Matt texted me shortly after leaving for work on the first week of January to say "go look at Mt. Etna". I crept out on our frigid balcony will bare feet and pjs and saw this.
That didn't bode too well for our hopes of sledding the next week. Sure enough, the next day it didn't look so snow covered anymore. Then over the weekend we got a big rain storm which meant snow on the mountain and so we went for it yesterday.
We left home with the sun shining and just a few little clouds hanging out by the mountain. We rented a few sleds from base and drove up. We were bundled as well as we could. We had coats, scarves, hats, cotton gloves, tennis shoes. But it was a bright beautiful day. The snow wasn't the best. It was measured in inches rather than feet and you had to watch out for sharp black rocks that could splinter sleds and kids. (We learned later that the north side had over 10 feet of snow! We were on the south.) You can see from the pictures that it got more cloudy, then foggy and eventually started snowing a bit. We lasted a couple/few hours before breaking for hot chocolate. After that break, and drying of gloves by the heater, Isaac and Jess wanted to go a bit more. It was REALLY hard to see by then and they didn't last long. We drove back down and found the sun.
Apparently it had been going on for hours we learned from Upatissa. After the sun rose and the kids went out to look it was spewing ash. There was a column of ash reaching miles into the sky.
(courtesy of Matt's phone.)
That didn't bode too well for our hopes of sledding the next week. Sure enough, the next day it didn't look so snow covered anymore. Then over the weekend we got a big rain storm which meant snow on the mountain and so we went for it yesterday.
We left home with the sun shining and just a few little clouds hanging out by the mountain. We rented a few sleds from base and drove up. We were bundled as well as we could. We had coats, scarves, hats, cotton gloves, tennis shoes. But it was a bright beautiful day. The snow wasn't the best. It was measured in inches rather than feet and you had to watch out for sharp black rocks that could splinter sleds and kids. (We learned later that the north side had over 10 feet of snow! We were on the south.) You can see from the pictures that it got more cloudy, then foggy and eventually started snowing a bit. We lasted a couple/few hours before breaking for hot chocolate. After that break, and drying of gloves by the heater, Isaac and Jess wanted to go a bit more. It was REALLY hard to see by then and they didn't last long. We drove back down and found the sun.
That's me trying to stay on the sled.
Below is Makenna on her sled, me standing by here and Jess having just crashed and trying to make it back up again.
Isaac is at the very top of this hill wearing blue.
Jess getting set, Makenna waiting her turn.
Makenna had the least number of crashes and made it all the way down most consistently.
Isaac spent a chunk of time building a jump, but he started so far up the hill that it was hard to hit it.
That's me jumping out of the way after marking where the jump was. Isaac aimed for me, then hit the jump sideways.
Another spectacular spill.
Girls setting up. Jess had a lot of spills but loved every minute. She did have one amazing run and set the family record for the longest ride.
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