The next morning everyone was amazed. There had been a good 50 cm of fresh snow. Everything looked like it had been wrapped in cotton wool or thickly powdered. The fir trees had a thick layer of snow on their branches and every now and then snow fell from branches.
Alvaro stood at the window for a long time. It was like being in a fairy tale with the thickly snow-covered forest that you could see from the house.
They ate breakfast quickly because they couldn't wait to come out on the slopes. When everyone was done, they hurried to the lift. The sun was shining again and nothing in the sky reminded of the heavy snowfalls from the night.
Alvaro had seen that his car was now completely buried under the snow, but Ramiro's and Roberto's car had also gotten a thick sight of snow, although they were still being driven the evening before and were completely free.
The slopes were prepared, here and there you could still see the snow vehicles smoothing the slopes.
When they all drove down the first slope, they were all thrilled. Ramiro praised everyone beyond measure, especially the beginners had all made very good progress in the short time. Juanma and Alvaro wanted to ski the black run with Ramiro and Roberto. A total of four times they drove down the slope and tried to make races. Ramiro was a very safe and good skier and demanded everything from the guys.
They met the others again, who had meanwhile also driven a slope alone, but had come back to the meeting point. Zoe and Juanma stayed close together. Clara was still looking for Zoe's company because they were on the same level by now. It was a lot of fun for everyone. There was less going on at the hut because the week had started again and the locals who lived there had to go back to work.
They were enjoying a bit of the sun, and Alvaro looked over the map with Ramiro. They had chosen a different lap that was a bit more demanding.
They went off again. The sun was quite strong, so everyone was warm. They enjoyed the panorama and often stopped to soak up the sight.
Many pictures were taken in front of the snow-capped mountains. On one of the slopes, Juanma waited a moment until everyone was far below. Then he drove off, braked just before the group and splashed a lot of snow on the others while braking. They laughed and started again.
As the afternoon drew to a close, Ramiro looked at his watch and said, "We should go back or we'll miss the last lift."
The sun disappeared behind the mountain peaks and bathed everything in red and gold light. It looked great, but it also got cooler and everyone tightened their jackets again.
During the day a bit of the new snow had melted away and at least the outlines of ALvaro's car could be seen again.
"Tomorrow I'll have sore muscles," said Zoe and laughed.
"A hot shower helps," said Juanma and took her in his arms.
"I'll do that in a minute," Zoe replied and returned the hug.
The boys cleared away all the skis and Gaspar began to clear the cars.
"Why are you doing that?" asked Alvaro.
"I think someone will have to go shopping afterwards, we'll need a car." he laughed. "I also enjoy working with snow.
"You can have that," Alvaro shouted with a laugh and formed a snowball. Juanma and Ramiro joined them, attracted by the laughter of the two. Ramiro put his finger to his lips and crept around the car, behind which Alvaro was standing. He approached Alvaro from behind and rubbed two hands full of snow on his face. Alvaro snorted and when Ramiro turned around and wanted to leave, he threw the snowball he was holding back into his neck. In the meantime Juanma had bombarded Gaspar with snowballs. When Mia and Zoe showed up, Alvaro picked Mia up and tried to plunge her into the deeper snow. Gaspar came to his aid under snowball fire from Juanma and when Mia was still shouting "Juanma Papa help me" she had already fallen into the deep snow. Clara and Lupe had stood at the open door with Isabel and were laughing. Mia formed a snowball and, laughing, tossed it towards the front door, which Isabel slammed shut with her presence of mind.
They raved in the snow for a while while Isabel made a shopping list with the two girls. Then she came out with the note. "Who of you goes shopping?" she asked.
Alvaro said "I'll do this" but Roberto seemed to be there too. "I need practice in the snow, come on, let's drive my car."
The two and Juanma quickly took off the wet clothes and got into the cars.
"We need water too," Isabel called after them, then they were gone.
The others took a shower and put on warm dry clothes. Gaspar turned on the fireplace in Alvaro and the others' apartment because they all wanted to eat there again. The girls cleared the dishwasher and set the table.
When everything was ready, Zoe and Mia wanted to get Lupe so they could help Isabel upstairs. When they looked out onto the terrace, they saw Gaspar and Lupe, arm in arm, admiring the sunset. Mia had to smile. "Who would have thought that," she said softly.
