We just got back from our week skiing and bless me father, for I have sinned.
I took my seven and five year old sons down a red run.
What the ?
As you can tell, we've come a long way baby from the post I wrote about trying to get Boy #2 to master a 'pizza slice' on the slopes; God help me, he can do 'chips' as well now (which for the uninitiated means pointing your skis straight down the slope). And luckily, I had re-found my skiing mojo after the lesson from a friend that I mentioned in the same post. However, that still doesn't excuse our adventure (I'm calling it an 'adventure', but I'm guessing you'll understand by that I mean 'incredibly stupid escapade') on Saturday afternoon, when the Potty Family got on the wrong ski lift and ended up at the top of Mount Death.
I can only count my blessings that a) the weather was fabulous, meaning we could actually see the slope properly b) there was plenty of recently fallen soft snow to act as a landing pad (not that it proved necessary), c) Husband was with us and able to carry Boy #2 down the one part of the slope that proved too much for him and d) we were also with a good friend and her 5 year old son, and who - also being a very good skier - with her matter-of-fact demeanour and calm resolution not to be phased by the situation, helped me to keep my cool and to ski Boy #1 down whilst Husband dealt with Boy #2.
With the exception of the carrying incident the Boys were admirably relaxed about their 'adventure' (see? That word again), to the extent that I am now seriously considering not ever taking them skiing again because give it two years and there will be no stopping them. I'll be reduced to being the anxious mum wringing my hands at the bottom of the double black diamond slopes as they whoop their way carelessly down them, no doubt.
I should also say that the resort we were staying in was rather namby-pamby with their classifications of degrees of difficulty; most of the red slopes would have been labelled blue in France, for example.
But enough excuses, because despite the fact that we actually had fun whilst doing this, Christ, I never want to do that again.
