Like last year, we again stayed in Zell am See for a week to have some skiing fun. Given that we numbered 12, we rented 3 apartments in the Appartmenthaus Edelweiss, which is located near the edge of the town (on the road to Saalfelden, the second last building). The train had a 1 hour delay, so we arrived in the afternoon, barging into our rooms at around 13:45. The second half of the party was by then deep entrenched in gridlock, due to heavy snowfall and avalanche warnings throughout the area. This year, no accidents happened on the train (hot chocolate was kept in either the cup or swallowed down in a proper manner), although some idiot barely missed our ride when he decided to say hi to a riding train from very close (he ended up under the next train — lucky for us, otherwise we would have to wait at least 3 hours in Brussels). Nathan took the train ride very serious:
Deciding to go with the shop recommend by the apartment owners, we set out to go rent some equipment — which turned out to be subpar to last years, which we got at the Intersport shop, at a similar price, if memory serves well (it usually does not). We were driven over the by the shop owner, yet we had to return on foot, as the other friendly folks who took the ride with us, kindly forgot to remember we were still at the shop when they were brought back. A minor setback, I thought, taking the opportunity to go fetch ski passes. Without any success, as I did not have Elias passport with me. Dang. Back to the apartment, and then on a quick run back to the closest lift for buying passes.
This year, we enrolled Elias in the ski school; this time starting at the top of the CityXpress lift, rather than going to Schuttdorf. This mean he had to take the CityXpress lift to get to the school, rather than get on a ski bus. Which was way more cool for him. He did remarkably well, shifting groups three times, each time moving on to a better group, or rather different teacher for more advanced skiing craziness. The first two days, he stayed at the Kindergarten site, where he was trained in ploughing to stop and make turns on a very gentle (read: flat) slope. It also allowed him to get back up this slope using the automated floor matt.
Of course, there also was the obligatory fun in the snow with Lize, his niece.
On Tuesdays, he was shifted with several other children to form a group that was allowed on a bit steeper slope, where they had to climb back up themselves using a rope to stay upright and make it more likely the ascent would succeed without meeting the surface face down. There he further practiced making turns, gently skiing around sticks planted in the snow and to stop at the bottom of the rope.
The fourth day, he again had a different teacher, who taught them the intricacies of turning and sent back on kid who did not seem to understand the concept of shifting weight to a single leg and putting pressure there to make a turn (the poor fellar was Russian (I guess), and so he might have had a lot of difficulties understanding either English, Dutch or German). This was the only day with a clear sky and lots of sun, and we had lunch outside.
In the afternoon, they moved with 6 kids to a real slope, with a real (albeit very irritating (for adults)) lift. After classes we did a few extra practice runs, so Elias would be well prepared for the race on Thursday. It turned out that his race was scheduled immediately after the daily warmup dance.
And he did very well! Two kids (Elias and Holly) managed to make all the turns in the right way around the right flags, whereas the others — understandably, since they wanted to go fast — chose to ignore either flags or turns or went around the wrong side, thus helping them finish quicker (no penalty seconds were awarded 
. Elias got down in about 28 seconds. The real bonus of the day was when his teacher told us we could take him up the blue slope with the chairs lift. And so our skiing week ended in success! On Friday, in quite bad weather, we went up and took Elias down a blue slope, where he did very well. He fell down four or five times, and we skied for about 35 to 40 minutes.
In the locker room, we ran into Holly:
Due to the snowfall, there were already numerous small bumps, and 10 cm of fresh white powder. So we took it slowly, making sure he enjoyed himself. After lunch, I decided to go down another blue slope to finish the day. Halfway, he got a bit fed up with falling down, so it took us a bit longer than expected. But in the end, all was well (I did help him on the last part, as the slope was blue/black there, so a bit steeper than he was used to).
The last day, we checked out the town once more, buying some gifts and stuff for Elias and Nathan. I had planned on purchasing a pocket knife, but that money will now be spent on Munchkin Quest 
Riding back, we had to check out the news we missed:
