A near death experience... Dumdumdum!

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August 11th 2010

Published: August 11th 2010

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sophieannalie

Bus of (near) death

This is where our bus ground to a halt

So, as I have probably mentioned earlier, the snow last week was pretty crap. Mainly because it fell as rain, which is a bit trickier to ski on. (You try skiing in a slush puppy and we'll see how you like it). But on Saturday morning I woke up and, hallelujah, it was snowing. So, me and Carly got dressed in record time (partly as the temperature had dropped again so the only way to get changed is to do it like you're changing in the toilets and you want to get dressed before anyone walks in and wonders why you're standing around in your underwear). So we headed off up to the Remarkables as this mountain is higher up so the snow would be better and they have the best off piste.
By 2 we were freezing and you couldn't see your hand in front of your face so we gave up and came home - more my fault than Carlys, she grew up in a ski resort in Canada so doesn't really seem to be that put out by snow blindness and piles of powder. I am easily put off by snow blindness, especially when flying through the air

Carly

and landing upside down... I lost my ski's half way through said fall but some lovely snowboarder found them and brought them down to me. I think he was quite grateful that he didn't have to start searching for their owner down the side of the hill! This, however, was NOT my near death experience... Dumdumdum...

So we caught the bus down the mountain. By this time about 4 inches had fallen so they put chains on the front tyres and we set off. The road down from the mountain is similar to the roads you get in Northern Italy, i.e. very steep and cut into the cliff face. About 15 mins into the bus journey the back of the bus started swaying wildly, cue synchronised seatbelt fastening, the driver was trying to break but had no traction and the bus ended up spinning round and jack-knifing, stopping about a metre from the road edge (see photo below if it works...). People were screaming and when the bus stopped the speed that everyone managed to get off the bus was amazing, especially if you consider that we were all in ski boots.
One woman got so excited about getting

Carly and Me

please bear in mind my silly skin...

off the bus that she fell over and broke her leg!

So we then had to spend an hour standing in a blizzard while they first got an ambulance for poor Megan (you have to feel sorry for her, she did seem to be in a lot of pain and it must have been very cold lying in the snow, though to be honest I'd have got up and lain across the back seat of one of the many many cars in the traffic jam behind us, her leg didn't look that bad...) and for them to fit chains to the rest of the bus's tyres. When they had finally finished this one very enthusiastic resort rep informed us that 'we could get on the bus and they'll turn it round and we can go home'. We pointed out to him that they could turn the bus round and then we would get on the bus!

After that the rest of the ride was pretty uneventful, except the woman behind me who screamed at every corner (not helpful) and almost burst into tears when we stopped to take off the tyres below snow level (so thick as well

Walking the plank...

as delicate...)
Oh! they did give us a free bar of Cadbury's to cheer us up - is it bad that I am so easily bought???

The rest of the week has been spent enjoying the snow, falling over and generally just larking around. We went to a pub quiz last night where the 'quizmaster' couldn't pronounce Mississippi, and seemed genuinely surprised by her own answers... Not the brightest crayon in the pencil case.

Additional photos below

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