Skiing: Day One

It's difficult to describe the four days of skiing that Mari and I enjoyed. "Glorious" springs to mind, but it feels insufficient. I'd been skiing once before about 5 years ago (and another 20 years ago, but surely that doesn't count now), but in those 2 days made little progress. Snowploughing down a gentle slope after lining up for the lift for 10 minutes was about it. Our time in Hokkaido was to be much different.

We knew the weather was going to be cold, minus 8 on the first day, but I wasn't sure what that actually meant. It meant cold! Here's outside the airport.



As you can see, there's copious snow.

A short half hour into the mountains took us to our hotel - Park Hills. The hotel was not so big, having only six floors, but it did have very nice spas which I was sure would be getting some use over the next few days. We could check in immediately, then ate a late lunch, put on our pristine snow wear and collected our rental skis. We were ready to hit the slopes.

There are only 3 slopes at Park Hills, and they are not so long. We didn't mind though as I was unable to ski, and it had been 10 years since Mari had last skied. She wasn't sure how she'd go. We thought it might be a good location for us to get into it. It was. After the five-minute walk to the lift we both knew we'd come to the right place.

There just weren't many skiers there. We could use the lift with no lining up. Park Hills seemed to be a place that families brought their small kids to learn. Mostly the real skiers got on the 9am courtesy bus and spent the day skiing at one of the bigger places. This far north the sun makes only a slight effort at rising, and by 4 pm its dark. So by around 3pm the families had packed up for home, and the last 2 hours were spent with about 5 other die-hards. Perfect.

Well I had to find out if I could stand up, and if Mari could still ski. Putting on the skis I found that I was able to snowplow down to the lift. Mari immediately found she had no trouble. Skiing is like riding a bike - once you've learnt how, you never lose it.

Riding up to the top I couldn't stop grinning. We were going skiing! But as the chair approached the top I realized that I'd soon have to get off. Hmmm, this was going to be no easy feat. We kind of bumped into each other (or rather I bumped into Mari), but otherwise made it off. Then I was confronted by this...



...the alleged beginners' course. Oh well, nothing for it.

What followed that day was a repetition of snowplow, pick up too much speed/ try to turn, fall down, and get up. The beginners' course looks like this. From the top it curves around to the right and then levels out in the middle. Here's the middle...



Before getting to the lifts you peel to the left. If you continue under the lifts then you'll be taking the intermediate course. Going to the left is a very gentle slope, which then again curves to the right to take you back to the start of the lift...



The first day was so much fun. I stayed until the lift closed at 5pm, being the last person riding it. Actually, I was the last person riding it every day. Not much progress was made in the way of skiing, but plenty of progress was made in tiring myself out.

We went back to the hotel and tried the spas out. Wow, it was good to relax in the hot water. There was even an outside spa. There's something special about sitting in an outside spa in the all-together, surrounded by trees covered with snow.

Dinner was great! It was a buffet style that had heaps of dishes. A great beef stew and fried shrimp were pretty memorable. And all the ice cream you can eat. There was fresh crab too, which is a specialty of Hokkaido. But after the efforts of slicing open the crab legs with the scissors for a measly bit of crab flesh, I couldn't be bothered with it. I instead hovered around the steak corner, to get a hot-off-the-grill steak.

Things I learnt about minus 8:
1. No matter how much your nose is running, don't take your gloves off to blow it.
2. When one crashes into a snow bank, don't roll around like an idiot. Snow has a way of creeping into the sleeves and legs, even though they may be done up tight. Note: snow is cold.

Sleep came early.