Fuji-san

Add one to the list of skiing Putaansuu's. William is now officially skiing and is showing some typical Putaansuu traits such as skiing straight down the mountain. He may know how to turn, but doesn't really like to.

We were skiing at Yeti, which is a small ski area close to Camp Fuji where we were staying for the weekend and is actually on the shoulder of Mt. Fuji. It really is a small area with just three chairs, four runs, a beginner slope with magic carpet and a sledding area. The most difficult area would be rated a blue square in the states, though I didn't see any signs indicating the difficulty of a slope here. With the short gentle slopes, it was a nice place to teach William to ski.

On Saturday, we spent the morning at the bottom of the beginner slope pulling William 30 or so feet up the hill, setting him in a wedge, and sending him down the hill. Each time, he did a little better holding the wedge, but there were many falls and frustrations. He was intent, though. He may have been upset, but he wanted drug up the hill to try it again! We eventually called it a day with some minor success in holding a wedge, but no real progress toward stopping or turning. William sledded a bit in the afternoon while I took some runs around the rest of the hillside with others in our group.

We took Sunday off and just hung around the Camp Fuji Inn. William's legs were really sore from the work-out. His calves were hard as stone and big! He requested massages and we felt guilty enough to oblige. We were concerned with the crowds on Sunday being in the way to learning. It apparently wasn't too bad but it was a bit icy and windy.

On Monday, we headed back up. It had snowed over night, so the way up was a bit slick. We actually had to put chains on. There was no nice turnout or other designated chain up area for this. We got stuck on a hill as our car's traction control rolled the car to a stop. We got out and put the chains on (Caroline held the box with instructions written in Kanji and pictures, while I wrestled the Japanese style chains onto the wheels.) Luckily, traffic was light, but it was a bit nerve wracking being in the traffic lane while putting chains on. The chains got us over the hill and onto the side road that takes us to Yeti. That road was plowed clean. If I remember right the road we got stuck on wasn't a toll road, but the clean one was... I guess I know where some of the money goes. The picture here is me taking the chains off. Didn't want you to think that I'd put on chains on just wet pavement.

The work was worth it though. I got William onto the beginner slope and drug him up the 30 feet. I asked him to get into a wedge. On Saturday, he was pretty weak at getting the skis out in a wedge. Today, he pressed them right into place. We talked about how to dig them in to stop and we let him go. His wedge was perfect all the way down and even stopped short of the bottom. We tried it a couple more times and then we talked about turning by pressing one shin into the boot. He did a left turn on the first try and repeated with a right turn. We took the magic carpet up to the top of the bunny slope and let him go and he controlled his descent all the way down the hill, avoiding others, to a safe stop at the bottom. Caroline cheered from the lodge, and I raced down to give him a big bear hug. We were so proud.

After that we decided to try the big runs with the chair lifts. He did really well and frankly giggled with joy on the steeper sections. He mostly flies straight down the mountain in a flying wedge. We did stop to do a lesson on turns. I carved out two connected turns for him to follow. He did two incredibly carved turns, right in my tracks, and then headed straight down the hill. Not sure if we should call him Wild Will, or Bombing Billy...