My first time sledding!

I made friends a couple of months ago with a couple who have lived in Switzerland for the last two or so years and since they have experienced a couple of Swiss winters, I decided to let them show me the art of sledding. We went up to Thyon which isn't all that far from where they live. We packed their car with sleds, lunch, a thermos full of vin chaud and their beautiful dog Tobias who has his very own (handmade by his Daddy) wooden box in the back of the car. Tobias is their baby! He goes EVERYWHERE with them and I don't use the word 'everywhere' lightly because he is a very well travelled pooch! When it's not winter, he gets his very own blue box on the back of my friends motorbike where he sits strapped in and enjoys the wind whooshing over his floppy ears.

He even gets to sit on a blanket on a sled to keep him up off the snow.

Before we headed off with our sleds to the hills, we enjoyed a packed lunch of sandwiches and a toasty, vin chaud to warm us up before we tumbled in the snow. Thyon has a really long sled run which takes you a fair way down the mountain so myself, Annabelle and Mr Tobias set off with our sleds down the run. The sled run wasn't quite what we were expecting since it was the start of the snow season and no one had used it yet, it was covered in a deep layer of powdery snow which wasn't very good for sledding. So instead of zooming down the mountain to meet Robert who drove down to meet us and take us back up the top, we trudged through the deep snow with Tobias gamboling down the hill in front of us. What was meant to be a quick and fun slide down the track turned into a long (50 mins) trudge. 

The long and unkept sled track didn't dampen our spirits, we hopped in the car and headed back up the mountain and decided to have some fun on the beginner ski runs with our sleds. I was learning the art of how to control a sled that is zooming down the hill. The key is to stick your foot in the snow when you want to turn - right foot for turning right and left foot to turn left. Take this advice lightly since it's really hard to keep a crazed sled under control when it's hurtling down a hill. We soon discovered that a cheap, plastic sled is more fun than a nice, wooden sled since you really can't control the cheap, plastic sleds which makes the trip down the hill just that little bit more exciting.

Trying to keep Tobias warm by keeping him off the snow.

Whilst I was having a break from running up the hill after sledding down it, I entertained myself by throwing snowballs up in the air for my furry friend to catch them and eat them.

After the novelty wore off from sledding and we were utterly exhausted from running up the hill, we headed to an Irish pub for a beer. This little gem of a pub has a HUGE selection of beers and my favourite - Belgian Framboise beer.

They also had a toasty bière chaud - hot, spiced Kriek beer. Since we were a little apprehensive to order it, the owner brought out a taster for us which convinced Annabelle.

Waiting patiently as we sipped our well deserved beverages.

I thoroughly enjoyed sledding! I am going to keep my eyes open for a cheap, plastic sled to buy so that anytime I spy a hill of snow, I can jump on my sled and hurtle down it. If only Brisbane had winters like these!