More skiing

Husky dogs pulling sledges

Well Ash and Simon are long gone, it was lovely to see them and we finally caught up with them properly on Wednesday, their last day, and skied with them all afternoon. Skiing just as a pair in many ways is so much easier, but I’ve spent so much time over the years on the piste counting people, are we all here? Who have we lost? Is everyone enjoying themselves? So it was lovely to be back with a few more people. 

They weren't really bothered about strokes

Their call saved me from ‘Yeti’ a really mogully black, as we had to rush off to where they were for which I was grateful as it would have been our first black and I prefer mine hard and fast rather than slow and lumpy! We have done it since and it was fine, but I’m just trying to break myself in gently as we are probably not as fit as we have been in the past, and with 4 months ahead of us, I don’t see the need to creak and groan and have aching knees at the end of every day! (All I have to do now is convince himself of this!) Although I have avoided the aches and pains, I know we have worked, as my legs actually feel like they belong to someone else as I sit here, which is really odd!

End of Piste on St Jean d'Aulps circuit

They then took us out to dinner just up the road from the apartment, as they had to return their skis – they knew all our ‘locals’ much better than we do – well I’m relishing having a cooker and kitchen all to myself, so it was our first time out after dark! How pathetic does that sound? So one stone meal and a couple of beers together and we said our farewells, us off to bed, and Simon out on the pull – well it was chalet maids night off! Not without a jolly time, sad farewells and a bag of assorted tangerines, OJ, odd toast biscuits, and a toilet roll! (you can never have enough toilet roll, especially when B has a cold!)

But it was OK, he gave us a lift down

Skiing has been varied since then, we REALLY need some more snow, runs are being closed all over the place, an important ‘linking’ run we could see from the lift today was definitely brown, with soil showing through, skiing on this is not good for the skis obviously as grooves in their base just slow you down for ever after, so we avoided this run and therefore a big area that we have still to play in! We did the big circuit of St Jean d’Aulps the other day, which was lovely, and will be done regularly when we just want a quick blast. Can’t claim to have done that in its entirety either, about 1km from the end, there was a barrier across the road, and a man with a fire, B thought he was just to stop us skiing, I hoped (and I was right) that he was there to ferry us to the bottom in his ‘all terrain vehicle’ So sorry the UK weather has been pants, but the same jet stream that is causing you problems is causing us trouble too!

The village of St Jean d'Aulps

Me, Simon and Ash on a chairlift

Ash, me and Simon ready to ski

A good view of Mont Blanc (except it's the one in cloud, centre right)

Our farewell meal (don't know why Ash is a bit blurred, must have been a finger mark on the lens)

The village of St Jean d'Aulps from the piste, showing the lack of snow

Our lunch stop today

Anyway, we’ve settled into a lovely routine, breakfast in bed (prepared by the breakfast fairy, or not me anyway!) ski, home for tea and cake (cooked by the cake fairy) possibly via the supermarket which is on our way home, hearty dinner which I’ve really enjoyed cooking, macaroni cheese tonight, but we’ve had lots of stews. The best was a boeuf bourguignon cooked with some reduced priced beef and a bottle of wine costing 1 euro 45 cents! Paid 7 euro 10 cents for the beef, have frozen half of it and had two dinners and one lunch each from the cooked half! 

The view from our balcony

The Dents du Midi in the background

Possibly turning the TV on if there is something to watch, well we do have UK freeview after all! Or if not reading, crosswords and the pc, before sleeping soundly through the night, something I got very used to in our year away but seemed to evade me in the two months we were back in the UK (too many people to see and things to do, and worrying about what to bring/pack for here. Now we are here we’ve got what we’ve got, and apart from coconut milk for Thai curries, for which I’ve sent out an appeal to the mountaineering club, all is good). We’ve even used the swimming pool, him twice and me only once, but if we can make that part of the routine, it has got to be good for the muscles! (It was a bit cold today though! And has left me deaf in one ear.)

Looking over the Swiss ski area of Champery from the top of the Grand Conche lift. Left is Les Crosets and the Grand Conche lift, the slope in the distance to the right is the infamous 'Swiss Wall' an off-piste black, currently closed through lack of snow