On Monday and Tuesday, it snowed heavily at village level (700m / 2,300ft) most of the day, we decided not to ski as it must have been a ‘white out’ further up the mountain, and not that many ski runs were open. Sorry it’s another slow start to the weekly blog.
Wednesday we headed up the Morillon cable car (1,100 m), then up the Sairon chairlift (1,700m ‘ish) then down a selection of ski runs (the top half of Marvel, Vielle & bottom half of Sairon) back to Morillon 1,100. With that Nic had had enough, and headed to a café for a hot chocolate, Rog went back up the chairlift and did the whole of Sairon ski run.
On the way back to the flat, Nic was collateral damage in a school snowball fight, that sounds more dramatic than it actually was, one kid tried to hit his mate with a snowball, missed and hit Nic. The teacher was not please, but no harm done.
Late afternoon and early evening we had a couple of power cuts, the longest one lasted only about half an hour. As everything in the flat is electric, including the heating, any prolonged power cut would not have been pleasant. Ever since the power cut the street lights are on in the day and go off just as it gets dark!
Thursday, saw us going up the Morillon cable car again, carrying our skis, on getting out we headed to a chairlift, on which you do wear skis, Nic couldn’t get her skis on, the binding had locked up! So Nic went to get them sorted, and Rog went and did a ski run. Thankfully we were fairly near the ski hire shop, unfortunately Nic is ‘directionally challenged’ and despite the fact we have been to the ski shop twice before, she managed not to go the shortest route to the ski shop, and not even the second shortest route, but the longest route possible in a very small village, whilst wearing ski boots, which are not easy to walk in and carrying skis, and including 2 sets of stairs! Nic’s defence is that it all looks different in the snow?! Once at the ski shop she ended up with a different pair of skis. These new skis are not purple, but are a little narrower and lighter with bindings that work, so an improvement.
We skied in the same area we had skied on Wednesday, just to continue finding our ski legs and hopefully improve a bit.
Friday, another beautiful day, we woke to clear blue skies, and we are getting braver now, we skied over the top into the next valley, ‘Les Carroz’ doing a few more ski runs and chairlifts. As high as 2,118m through the clouds, at 1,740m it was ‘-13c’! so not sure what it was at 2,118m, but can best be described as “bloody cold”.
Just getting ready to go skiing and getting to the top of the first ski run is a lot of effort and takes ages:
Preparing – make sure you have enough tissues, we usually take a thermal mug of coffee/tea and some snacks with us, and don’t forget your ski pass, then;
Dressing – Fighting your way into thermal layers, two pair of socks, outer ski gear, gloves, snood, hat, helmet and ski boots, then;
Walk – Carrying your skis and poles the 500m to the cable car, whilst wearing ski boots! What makes ski boots difficult to walk is that fact that you can’t flex your ankles.
Ride – the cable car, then put your skis on and ski 50m to the chairlift, up the chairlift, then;
Arrive – Finally you are that the top of the first ski run and ready to go.
Skiing is a mad sport, or pastime, as we are not sure you call it a sport the way we ski. It also sounds like an line from Only Fools & Horses “I’ve got a great idea, get people to strap two planks of wood to their feet and then send them down a mountain, and charge them for the privilege, we’ll be millionaires, Rodney!!.” – don’t get us wrong we are having a great time and enjoying ourselves.
After 3 consecutive ‘days’ of skiing, we have a day off on Saturday, heading into Samoens for a little explore and some shopping. Back home via ski bus, followed by a walk down by the river, it is now very different with all the snow.
We tried the last of the three restaurants in the village, Yeti, another pizza and local specialities. Nic had Tartiflette again and Rog had a burger, both very good and we have finally learned from previous weeks, neither of us had a pudding.
Sunday, Nic went for another walk along the river, whilst Rog when back on the slopes, but this time using Snowblades (mini skis – a £21 ebay special, brought in the UK and small enough to pack in a suit case) rather than normal skis. They were fun to use, currently Rog is undecided whether they will replace the normal skis for good.
Travurple 