The wild horses showed up again

We woke up to a beautiful snowy morning with clear blue skies. Still anxious but with the place looking so wonderful, and my body betraying me by not contracting 24 hours flu after all so I woke up feeling perfectly fine (grrr) if not a little muscle fatigued, we headed off again. I was a bit determined not to let this stupid skiing sport beat me. We got a good seat on a half full bus, didn't have to faff about buying lift passes, no line up for the gondola. A dream run!

Headed off down the same green run, with Kate having declared she was heading up higher to do her own thing, and she may have said as she was skiing backwards in some amazing feat.

Anyways, over the edge, and I got to the bottom in a faster time, with maybe about 10 falling overs. Not bad. Chair lift with the husband, not so great. Our poles got tangled up as we stood up to launch down the run, which caused me to face-plant right in front of the chair. All I can say is lucky skis are designed for the boots to detach under extreme pressure or I would have had two broken ankles or knees or something. The chair lift man came to rescue my skis as I crawled off to the side wondering how I got where I was.

A bathroom stop and the first proper coffee in days was in order by then. It would be tempting to blame my poor skiing performance on bad coffee for the last 5 days, but that would be disingenuous.

Anyway, we were off for another run! Like, two whole runs before lunch! This time I also managed to get off the chair lift and only fall over after skiing to the bottom, so things are looking up. Katie met us at the gondola restaurant for lunch, and before long we were off on our third run of the day. This time I only fell over about 5 times and feel like the "getting it" is slightly within grasp. At the bottom, Kate and Craig reckon they will do two more runs to my one. Up the chair lift, fall off again, go down the run by myself and just as I reach the bottom, not having fallen over one single time, Kate is already waiting for me, which proves that I was very slow, but still managed technique of some description because on my final run of our ski holiday, I have managed to not fall over!!! Craig arrived a few minutes later looking like a pro (in my eyes anyway 🥰).

Time for my first ever snow angel before calling it quits on our skiing "adventure". Craig is slightly concerned that because I ended on a high there is now a small possibility that I might suggest going skiing again one day 🤭.

I felt ridiculously happy on the way down in the gondola that I had managed 4 runs today, Craig managed 5, Kate some untold number because it was so many she didn't need to count. All up, a positive way to end it. I feel less of a failure and so glad we stuck at it today. Quite a few bruises on my left leg, which is weird since it didn't hurt at all to fall down a gazillion times, but obviously I was banging myself up in some fashion.

We had a delicious pork hotpot for dinner just down the road, and since we haven't booked any buses out of here, are currently contemplating how and when we will be able to leave Hakuba tomorrow morning in order to get to Tokyo.Read more