"I just want to check, Ash, are you sure this is the best way to do it?" Kukui asked. "It'll definitely work, I just want to make sure."

"Yeah, I think it's fine," Ash decided. "Right, Nebby?"

"Right!" Nebby agreed, nodding firmly. "I need practice at making Ultra Wormholes!"

"In that case, let's get moving with Agility!" Kukui said.

He turned to the class. "All right, everyone! We're going to Mount Lanakila today, and Nebby's agreed to give us a lift! Mount Lanakila is the tallest mountain in Alola, and it's on Ula'Ula island. It's also where the egg that hatched into Snowy was found, so for at least one of our little group it's going to be like going home."

"That sounds nice," Snowy said.

"And, while we're there, we'll be learning about several things," Kukui told them. "Firstly, there's how to stay warm in cold environments – and don't worry if it takes a while, we've got things set up for that. Then there's the difficult things about moving and battling in the cold, but once that's done we'll be doing something else entirely."

He twirled his finger in the air. "We'll be doing a Sled Jump tournament!"

"I've heard of that, but I've never actually done one before," Kiawe admitted. "Huh, I wonder which of my Pokémon would be better at helping with that…"

While he wondered, Ash was checking Zygarde's cold weather gear, then stood up and turned to Nebby.

"You've got Sunsteel Strike ready, right?" he checked, getting a nod, and slotted the Solganium Z into his Z-ring. "Let's go!"

He struck the Z-move poses for the Steel-type, and Nebby blew a hole in the universe.

"Hmm," he said, peering through and sniffing. "Yes, I think that's going to the right place."

Mallow put her hand up. "I know it's obvious, but I want to point out that in our old classes we didn't make wormholes for school trips. It meant we had to actually go there."

"What a massive waste of time," Nebby said, flicking his tail. "If you're going somewhere for the journey, that's all right, but if you're going somewhere for the destination it's all kinds of boring at once!"

"Hey, it's not all kinds of boring," Ash pointed out. "Just some!"

"Oh, yeah," Nebby agreed, then lay down. "All aboard!"

"Okay, so, it's cold!" Ash told them, as the class leaned back against the massive white flank of their friendly neighbourhood Solgaleo for warmth. "And that's something you need to think about, first for yourself and second for your Pokémon. For you, it's because it's easy to lose track of how much energy you're using in the cold, especially if you're not wrapped up warm… but what you really don't want to do is work hard and then stop, because that means you sweat and then all that water gets really cold."

He patted down the cold weather clothes he was wearing. "My friend Dawn's mom got me these back when I visited Sinnoh, which was really nice of her, but it's always worth thinking about. And it's usually best to make sure you've got at least one Pokémon with you that doesn't mind the cold much for one reason or another – that way, if you get in trouble, your Pokémon can help you out."

"And there's lots of reasons why a Pokémon might not mind the cold," Lokoko said.

"Exactly," Ash agreed. "There's lots of reasons, but you can't just assume any Pokémon won't have trouble with the cold. Ice-types are almost always great at coping with it, while Fire-types are usually warm enough to handle themselves unless it's really, really cold or they're quite small, but even with them you need to think about it. Pay attention to the Pokémon you have with you and make sure you know if they're struggling… and that goes double for Pokémon like Grass or Dragon types, because they're weak to ice. A lot of Pokémon of any type are able to cope in most weather better than you are, if they're in good shape, but never take it for granted."

Ash sent out Croconaw, who did a bow. "Now, if you're going to battle somewhere it's cold, there's a few things to watch out for. First, your Pokémon can end up tiring out faster than normal… secondly, there's usually snow, and if you can't tell what's underneath the snow that could cause problems. You don't want your Pokémon to run into a rock hidden under the snow by mistake."

Lana winced. "Yeah. Ouch?"

"And one of the things it's especially important to look out for is ice," Ash said, as Croconaw began dancing around away from Pikachu's zaps. "Croconaw here is paying a lot of attention to what Pikachu's doing, but he's deliberately not paying attention to the ground, so-"

Croconaw's foot came down on a patch of ice, and he slipped. Being Croconaw, he twisted in mid-air to turn it into a Triple Axel, and came down on one knee with both arms spread.

"Tada!" he announced.

"Right," Ash agreed. "Slipping on ice is something you can recover from, or cope with, but you need to know it might happen. Because Pikachu's in mid-air he doesn't have to worry about it, but if it was colder he might need to worry about the water in his Surf-board freezing during the battle."

He nodded at Kiawe. "It's especially something Fire-types need to watch out for in really cold weather, because they can melt something and it can freeze over during the battle itself. At the same time, watch out, because melting ice can make something get less stable, and you really don't want to be inside an avalanche…"

Once the talk about the cold and snow was over, and everyone was dressed up in their warm weather gear, the Sled Jump training and competition could get started.

"I hope we're going to see some great Sled Jumps today," the Sled Jump Master said. "There's a prize for the first place!"

"How do you enter this competition?" asked a voice from next to him. "Hoopa wishes to know if you are discriminating against Hoopa! Or Pokémon."

"It's a Pokémon Sled Jump Competition," the Master replied, looking to his left. "Why? Do you want to take part?"

"Hoopa wants to take part!" Hoopa agreed. "Hoopa wants to take part in a very specific way. Vicariously!"

Hoopa took a ring off their horn. "Allez Hoopa-ring!"

Gold poked their head through another Hoopa-Ring. "You did remember to ask if they were interested first, right?"

"Hoopa did something like that," Hoopa answered. "Hoopa assumes."

"Well, they'll have to go in the queue like everyone else," the Master decided. "Let's see who's first."

"Let's go, Pikachu!" Ash said, pushing off. "Remember, we need a big boost to get a good jump!"

"Got it!" Pikachu replied, cheeks sparking. "Hey, why don't we make it even bigger!"

"Sure!" Ash agreed, getting out his Z-ring. "Ready?"

Pikachu's cheeks sparked, while behind Ash Marshadow quietly dove out of the sled.

"Oh, and that's definitely an impressive performance!" the Master said. "That's the best jump time I've seen in forty years!"

He shaded his eyes. "It's a shame it went backwards."

"Hoopa is already amused and that is a bit that Hoopa did not even help with!" Hoopa announced, opening another Hoopa-ring to get some popcorn. "Oh, and it looks like Regigigas and Regice are next!"

Five minutes later, everyone sort of mutually decided to just skip Regigigas for now.

Lillie went next, and Snowy used a combination of Hail and her new Aurora Veil to create a rainbow-coloured swirl around the two of them. That was followed by a Powder Snow, managing to help them land just right, and they slid to a halt in a cloud of snowy mist.

"That was great!" Lillie told Snowy, rubbing a glove along her back. "It reminded me a bit of that project with the Contest performance we did before."

Snowy yipped, then they listened to the Sled Jump Master, who said that it was an excellent use of a technique he'd seen people using for fifty years.

"Oh," Lillie sighed. "Well, I hope we do well anyway."

"Piix!" Snowy said, with a firm nod.

"Oh, hi Ash!" Iris waved, behind Regigigas. "I didn't realize you were here. Are you next?"

"We already did our run," Pikachu replied, shaking his head. "Oh well."

"Yeah, it's just something to work on," Ash said. "I'm not in the queue, so you should go ahead."

"Huh," Iris frowned. "Shouldn't you be down there, though?"

"No, turns out our boosted Z move is a bit harder to aim than we were expecting," Ash replied. "My jump didn't go great."

"It happens," Iris said. "It took me two tries to beat the Striaton Gym because I forgot to be ready specifically for Cilan, you know how it is… the Vertress Conference is coming up soon and I'm only one badge short!"

She sent out Zekrom, then recalled him, then sent out a Dragapult.

"All three of us this time," one of the Dreepy said, and Iris recalled them before trying again.

This time she got White Kyurem, gave a thumbs-up, and jumped into the back of the sled.

"Let's go!" she said. "Ice Burn on my mark!"

"I haven't seen such a good combination attack of two different elements in sixty years!" the Sled Jump Master enthused. "And who's this coming next?"

"Oh, Hoopa arranged this one!" Hoopa said. "Just like Hoopa arranged the last one. Hoopa got Calyrex involved, and so Calyrex went to get the perfect Pokémon to partner with for an ice competition!"

"That is not Glastrier, though," Gold objected. "That is Spectrier."

"Yes, Hoopa has been unreliably informed Glastrier was busy," Hoopa replied. "And here they go!"

Calyrex swept their arm across as the sled, with Spectrier on top, with Calyrex on top, slid down the slope. There was a sort of grim neigh, and then a hundred tiny ghosts appeared and carried Calyrex, Spectrier and the sled upwards on an entirely different trajectory to the way they would have gone without the move.

And out of the stadium.

And off into the distance.

"I don't think I've seen anything quite like that happen in ten minutes," the Master judged. "Not since that kid with the Pikachu did his run."

"I don't think that worked," Kiawe decided. "It was a great idea, but… yeah, the execution kind of suffered."

Turtonator shuffled on his feet, which was in danger of turning into a stagger followed by a faceplant, because he'd been spinning upside down on his shell again.

"Not your fault," Kiawe assured him, then they watched as Gladion took his turn.

"Whoa," Sophocles gasped, as a beam of ice flashed out from Silvally – then solidified into an icy rail that the sled went grinding along. "What was that?"

"That's Multi Attack," Lillie explained. "It's Silvally's special attack, it depends what Memory he has installed. I think Ash's phone once said it was like a… judgemet? I think that's the way they said it."

The Sled Master told everyone that that was the kind of thing he'd last seen ninety years ago, and Nebby looked confused.

"I don't even recognize the guy who's up next," Lana frowned. "Any of you?"

Mallow shook her head, but Nebby took off with a sweep of her wings and teleported.

She was back with Ash a few seconds later, and he waved. "Hi, everyone! How do you think it's going?"

"It's an experience," Kiawe decided. "Fun, kind of. Who's that guy up there?"

"Oh, that's Nolan," Ash answered. "And, yeah, he's using his Articuno…"

"Well, this was a spectacular performance!" the Pokémon Sled Jump Master said, once everyone had had their go. "I've not seen such a great combination of moves in a hundred and forty years!"

"A hundred and forty years? Hoopa wants to know where you get your skin cream," Hoopa said, distracted.

"I judge that the winner is Kahuna Hala!" the Master went on. "And he wins this ninety-nine-year-old sled!"

Then Regigigas sped past on Regice and did an absolutely flawless 5,040 degree spin ending in a three-point landing.

"Was there a move there?" Kukui asked.

"I think one of them used Gravity," Ash replied. "It's just a guess but I think that's how they hung in the air for twenty seconds!"

AN:

Well, it's the right season for it, in the northern hemisphere anyway.