silleren hike and sled day

18/2/15

Rachael and I were in charge of running the program Silleren Hike and Sled Day today for the group of Guides staying with us.  We met for our program meeting at 8.30, where we planned the day and ran through what we had to do and where we would be going. Jen gave us the program phones, sign out sheets, maps and money for gondola tickets.  We didn't have to start the hike until 10 am so Rachael and I went back to Stockli and joined Sarah for some fried eggs on toast. I cooked the eggs and Rachael did the washing up and Sarah sat there looking pretty.

At ten we met the Guides between Spycher and Main Chalet before heading off.  We ran through the plan of the day, hiking protocol, and did an equipment check.  Once everyone had had five mins to grab extra things and everyone grabbed a sledge we set off. 

First we hiked down to Oey gondola station.  Rachael bought enough day passes so each of the guests could catch the gondola and the chair lift up to the top of the mountain.

After this we continued hiking up past the gondola station along the side of a blue ski run until we came to the adventure park.  There, after some messing about, we managed to get everyone through

the gates and onto the chairlifts with all the sleds and backpacks etc.  At the top messed about some more and got everyone onto the gondola to the top of Silleren.

Because the sled run doesn't open until 1 pm and we arrived at the top of the mountain at 12.15 we stopped for lunch for 45 mins. 

We met at one and ran through how to use a sled, how to steer, brake and accelerate before heading down the run.  The first run we all did together before splitting up at the bottom to go faster or slower.  Rachael and I alternated so we both had a turn sledging until Rachael had had enough, so I just kept going down. I think at one point I did the entire run in just over 15 mins.

Katrina with her dirty dishes tower

At 4 pm exactly we all met and jumped back on the gondola to Oey.  Jen picked up the sleds from the gondola station whilst we all hiked up the hill.  The worst thing about the day is that ruddy hill!

Dinner was cottage pie and meringues with cream and berries for dessert.  As I was on program we swapped before dessert with the Guest Services people and they did the evening program, WAGGGS Night and program peeps did kitchen clean up!

rachael's birthday

31/1/15

 Today I have to wish Rachael a happy 23rd birthday!!

Lots of the events of today happened as a result of it being Rachael's birthday, but I will get to those in a minute.  After morning meeting, we started our jobs for the day.  I was on cleaning bathrooms... yayyy.. We helped Katrina with stock take of the shop for January by counting the postcards in cupboards (omg we have over 6,000 postcards).

Ana made lunch at 12:30.  She had prepared nachos and pizza bread. I had to teach her how to make nachos because she had never made them before.  They turned out really well!

After lunch and lunch clean up, we had 'Snow Patrol' at 2 pm.  Snow Patrol is when all the volunteers who are working, meet up with Migue and clean up the walkways and carpark areas of snow.  We spend most of the time chipping away at the ice.  Today we focused on the path from the Main Chalet to Stockli, and the car-park between Main Chalet and Spycher.

Rachaels friend's, Alice and Annie, arrived on the 2:54 bus.  They were staying with us for a couple of days to visit Rachael.  Rachael had requested 2 things for her birthday - to play party games (preferably a treasure hunt) and a rainbow cake.  At 3:30 we met in the kitchen of Stockli for the first of those two requests - the treasure hunt.  Sarah had prepared a treasure hunt which took us all over the Chalet, from the freezer (where the clue was frozen in a bucket of ice) to the Main Chalet attic eaves.  Eventually the clues lead to the flag pole which was where our final treasure was hidden. Sarah had buried the treasure two days before... and quite a bit of snow had fallen since then.  Rachael had to dig out the treasure with a snow shovel.  Inside was our 'bounty' and the birthday hat for Rachael to wear.

 

Finding the clues in the attic

 

Digging out our 'bounty'!

After we found our 'bounty', we headed back to Stockli for cake! It was definitely a team effort for the cake though - Ana had made the batter, Katrina had made the butter cream to cover and put inside the cake and I made the plastic (fondant) icing decorations on the top.  It was a rainbow cake, as requested, with the feminist symbol and '23', again as requested!  Rachael got very excited about the fact I had found the feminist symbol all by myself and that the cake was a rainbow.  Well as rainbow as we could get with our limited resources.  

Dinner was Cottage pie with Peaches and Cream for dessert.  We didn't start cooking until late and for a while we were worried that the meal would be late.  But in the end we were on time; as per tradition, we got out the pots and pans and the tea cozies.  We had previously decided that we would sing before dinner instead of before dessert, because Rachael wouldn't be expecting it then!  During dinner it started to snow heavily.  Katrina, Sarah and I decided that we would complete another 2 points of our staff challenge by sledding down Hohliebeweg (the Chalet hill) at night time.  It was quite a hard walk up to the top of the hill, at some points the snow was up to our waist and never below our knees when we weren't on the road.  We walked right up to the top of the hill, almost to where the restaurant. From there we sledged down to the Chalet drive way.  It was snowing quite heavily whilst we went down and there were a few times I ran into the piles of snow on the side of the road!  

night sledding

24/1/15

Today was my second day off.  My original plan was to go skiing again but after my full day yesterday I decided that I needed a day off and a break. 

So my lazy day: I didn't get up until 9:30 and I didn't shower or get dressed until just after 11.  Lunch was at 12:30 and then I came back to Stockli and chilled.   I watched some tv, read my book, made tea... a typical lazy day. 

At 4 pm Katrina and I got ready to head out. Tonight was the staff social night sledding on Tschenten and we had decided we would skip dinner and head up early to watch the sun set.  We left at 4.30 hiking down the hill into Oey to catch the gondola into town.  From town we caught another gondola up to the top of Tschenten.  It was quite foggy in town and I had hoped we would rise above it and have this spectacular veiw... unfortunately we didn't. Instead we just rose higher into fog.  So we didn't get to see the sunset; all we could see was the sun as a bright light in the distance.  

 

Apple Punch to keep us warm!

At 7 pm the other staff members Chloe,  Victoria, Mara, Jen, Tanya, Danielle, Rachael and Charlotte joined us at the top for night sledding. 

The ski people had lit up the three sledding runs down Tschenten.  It was still quite foggy when we first went down, which made it quite hard to see.   The lights ended up being just like obs or moons in the distant fog.  Charlotte likened the fog to the fog from Stephen King's book gone movie "The Mist".  When the chair lifts passed it was almost like a monster coming at you, you couldn't see them until they were basically next to you!

We got three runs in before the fog became so bad you couldn't see 20 m infront of you.  We waited at the top of the chair lift for everyone else and then headed back down and home to the Chalet.  Victoria and Chloe climbed onto the town fountain for a photo for their Staff Challenge for 'this season'!  Because they had done the 'normal' staff challenge before they have a special one, but it still has 'climb onto the town fountain to take a photo'.  Jen managed to do one of her challenges on her staff challenge today too - 'try nine different modes of transport in under 24hrs'.  I think she had walked, snowboarded, driven the van, rode in a car, ski-boked, sledded, gondola'd, chair lifted and one more which I can't remember!

  

Chloe's hair had frozen!

After putting away the sleds and skiboks, we all stripped off the layers and got into pjs.  Apparently it was -7 outside, no wonder we had all been so cold! Chloe made custard and Victoria made bread and butter pudding from some of the leftover gingerbread and the stale bread we had.  

staff program training

22/1/15

We met Jen at 8 am in the T-bar for our mid term evaluations.  We discussed our time here and our goals that we had set at our first evaluations. We stayed with Jen until 9.45 am.

At 10 am, Chloe met us to take us on our hike and sled day.  We were learning how to run the Silleren hike and sled day for the next lot of big guests during February. 

We all go sleds and headed down the hill to Oey.  Chloe bought a pass for Ana, the only one of us to not have a season pass.  Then we hiked past the gondola up a ski run which runs right down to Oey.  along the way we saw some really nice icicles... yes I ate one...

Eating an Icicle

Hiking along the Ski Run

We hiked up to the adventure park.  In summer they hike up here and do activities such adventures the high ropes course or bungee jumping. 

From there we caught a rickety old chair lift up to the second gondola station.  From there we caught the gondola up to the top of Silleren.  We chilled around and had lunch as the sled run didn't open until 1 pm.

We had three runs in total down the sled run, eat run took 30-40 mins... it was a long run! It wound from the top of Silleren to the second gondola station.  Then we would catch the gondola back to the top and go again. At one point, I may have reversed off the run and ended up lying in the snow.  I was taking a nap!

 

Hiking up the Hill

At about ten past three we took the gondola back down the hill to Oey and then we hiked back up the hill back to the Chalet.  Hiking up the hill with a sled makes me appreciate hiking up without sled. 

When we got back I had a much required shower and break until dinner.   Danielle and Ana made dinner, so Charlotte, Rachael and I were on clean up.  We danced!