Big Adventures, Little World

Today was Elese’s birthday, and somehow, the birthday fairies had found her the night before and decorated the room with balloons and streamers. How they found her no one will know but she was so glad that they found her. There was not much rest for us though as again we were out on the mountain again for our third day of snowboarding. Again we were feeling more confident and began by doing our turns like we had been the past couple of days and trying to link them together down the entire mountain. It looked a little bit daunting from the top of it, although it was the easiest run of the entire place! I just didn’t seem to be getting the hang of it though, and at the rate I was going I kept thinking I never would. Down the mountain I would go, falling over at pretty much every turn I tried, and it nearly got to the point where I wanted to just give up. I wasn’t going to let it beat me though, and then it was time for us to go down our very first blue run (the easiest of the runs down the mountain, other than the green training areas).

We made our way to the top of the blue run and very nervously we looked down as to where we were going to be headed. There was no point in waiting around though, so after some short instructions and our checkpoint we were going to from Sam, off we went. Sam at the front, Rob at the back, and the rest of us in between, we started making our way down, slowly but surely. The rules were simple, don’t pass the leader, and stop at the designated check point, and just try to link the turns together. It still wasn’t working for me, but it was highly exhilarating going down an actual snow run! The further we went down, the better and easier it got, and the less I started to fall over too! It was just like Sam had said earlier in the week, it all just comes together at one point and ‘clicks’. I don’t think I had quite got to that point, but I was definitely close and the further we went down the mountain, the better I got. We all did, and 2 hours later we were at the bottom of the mountain, staring back up the mountain marvel at where we had come from. It was a great feeling of accomplishment knowing where we had come from and how much we had improved in just a couple of hours.

Our day wasn’t over though, after the excitement of the snowboarding we then made our way over to the neighbouring resort, El Tarter, where we were going mushing with huskies! Elese was extremely excited about and it was going to be a great way to spend her birthday, albeit very different than any other birthday! We found where we needed to be and there was a number of huskies roaming around or sleeping in their little igloo homes. Elese just wanted to take them all home with her, but I wouldn’t let her, and I’m sure that the people who look after them might have had a problem with it as well.

We each got our own sled to drive with 3 or 4 huskies pulling us along in a row behind one of the trainers on his own sled and with about 10 huskies. He took us out through a track going through the mountains and up and down some hills. It was a really cool experience, and the huskies seemed to love it as well, although they did seem to tyre out quite quickly at times. We kept stopping every now and then though, so the huskies could catch their breath and so we could admire the views, and also pat and play with the huskies too. The trainer took us around a little course going up and down hills and going faster and faster each time in an effort to try and make us fall off the sled. We all went close a few times but luckily we all managed to hold it together and stay upright on the sleds, especially because the huskies never really stopped to relieve themselves, and would just do it on the run, whether it was weeing or pooing it didn’t matter! So very strange and very disgusting at the same time, but also a little bit funny!

The huskies that pulled me around through the snow

After about half an hour or so we were back at that the start and spent another 15 minutes patting the huskies and playing with them, and taking photos. They were just so much fun. One of my one even started gnawing at the sled, then as punishment he wasn’t allowed to go on the next run. Some might think that isn’t a punishment at all, but the huskies really enjoy it, and even when we had stopped for more than about a minute, they would all start barking and going crazy because they wanted to get running again. At the end of it all, we even got our husky and sled license because we didn’t fall off, which apparently not every gets, which could even be true as the people before us didn’t get given one when they had finished. So if anyone needs a husky sled driver, you know where to come now!