FollowWe have lots of fun curling, and we even take part in the village tournaments. Our problem is that we’ve never been taught how to gracefully slide along the ice and release the stone in one, fluid motion. We want to learn how to do this, so 5 of us have engaged Giger, who is the village curling guru. Here’s what we aspire to:
To begin with we use 2 stones for stability. Under Paul’s left shoe is a very slippery pad to help him slide when he pushes off with his right foot.
We have a few goes at this and we get used to the sliding sensation. We then replace the extra stone with a broom. This makes things even more wobbly.
The idea is to push off, holding onto the stone whilst using the broom for support. The stone is released when its speed is thought appropriate for it to reach the ‘house’ at the other end of the rink. The longer you hang on to the stone, the shorter the distance that it will travel. Here goes.
As with so many things, it’s a lot more difficult than it looks.
This morning the storm has returned, so we head down to the valley for a walk. New snack van at the Schilthornbahn selling veggie snacks and noodle soup. The cable car up to the Schilthorn is closed today, so the van is doing a roaring trade.
The farm cat spots us from across the meadow and comes bounding over to join us on our walk.
Ski lift at the campsite. Snow required.
