The Chinese team really showed their mettle and outperformed the foreigners.
Today, due to training, the Chinese group took off an hour later than the other two groups of four foreigners, but they ended up skiing more runs than them. The foreign group only managed 12 runs, while the Chinese group completed 13. Originally, the company had “mixed in some sand,” placing a foreigner in the Chinese group—a retired architect from Hong Kong named Eric. According to Liu Xiaoshan: “He was panting after just one run, felt so embarrassed he went home without even having lunch.” In the afternoon, they added a young girl from the Czech Republic who was also snowboarding—she was really good and fast—but the Chinese group skied even faster. Often, just as the guide stopped, Feifei, right behind, would catch up, and Liu Xiaoshan, bringing up the rear, would also reach the guide’s side within 10 seconds, frequently making sharp turns that sent up walls of snow spray. Quite the show-off.
Gaofeng got carried away with the excitement. By the time the guide entered the woods, he had already skied ahead to a nearby area and chose the opposite direction, ending up several hundred meters away on the outer edge. The guide had to call in the helicopter for an aerial search before finally leading a team down to find him. It wasn’t until dinner time that he even found out what had happened.
The weather was great today—sunny with excellent visibility. The helicopters mostly landed at the mountain top around 3,000 meters high. We skied across many open areas with big vertical drops, steep slopes exceeding 35 degrees, powder snow 30–50 centimeters deep, and temperatures as low as minus 16 degrees. The snow quality was outstanding—very dry and smooth—which added tons of fun to skiing the steeps and through the trees. Even the guide Rob was inspired by the speed of the Chinese team. In the morning, he’d stop every 200 meters to wait for the group, but in the afternoon, he basically led the way, skiing all the way to the boarding point with barely any stops, and at a very fast pace. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have pulled off the impressive feat of completing more runs than the foreign group despite taking off an hour later.
Gaofeng makes a proud appearance
A canyon with just one set of ski tracks
The grass is always greener on the other hill
Feifei's lunch
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