Season 3 ✔️

And as the kids say these days “just like that, the season was over already”.

We were flat out instructing and the old legs were wanting a rest but opportunities kept presenting themselves to escape Furano and go ski different resorts,  so the legs just had to suffer whilst we enjoyed days off riding with friends.

We visited Canmore resort with Andy and Jas. A tiny little resort that thought of itself as Canadian  (there is a Canmore in BC or Alberta) and played Beatles songs continuously over the tannoy.  The runs were a good pitch for carving so we all had great fun speeding about.   Makes you realise how slowly you are going most days at work.   The lunch hall was a poly tunnel ( greenhouse) and we had the longest chips 🍟  ever.

Next up was a return to Tomamu but with different friends. It was a sunny day so we could see where all the offpiste/trees ended up this time but sadly the snow was quite hard so we ended up sticking to the groomers, which was another speedy carving session. Brian, Dan, Flor and Taron had all been on the same level 2 exam in NZ 2 years ago.

Then we revisited Kamui Ski Links with Andy and Jas. Another bluebird day a mix of speedy pistes and some nice tree runs filled the morning but after lunch the heat made for slow snow so we returned back to Furano and tried a new burger place which filled the hole nicely.

Then it was all about leaving doo’s  🙁   It’s sad as the team starts to head off but we had a few fun nights out and a pretty messy karaoke night ( ¥2,500 each for all you can drink for 2 hours + some nibbles like fries, edamame, smoked duck and cheese sticks – so about a tenner !!! )

There was a last flurry of snow with about 15cm overnight.  This led us to have two last mornings in Furano seeking out the powder between the trees.  It was mostly fab – a bit scary when we found ourselves above a glide crack – but we manged to climb back up and board around it to safety.

Then it was our turn to leave. After a fairly frantic day of packing, cleaning, paperwork to deregister at the townhall etc we sneaked to Curry Doxon which we’d tried to go to several times but it always had a queue of 30mins plus !!!!!  We got straight in this time to find they only have seating for 15 people !!   The food was amazing though and their homemade smoked bacon was 😋😋😋

A few beers in Kay”s music bar in happy hour and that was it, season finished.

Kojima,  one of the FISS owners inspected the flat, returned the deposit and dropped us at the station.  The next adventure starts here 😎

We both had some lovely students this season. Polite, keen to learn, interesting to chat to on the lifts and so thankful for the improvements they all felt 😍   One of Pete’s last students did the usual high 5 at the end of the lesson, oblgatory selfie with coach and then says “Is it OK if I hug you?” 😘

So Whoever said skiing was a relaxing holiday 🫣😇