Our ski star

S represents the US in the slalom!

Today was the last day of ski lessons. R was sick again but everyone else went. E went up to another high piste and saw layers of Sahara sand brought in by recent storms in the snow. S also went up and became the only one of us to ski an entire red piste. I stayed with Richard's class and got feedback on at least half of my turns. I can feel a huge improvement. And even T went to class, with no fuss at all. We told him if he went today he would not have to go tomorrow.

Left: view from our hotel this morning.

Right: view from the top of my slope.

Left: view from E's slope.

Right: view of S's zig zagging red route.

Here comes S's class!

The adult classes ended a little early so everyone could watch the awards show for the kids' classes. It was a bit like the show E and the girls went to last night. Each class was called individually and the names of the kids were read out as they skied down to the podiums on the same steep slope used by the instructors in their show. Every class had its own showing off gimmick. The little kids skied down in pairs holding banners. Some classes skied formations. S's class showed off their jumping. They skied down wearing their medals and posed briefly by the podiums. As you can see above, S won the bronze medal in slalom racing!

The bronze medalist!

S receiving her pin, her report card, and her promotion to Blue Star from Sarah

T got a participation medal, and was very proud. He is officially a teddy bear group graduate! He celebrated by bringing us over to the magic carpet where he proceeded to "show us how to ski."

 

R joined us for lunch on the restaurant patio under the space heated awnings, but it began to snow so hard and got so cold that we had to move inside. That meant we couldn't go curling as planned, so we headed back to the hotel. Along the way S found a long coveted Saas-Fee souvenir- a yellow sweatshirt that will probably fit her for at least the next three years.

We walked home in two groups. Both girls noticed these icicles and wanted to take a picture.

When we got back to the hotel, T joined L in the kids' club. I packed, E slept, R wrote yesterday's blog, and S hung out. We all had dinner together, which ended with the appearance of the hotel mascot who handed out glowing devil's horn headbands to all the kids and then presided over a disco party. It's hard to tell from the picture, but there were lots of wild light effects in addition to the home movies of hiking trips being shown on the big screen. I hope someone reads this someday and decides to stay at Hotel Alphubel. There is such a family feeling here.