The D-S Family en Provence: Skiing in Aosta, Italy

After our adventures through Venice, we hopped into the car again and drove to Aosta, in the Italian Alps. Here is what the boys have to say on the trip:

JULIAN:

On our first day, [the funicular] was a little scary because it was super high up but I got used to it because it was a long ride. You could see a lot of things from the top of the funicular like houses (and snow, I suppose, although the funny thing was there was not a lot of snow in the valley where we stayed).

When we finished the ride we got off and got in the line for the lift up the first hill. There was a special pedestrian line for people who were renting skis. At the top of the lift we looked around for our ski school. When we found the ski school the person working there told us where to find our rentals and also gave us tickets for our lessons. Then we went down underneath the ski school to rent our skis. Even though it wouldn’t seem so, ski renting is a complicated process. For example, they need your height, your weight, your shoe size, your head circumference, and your age. Once we had had given our measurements and each had a pair of skis, boots, poles (except for Noah) and a helmet we went outside to put our skis on. Noah went straight off to his lesson and Mama, Micah and I went down the first hill.

As the day wore on, we tried out a new run, the 15, and got to try out a new lift, called Leissé. The next day, Micah and I had a lesson, and the instructor took us on a new lift called Chamolé and a new run, the 5, which had lots of bumps and big hills/descents. On the last day, Micah and Papa and I went on the Leissé 9-7, a red! It was great!

MICAH:

Well, it all started when I figured out how to not be scared of going fast. Going fast basically feels like your legs spread out, bent down and your body on a bit of an angle. I learned how to go faster than just turning back and forth, back and forth. Going straight down the mountain makes you go like a bullet. Like an artificial one. I like going straight down the mountain because turning around makes you lose speed. Turning is putting pressure on the opposite ski of the way that you want to turn. Jumping (I tried it a couple of times) is when you go over a bump and you shift your skis up and you go whooooooo – ump! But when I jumped I normally fell.

One of the wipeouts that I had, I was going on a red, number 7, and I put too much pressure on one and the ski, instead of being flat I tilted it on an angle, and I completely wiped out. Snow was everywhere on me. It even got down my coat and into my boots. My two thumbs were bleeding. It was the worst wipeout in my whole life. Ever. But also very fun!