Night show - February 20, part 2

R here again! :)

Last night there was a night show held by the Saas-Fee Ski and Snowboard school, and we decided that Daddy, S and I would go while Mama watched the littles. It was held where the ski lessons meet, so we walked right on down after dinner! S stayed up on the restaurant porch eating area and had a hot chocolate, while Daddy and I wanted to be up close. There was a big line of people in front of the slope waiting, as well as big speakers and two search lights. We waited for about 10 minutes, and then the music started. 

The music was kind of mysterious adventure music, and the announcer started the welcome. German, French, Italian, then English. During that, you could see a river of flickering golden light streaming down one of the slopes. The instructers came slowly down, and eventually dissapered into the forest. We waited for a couple minutes, and then around the ski jump came about 20 instructers, carrying flaming torches that reminded me of the olympic torch. They wedged them into the snow, and then the announcer started to talk again, though this time only in german and english. She said that that was obviously not all 58 skiiers and snowboarders, and that there was about to be a big show. 

Both flood lights lit up the ski jump area at the bottom of the bunny slope and the music changed as the first group came around it with the flags of various countries. Though it was fun interesting to see the flags, being carried down, the assortment confused me. There were two Swiss flags, two French ones, Italy, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Germany, Spain, and Ireland. The next group was more interesting.

Next was a demonstration comparing the first style of skiing versus snowboarding. The snowboarders came first, then the others following behind. The old ski style was just like ours now, except only the toes of the boots lock into the skis, not the heels. It kind of looked like curling, with one boot down flat and one up off of it.

The music changed once again as the Freestylers come down. They went over the ski jump one after another, with their tricks being named over the speakers. I was impressed with the 540s landing backwards, the front flip, and low twists that scared the crowd because it looked like they could never be landed.

Right after that came a small group of skiiers did a formation show. They weaved between eachother, but not for long as they quickly ran out of momentum. When they bowed, though, a few of them stood on the fronts of their skis, which may look a bit easier than it undoubtedly is.

These next several are most definitaly my favorites out of thewhole ski show. The first one they started up by saying that one of the skiiers got bored of waiting for helicopters to bring him up the powder to the slopes (A joke, as helicopters don't do that normally), so he invented this. He strapped a propeller to his back, and it blew him up and down the bunny hill, the ski jump, and all around, while never losing speed. I really want one, so I can avoid the bridge to the other small slope and the button line. However, it does look just a bit unsafe.

While the people in charge were setting up for the even more dangerous one, we were given a short comedy break with super long skis. The skis were 3.5 meters, and looked hard to control, but it was even better when he lifted up the skis to carry them away. The croud burst into laughter as the skis were lifted to be about twice the size as the man skiing on them.

Then came the treat for the kids. The little kids part of the ski and snowboard school has a mascot called "Snowli". He is an alien Bunny. He came down the ski jump with his friends (a bit awkwardly, though), and did an adorable little skit where he fell, and his friends helped him up, showing the small kids that even Snowli falls down sometimes.

Next were the "Duracell Girls" (subtle advertisement here I think). The fronts of their suits each had a thin line of lights, and they danced as they skiied down to us. It looked very cool, but it was very ironic that one of the Duracell girls had the batteries of half of her lights go dead.

Now to S's, and probably majority of the crowd's, favorite. He was introduced as the Fireman, but when he came out he wasn't putting out fires, he was practically on fire! He had giant sparklers strapped all around his backpack, on the backs of his skis, and on each end of a huge stick he was carrying for the light show. He was wearing a fire-proof full-body suit and helmet, of course, but I still probably wouldn't ski like that.

Even though that was the grand finale of the ski show, the night ended with a blast (pun intended), as the machines that prepare the slopes came down slowly with fireworks on the back. The best part about it wasn't that they have fireworks, or that they managed to do a show with mini-fireworks off the backs of moving machines, but the best part (in my opinion) was how close they got to us. The fireworks went off right in front of us, and then dissapered right above the heads of the crowd.