'Week Off', Skis & Big Mouse…
A few things to report this week…
First of all, I’ll bang on about the skiing; conditions have been bit ‘up and down’ this week. When I left you after our day in Bourg we were in the middle of a apocalyptical storm, it wasn’t necessarily the biggest dump we’ve had but it was the worst weather. The winds were well in excess of 150kp/h at the top and this was really bad news because it meant that the snow that was falling was being blown away, most of it onto our balcony. Conditions improved but the cloud stayed and so did the occasional flurries of snow, with this has come a massive cold front (probably the same system that shut England down for a week) bringing temperatures of -27.
This all meant that we had a few days off the mountain, it’s not the worst time for conditions to worsen as we’re in the French holidays at the moment. Unlike England they stagger their holidays over four weeks depending on the area of France they are from. This is a great idea, if we had it in England then February half term would be staggered so that, for example, all of London and the Home Counties would have one week off, the North West & Yorkshire the next, Midlands the week after and Scotland, Wales & NI the week after. The result? Holidays would be cheaper and less crowded! Where’s the catch?
Despite the resort being busy we still went to Val d’Isere for the Women’s slalom of the World Championships. As it was Saturday the mountain was as quiet as it was going to be all week and we had a good trip down there. It wasn’t as busy as the previous Saturday but the atmosphere was amazing and the whole occasion of the Worlds being in the area was a great buzz.
As for this week, it’s busier still as it’s English half term. I have never understood why people bring their children on skiing holidays during February half term, it’s comfortably the busiest & most expensive time. Many schools offer ski trips during this period so why suffer going skiing during this horrendously busy time when teachers will do it for you?? (Another whinge over)
Sadly, this week has been quite lovely out there, apart from the cold. I say ‘sadly’ because long gone are the days when we’d have the mountain to ourselves and powder would stay untouched for days. We’ve ventured out a few times and yesterday was a personal milestone as we went down the off-piste slope known as the Lavachet Wall for the first time.
Those lines you can see across the mountain are avalanche breakers and the route is down between those and then all the way down to the bottom. It’s one of the hairiest slopes in Tignes and great fun coming down it. There were no children on it.
As for our week off.
I suppose it was our own fault, we were discussing how good it was to have a few days down time. It started on Monday. We went out boarding but split up; I went out with Pez while Stuoobs & Cazzie went out together. Pez & I had a great day and Pez took on her first black run. Despite being a chilly day we had great fun and covered loads of the mountain. Pezza & I rewarded ourselves with a beer at Après Ski in Brasero. We had a couple of beers, settled our tab and were on our way out the door to go home and shower when Stuoobs & Cazzie walked in, showered an changed, ready for Irish Gallie to start his Après Ski set (for those who don’t know, Après Ski is defined as ‘the period of drinking after the lifts have closed between 4.00pm and 7.00pm’. There’s usually good drinks offers and invariably live music.
Stuoobs and Cazzie turned up as they had heard that loads of people were turning up to watch Gallie so I bombed home, showered, did some light Facebooking and went back down to the pub. Pezza & I had mooted going to Loop to watch a band later that night and our ‘couple of beers’ turned into a ten hour drinking session. As for Sunday & Tuesday: Sunday was football & live music and Tuesday was ‘Flügel Night’. Essentially, everytime you ordered a vodka or a Stella you received a free Flügel. (Link for those who don’t know what Flügel is)
Not being ones to object to cranking it up a notch, we have since invented Flügel-Meister… No prizes for guessing…
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So, today after some heavy nights and a pretty sick day yesterday we’ve not gone boarding today, despite it being the nicest day we’ve had in a while.
Other news….
I have cracked. A couple of months on a board has been great and it was on the board yesterday that I did the Lavachet Wall but I have finally bought some skis. I love them and no doubt my time on the board has increased my confidence on skis; despite no practice this season I have found myself doing jumps, skiing backwards (or ‘switch’) etc that I would never have attempted before my time boarding.
For those who are interested, they are APO Starsky and here they are…
As for this week. Stuoobs & I are off to Milan for the Champions League game whilst the girls are heading to England for a few days.
There’s also been a few changes to the Blog. I’m now on Twitter and you can follow me through This Link. It’s a micro-blogging site, not really sure what the point is but Stephen Fry’s on it so it’s good enough for me.
I’ve also found ‘StumbleUpon’, that’s what the links under each post are all about. If you like the blog then please ‘Thumb Me Up’ by clicking on it. There’s also the subscriprion links in the top left of the page, if you aren’t au fait with RSS feeds then simply add your email in the box and you’ll get an email when a new blog is done!
That’s about it. I’ll leave you with the picture of one of the dogs in Alpaka Lodge, not the HUGE Irish Wolfhound, more the bizarre breed that is simply called ‘Big Mouse’.
xxx
