We spent New Year's Eve sledding with friends near Davos, Switzerland. This was no ordinary sledding by any means. You begin with a 20 minute ,very scenic train ride to the top of the run or schlittelnbahn.
Once you arrive, you get on your sled, hold on for dear life and begin the almost 10 km journey down the mountain. 
If you look for 'Preda' on the right side of the map (click on the picture to enlarge), you'll see a black line and a pink line. The black line is the train route and the pink line is the sled run.What a blast! We flew down the mountain travelling about 30 km/hour (that was slow compared to others who weren't travelling with small children). The second run was a bit more icy and much more crowded. That combination led to some serious wipeouts. One local man was having pretty bad luck. We saw him crash 3 times and each time he took somebody else out with him. Matt and Danny had to purposely crash their sled twice to avoid hitting him since he lacked the sense to get out of the middle of the road after he crashed. Live and learn buddy.
I know you're probably thinking we were crazy to take our kids, but we had been assured at the ticket counter that it was perfectly safe for them. It was only after the second run that we learned just how dangerous it could be. Once we reached the bottom, we even saw somebody being airlifted off the run. We were cautious, and the kids LOVED it. You have to hear Danny's infectious "sledding giggle." It leaves me in tears.
We were hoping to get in a third run before closing, but the kids were absolutely exhausted, so we warmed up with some hot chocolate and headed for home. After brownies and fireworks at the Cook's house (our new neighbors-WhooHOO!) we sent the kids off to bed. Matt made some hot cider and we sat out on our balcony and rang in the new year watching several firework shows. We LOVE the view from our house!!
Danny J getting ready to ride
Today, Danny had his first ski lesson. He has been begging us every single day for the last few weeks to go to ski school. He was so proud to show off his new skis and boots. He's even been wearing his ski helmet and goggles around the house. He did so great. Matt and I are so proud of how brave he's been. I only wished the lesson ended on a better note. Danny was next in line to come down the hill, when the ski instructor got side tracked. He saw me watching from behind the fence and yelled, "Mom, I have to PEE!" I told him to tell his instructor since I couldn't get to him fast enough, but he couldn't get her attention until it was too late. He was so sad.
The instructor was kind enough to invite us back tomorrow for another 2 hour session free of charge. I assured Danny that he did nothing wrong, bought him a bag of chips and took him home good as new. He can't wait to get back out there tomorrow!
5 comments:
That looks so incredibly fun! You are brave!
I am so glad you aren't dead. I have tried calling your # at least 3 times and the machine picks up. So then I beg the machine to have you guys call me back... to no avail. I'd love to hear from you sometime. I miss you!
I am incredibly jealous of your skiing/sledding hill pictures. And your Christmas blog was pretty great too. What a great time. Love ya.
That looked so awesome!!! A real sled hill with it's own train to the top? Sign us up! - Kurt & Gavin
That sounds like SO much fun! A bit scary, but I'm sure Kelsey would have loved it. With this weather, we should plan to do it again! Oh, and when we saw Danny the other day at the farm, all he could talk about was how skiing was his favorite thing to do. That and wall-e (Eve).
Oh my goodness, look at the itty bitty skis! He looks so cute! Oh, that is such a sad story about the accident. But man! Sledding sounded awesome! yes, potentially harmful, but awesome!
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