Ansó, 2 February
by Isabel Isherwood - 14:26 on 02 February 2017
Proper snow arrived a week or so ago – a metre or more fell in the mountains; then the weather turned cold and we had a spectacular freeze. Waterfalls were stopped in their tracks and curtains of icicles developed along the gorges, some several metres long.
The wintery weather has brought on our next big adventure: learning to ski. The girls get a week each of alpine and cross-country skiing through school. The alpine skiing is at Candanchú, a big (although happily not too posh!) ski-station with around 100 km of piste in high mountains up on the French border an hour and a half away; the cross-country skiing is just up the valley at Linza, in a lovely location of meadows and beechwoods.
The girls both showed a surprising resistance to the idea of learning to ski: it was difficult, dangerous, generally pointless and, most importantly of all, they would be the worst in their school because of never having skied before. This latter was of course the nub of the problem…..
To try to overcome some of their resistance Jake and I took them to Candanchú and booked them in for two hours of downhill skiing lessons. Both children are extremely expressive, both in words and body language. Rowan managed to convey very clearly a combination of abject terror, browbeaten resignation and determination to enjoy nothing at all about the experience. Iona made it clear that she was only able to control her anxiety if I was present throughout the ordeal.
We struggled into ski suits and gloves and hats and goggles and all the complicated paraphernalia of this bizarre sport, hired skis, boots and poles, and went off to our doom. It was worse that we had imagined: the teacher turned out to be a gruff 50-something male! Horror! And even worse, he was (understandably) unenthusiastic about hovering parents, and I was peremptorily dismissed. I sloped away guiltily, aware of the rising panic on Iona’s face…….
Two hours later I returned to find both girls able to take a ski-lift up to the top of the learners slopes and ski competently back down again. Rowan was utterly converted, grinning from ear to ear, turning competently, stopping like a pro. Iona was too angry with me for leaving her to be able to show that she had enjoyed herself, but after a hot chocolate and a bit of grovelling she was willing to admit that it was actually FUN!
The next challenge was cross-country ski-ing. With the first of their five cross-country days scheduled for last Monday, we decided to head up to Linza at the weekend with some friends and have a try. Jake is our only vaguely competent skier, and he was away in Indonesia; so we went with Rowan’s friend Amaya from the village and her dad Steve, both of whom ski competently; and a family from Hecho (who arrived about the same time as we did) with an English dad and Spanish mum and daughters Helen and Anna, aged 11 and 7. Like us they had never done any cross country skiing before, so posed no threat to Iona or Rowan’s pride….
We had a fabulous day – the wonderful thing about cross-country skiing is that at its simplest it is not really that different from walking, which even I am competent to do. Slight ups and downs are manageable fairly easily. The trouble arises with bigger downhill slopes, which require a lot more control than the average beginner can muster (cross-country skis are longer and much narrower than downhill skis, and thus more tricky to control) – but we all managed a few good downhill runs (I have an excellent collection of bruises to show for it!). By the end of the day both Rowan and Iona were utterly converted and looking forward to ski-ing the next day with school. And I too, despite my bruises, was feeling quite excited about the opportunity to get into cross-country ski-ing that living here offers….
We have had two ski days so far this week, and they have been excellent. The girls are rapidly gaining skills and confidence, to the point that they have both decided that cross-country skiing is their favourite sport….. I am getting into the swing of gentle slopes, although am still quite hopeless on anything vaguely steep. However I really enjoy the relative simplicity of it – Linza has a refuge, and a hut for ski rental. No ski lifts or bars or anything else; and although it is very busy at weekends, during the week there are just the school kids and a handful of other locals. I’ve been heading out while the girls are having their classes, and most of the time it is just me alone in the snowy woods – deer crossing the track ahead, woodpeckers calling, flocks of tits moving through the canopy; the sound of the skis, and when you stop, just silence and birdsong.
We have another ski day tomorrow then two more the week after next….. Alpine skiing is scheduled for early March. Watch this space!!
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