Finally a week’s blog actually started with Skiing! Monday we spent about 3 hours out on the slopes, enjoying runs we had already skied last week (Biollaire, Marmottes, Perce Neige, Marvel & Sairon). Back to the flat in time for a late lunch.
Tuesday, another skiing day, most of the same runs again, but did manage a new one, Combe, heading down in ‘Les Carroz” the next village along. At 6pm the ticket resale website opened for the Rugby World Cup (Union) in France later this year, so Rog spent 4 hours on the computer trying to get some more tickets, but to no avail. We do already have tickets for the semi-finals.
Wednesday, third day skiing in a row, we are slowly getting better and more confident, Rog possibly a little too ‘confident’ which results in a couple of moments “graceful sitting down”, at low speed or even stopped. Skied the usual suspects, as they all lead away from our closest Cable Car/Chair Lift, we did manage a new run, Blanchot, and Rog did his first Red run this year, Bergin, without sitting down! 😀
Thursday, we braved skibuses and their connections, which worked perfectly, we got the first skibus to Samoens, had a 10min connection to wait for the second skibus to Cirque du Fer a Cheval, which is at the end of the road up the valley. We were the only ones on the bus. The end of the valley is surrounded by high cliffs and many iced up waterfalls. The weather was not great as there were low clouds obscuring the top of the cliffs, but it was a magical place to walk around, especially as there was hardly anyone else there. We had a couple of hours before the return of the skibus, so we had a walk through the woods on a snowy track created by the snow mobile. As the track had been groomed recently, we could see that the only footsteps so far that day were from the local Chamois (wild sheep/goatie thing). Sadly we did not catch sight of them, just the hoof prints. As it was quite chilly in the valley, despite our layers, we then went to the restaurant for a coffee and a warm up. After that we headed over to watch a team of sled dogs being trained on a short course nearby, then retraced the steps of our earlier walk as we had time to kill, before heading back to the bus stop. When the bus arrived it was almost full, and everyone, bar one man, got off the bus, so there were only three of us on the bus back to Samoens, to make our connection back to Morillon.
On Thursday evening, after a long drive, Nic’s cousin and husband (both good skiers) arrived for a weekend visit bearing liquid gifts, it is lovely to be able to host!
Friday, the four of us spent a good few hours out skiing with a drinks stop, ‘Vin Chaud’ (mulled wine) does make ones skiing slightly more fluid. Had a really good day and made a lot of skiing progress.
On Saturday, the “Piste des Cascades” (Waterfalls) the longest single ski run in our area at 14km, opened. With our new found skiing confidence we decided to do it, as it was a blue run. In order to get to the top we had to do three new runs across to Flaine, some of which was in cloud. Once we made it to the top of a long cable car from Flaine we were above the clouds with views of Mont Blanc. Amazing! The run began as a wide open piste with lots of snow cover, then there were some flat and undulating sections, were quite tiring as, when you lose speed on these sections, you have to use your poles to propel yourself forward. Rog had his first proper “spill”, which could not be classified as an “graceful sit down” thankfully we ski in helmets, and Rog definitely fully tested his. No major injury but a bit of a stiff neck.
Even further down the run, on the way into the Sixt Valley, it turned icy and narrow, with hardly enough space to turn properly, it was also busy, so not very pleasant. Nic, not wanting to be left out, also had her first “spill” resulting in removal of skis and walking down the slope a bit before ‘re-mounting”. No sure this run classifies as a blue run! At the end of the run, after a quick restorative beer, the only way back to the flat was two ski buses, the first of which was not a nice experience, a big queue, then everyone was pushing to get on the bus! We made a quick connection for the second bus, then back the flat for a quick shower to make our table reservation for dinner.
We were back to “La Carline”, this time Rog had a burger and Nic had Tartiflette.
Sunday, our guests left us in the morning, and after a couple of heavy days skiing (by our standards!) we decided to have the day off, and went for a walk instead. A lovely blue sky day!
We can’t quite believe that Rog finished work 2yrs ago today! (Sunday 29th)
Travurple 