Day 2 of the late November snowfall in Vienna! Most of the city didn’t get as much snow as we did. Since we’re on the outskirts, a little higher up we tend to get more snow (and less wind, thankfully). We hiked over to the Roterberg, the nearby hill, which is just about .5km away. Here we are trying to pack down the snow to start out the run. It didn’t work…but the kids liked it.
Carrying the kids back up hill after attempting to pack some of the snow down.
Oliver was really excited to put his skis on. It always takes lots of positive reinforcement (and gummy bears) with kids because skis feel so funny when you first put them on. It takes awhile to get your balance. One thing we forgot to do was show the kids some ski films before going to the park. Really, it actually gets them pumped up and makes them feel like they can do anything.
As it was, Oliver was vacillating from extreme excitment and giggling to absolute fear. That’s the frustrating part, so you have to just try to be positive and provide simple instruction, with a lot of hands on. The hill is actually quite big, and the first few times I just held his skis and crawled down backwards with him. He liked that, as you can tell in the picture.
Then where the bottom flattened out a bit, we tried pushing him along. He was usually ok, and if the snow was groomed he’d really be a lot better. The powder made it really hard for him.
Elora too. She had forgotten almost everything from last year it seems. And she has new skis now, which might feel a bit different.
Oliver and Elora took turns waiting while Daddy got to help them go down the hill and then carry them back up.
Here’s Oliver trying to sit down. It seems the hardest thing is to keep the kids from sitting down. Your natural tendency is to lean backwards, but that either hurts your legs or makes you fall over.
Here’s Ollie being silly.
Elora started cruising along for little stretches at a time, and then would turn off into the powder and get stuck. 
The long walk back up after each “run”.
Here’s Ollie just hanging out and drinking some cold water while he waits for his turn. He got really excited to go every time he saw Elora going fast.
After a few tries Elora got a little better, but she still doesn’t remember how to turn. So we’ll have to keep practicing before ski school in January (assuming we go on a big trip again this year)
Marching back up to the top with Ollie…
Elora hanging out down below.
Elora’s favorite part was when she’d run out of downhill to ski on and she’d ask me to push her along another 100 yards or so. It was fun on the way “down”.
But not on the way back! Skiing is a lot of work with kids…. lots of stuff to carry around, plus you have to carry the kids, unless you don’t mind them whining and crying that they’re too tired to walk!
