted when someone (couldn't have been me) suggested to a nearby group of ski-school students that hurling a couple of snow balls at my kids wouldn't be discouraged. A playful and not very serious snowball fight erupted, with our kids having higher ground and Thomas taking great delight in being able to catch the snowballs and hurl them back again. I think both sides had plenty of fun!
That done we headed off to the terrain park to continue Stackarama. Michael was confident that with a well-prepared jump he'd pull off the 180, but apparently launched with too much speed. Half way through he reconsidered what he was going, attempted to undo what he'd started and instead went madly sprawling with skis and poles going everywhere.
Thomas followed him and after jumping easily yesterday, must have decided that Stackarama was way too much fun to miss out on and crashed his landing instead, sending his skis and poles off in a good imitation of his older brother's. Sam was more circumspect, happy with his first contribution to Stackarama. Caroline and I chose not to participate; I don't think I'd quite bounce back up and go on skiing the way that the kids do. I still have scarred memories of pulling my calf on day one at Kicking Horse and having to listen to everyone tell me how good the skiing was. Instead I'm looking for a crash-free holiday. So far so good, even though I have have been getting a little more daring each day.
One of the very visible features around the Ichinose Family ski area is the man and varied ski-school participants. Each group skis around in matching outfits and most of them seem to well and truly be at the beginner level. Most of the time they are easily avoided, but every now and then you find yourself on a traverse or ripping down a green run to get to a lift only to find slow-moving snakes of far from confident skiers and boarders. Presented with this challenge on one narrow bit of green run, Emily decided to invent a bit of a new sport. Ski School Slalom. That's where you zip in and out of the snake of snow-ploughing learners, probably scaring the wits out of them, but having a bit of fun yourself. I must admit I did indulge a couple of times myself, but was at least kind enough to do it when they were well spread, not cutting the ends of their skis!
As we made our return trip over and around the mountains (its a good 1-1.5 hours work to get back as you navigate your way up various lifts and down runs to link back to where we started from) the weather started to come in. Initially we were above the cloud and presented with a fantastic view of the cloud down in the valleys. The closer to home we went, the lower the elevation. By the time that we were on the last run, we were well and truly in the thick of it. Visibility was down to tens of metres and Ski School Slalom was replaced with Ski-School Dodgems as groups of people would suddenly appear from the fog in front of you.
Caroline and I gave it two runs before deciding that the effort of seeing at the top of the run really wasn't worth the pain and we called it a day.
Dinner beckoned and after booking in, Thomas gave the worried news that he'd seen them setting up and that it was starting to look a lot like the previous night's dinner. There are very few options other than to eat where we are once we're back for the day so we pressed ahead.
It was a bit more successful than the previous night, though the tempura brought Michael unstuck when he thought he was getting a bit of capsicum and instead got a crab-stick. For a kid that doesn't eat seafood, it was a rude shock and I think it was ejected much quicker from his mouth than it ever when in!
Now its time to rest up the legs for one final day on the slopes!
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