Tumbles, twists and tantrums

After a quiet day yesterday, there was a dramatic turnaround (think Barcelona in the champions league) and today was filled with action and drama. It appeared to be clear up on top so I decided to take a trip up the cable car and meet the rest for lunch at a mountain top restaurant. I pottered about for a bit before getting a text from kathy that all was not well. Apparently vicky had had a fall on a very icy red. The fall had caused her skis to cross and make it difficult for her to stand up. In her place I would have yelled 'hurrah' and slid all the way down on my bum, unfortunately vicky was not allowed to do this. First of all Alex very patiently tried to help by getting her up and telling her that he would help her down. 'I believe in you' he told her. Awwwww! 'Stop believing in me!' Was the reply. So in order to help matters (😄) ian sidestepped up the hill, the distance varying in reports from 50-200m, a long way whatever, and somehow helped her ski down. The run took an estimated 40minutes, with kathy and Chris waiting not so patiently at the bottom. Kathy periodically (around every 2mins) phoning ian to see how it was going.  The evil red Kathy kept me in touch with the situation, and back at the hotel I had a little tune by Frank Sinatra playing in my head. At last it was decided that the meeting at the top could still take place as vicky was down and they could make it on time. I donned my winter woolies and ascended the gondola. It was a lovely, long, trip up, and I remembered why I didn't like skiing. Some of those runs looked frightening. But the views from the top were absolutely stunning.  The meeting occurred as planned and we ate in the panorama restaurant, with a guy playing typical Austrian tunes on a harmonica. I had goulash and Gluwein, which I had been looking for all week. This is the view from outside the panorama restaurant Kathy informed me that her and Ian had skied the notorious Trass black run that morning (seems to me that all black runs are notorious in order to big them up) and wants me to let everyone know that her daddy abandoned her half way up  See, it is 70% and 4km long.  Kathy also valiantly (her words) saved a woman who had fallen and couldn't get back up. Apparently she usually just skis round fallers but this woman had commented on how nice her panda hat was. Chris is not so nice, he skied over to a fallen child, looked down his nose at him, then left him in the snow.  After lunch I took a few photos of the skiers before they took off again, then walked up the hill a bit following the 'vinter valkerspath' or something like that, to look at the fabulous views some more. I took the gondola back down again alone, and then things stated hotting up on the mountain. The incident voted 'top fun thing of the holiday so far' occurred soon after. Alex and Chris went off to do fun jumpy things leaving Ian, Kathy and Vicky to ski some gentle blues. But as we all know, Vicky has become incapable (since Sunday 5th March 2017) of getting off a chairlift without assistance. Alex has been her rock, believing in her totally yet giving her a big shove at the same time. But Alex was no longer available, so Ian promised he would do the shoving. We all know that was never going to happen. So vicky found herself in a panic with no assistance whatsoever. Not only that, the person next to her had put his great clumpy skis on her delicate snowploughed ones. She lashed out and shoved the oaf over, the oaf being Ian of course. He sprawled out in front of the oncoming chairlift with only one ski on, they even had to slow it down to give him time to clear the way. Kathy and vicky are still laughing now!  

 As you remember, Chris and Alex had gone off to do jumpy things. Chris was forced to the side by a boarder not looking where he was going and had a spectacular skis off tumble, he was caught in the net like a little fish and sprained his thumb in the process.  The damage to the netting was done by Chris. The snow boarder is long gone.  

Alex helped pick Chris up and put him back together and Immediately after that took a fall himself. Coming up a jump the tips of his skis got stuck in the snow and he pitched headlong forward losing both skis. Impressive.  Eventually they all made their weary way back down, what else could go wrong you ask yourself. Well remember, kathy is here. Her and vicky could not manage to open the door to the boot room from the outside until a nice man pushed it open for them. No one knows how but Kathy managed to trap her finger leaving a giant blood blister and a nasty sore finger nail.  So, a fun packed day all round. We had afternoon tea, a pointless viewing, dinner, you know the score. We were all too tired for charades today so chatted a bit then went to bed. There's big snow forecast for tomorrow, but it can't be as exciting as today. Oh, and the Frank Sinatra song. It's where me and vicky will be going next year instead of this pesky skiing, and the name of the best football stadium in the land.