 |
| leaving the Canterbury plain...ascending the foothills |
 |
| the road is those brown lines...it winds up the foothills...YIKES! |
 |
| almost there! |
 |
| on top of Mount Hutt |
 |
| Which way would you go? |
 |
| a long way down the mountain--Canterbury Plain & ocean below the clouds |
 |
| Henri @ the top of Mt. Hutt |
 |
| Eric & Robin love the Learner's Slop |
 |
| Ben (in brown @ center) learning Snowboarding |
While it is the East Coast of the US is frizzling...we are busy shivering here (hence the ode to spring posts). The University Accomodations group organized a ski trip, complete with a chartered bus to a local ski area. The fees were reasonable! At this point we aren’t totally comfortable driving the narrow twisting no-guard rail roads so a chartered bus sealed the deal.
The Mt. Hutt ski field is very dramatic. It is on the top of a mountain overlooking the Canterbury plains...we were up above the clouds the whole day. If the day had been clear we would have been able to see all the way to the ocean but there was a thick layer of clouds just below the snow line.
Two days before we went, the Mt. Hutt field had to shut down mid-day because a storm with 200 km/hour winds whipped through stranding 1,000 skiers on the mountain. Everyone jammed into the ski rental/restaurant area. The year 7 kids from Ben’s school had been on their ski trip that day & wound up spending the night there. The staff at Mt. Hutt rigged up ropes so that folks could safely walk to the toilets & not get lost in the storm.
These slopes were intense!! The “easy” slop was very difficult technically so Eric & Robin stuck to the learning slope...working on steering & playing tag. Ben skied some tough slopes in the morning & then learned to snowboard (& slightly sprained his knee). Henri enjoyed the toughest slopes all day! All in all a great day in the snow (in August)!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment