Thursday 28 February 2013

Wounds

We skied through the trees today.  Gordon has 2 scratches on his forehead, John and I have one each on our noses.  I also have a scratch on my cheek from yesterday's collision, plus a very large bruise on my thigh.  The plus side is that I have no more holes in my ski trousers - as yet.  So I still have one pair of trousers that has no holes.

Wednesday 27 February 2013

Primroses

Just next to our apartment building is a small line of earth next to a wall where the snow has receded.  I like to keep an eye on it as the first primroses appear there.  And there they are!   There is thick snow on the ground and the temperature this morning on our balcony was -10C but the tiny first flowers have appeared.  It gets the morning sun and that encourages the primroses. 
I managed to break my sunglasses today which is very annoying as they are prescription lenses.   I have broken off one of the arms but can still wear them with one arm pushed under my helmet.  I was skiing down the Ladies Downhill course at Cote 2000 and collided with a gentleman who skied suddenly into my path.  I slid some way down the hill and just managed to avoid the netting and the 2 pisteurs who were mending it.  The other skier was OK and I'm just bruised and annoyed.  Still, it could have been worse.

Tuesday 26 February 2013

Back again!

Sunshine but cold yesterday and today so the snow has been good.  Yesterday we skied on Rochebrune and there were few people about but today we were on Mont D'Arbois and we hit some queues.   It's the French holiday so to be expected.  They were only about 5- 10 minutes so not too bad.  It was warm enough to sit outside at lunchtime.  I failed to buy any new ski pants when we were home so I've found some very fetching blue iron-on patches.   They'll look good on black!  The only trousers in black were too large, and the other colours were white (impractical) or a horrid mustard yellow.  I don't want to look as if I've just sat in a fresh cowpat.  So I'll have to go down to Vieux Campeur and see if they've got anything.  (John still hasn't got his new minibus either.)

Tuesday 19 February 2013

Fashion tips 2

Aallards have a man's ski suit in Easyjet orange- the same colour of the foam wraps they put round the skilift legs to prevent injuries.  I am waiting to meet the man who wants to be mistaken for an Easyjet employee or a foam wrap.
John and I skied with the accompanied skiing groups today which was fun.   It was another day of glorious sunshine.  Sadly, there were more people on the slopes though none of the lift queues were bad. 
We are home tomorrow for a few days but back on Sunday so watch this space!

Monday 18 February 2013

London Fashion Week

As it's London Fashion Week i thought I would add my observations from Megeve.  The in colour appears to be white, which is completely impractical.  Camouflage perhaps?  I have a  pair of grey trousers and I know how much they show the marks.  Carrying skis would not be an option if you have a white jacket.  Perhaps you have a man to carry them for you.  I'm still looking for one of those.
Anyway, the last two days have been cold and sunny.  John and I skied the Ladies Downhill this morning which was in terrific condition.

Saturday 16 February 2013

Saturday

I skied with Gordon in the morning and John joined us at lunchtime.  It was a brilliantly sunny day but cold so the snow was in perfect condition.  We found plenty of untracked powder.  I thought the slopes would be crowded but there were few queues for the lifts.  John went shopping this evening and said there was a long queue of people coming in to Megeve.   I expect it will be busy tomorrow as it is the start to the French holidays and it is going to be sunny.  Still, we can't complain as we usually have the slopes to ourselves.

Friday 15 February 2013

staff lunch

Today we took all the staff to lunch at the Bachais restaurant on Jaillet.  We skied with Johnny and Jean-Marc in the morning and got too low on an off piste run.  We ended up climbing out of a ravine which was exhausting and then skiing down the road to the bottom.  We were only half an hour late for lunch!  We skied with everyone in the afternoon and it was great fun.  It was snowing in the morning but cleared in the afternoon and we had sunshine.

Thursday 14 February 2013

Clear round today

I skied with Gordon and Rob Houlder today.  We came down the front face of Jaillet to the bus which was not too bad and then came down it a different way which was horrendous.  It was breakable crust which I loathe so I was doing long traverses and then a kick turn.  I got down eventually.  The others had to hold the bus for me because I was so slow.  I was having a horrendous day.  If there had  been a fence to knock down I'd have done so.  As it was I concentrated on falling into tree wells, hugging trees and losing skis.  I stopped early and left the men to get on with it ! I should have stayed on the pistes which were in lovely condition.
 Yesterday evening 9 of us went ten pin bowling in Sallanches.  Men against women.  It was pretty even.  The men got 1st and 3rd positions and women 2nd and 4th.  I got a strike with my first ball (beginners' luck) and then it all went pear shaped.

Wednesday 13 February 2013

that supermarket again

John and Gordon spent yesterday evening studying google earth and the map and planning the best way down to Intermarche in Le Fayet.  It worked.  No walking down a nasty, icy, rocky, track carrying one's skis.  David Stewart (who owns Snowcoach) joined us.  We were getting down to the grass on the last 2 meadows but it was a good run. However, for the second day running, I managed to demolish a fence.  Yesterday, it was the pisteurs' fence at the end of the track, and I ducked under it and my rucksack caught on it.  Today, it was a farmer's single strand wire fence which I didn't see (fortunately not barbed wire).  So I'm feeling rather guilty.  I also now have 4 holes in one set of ski pants and one hole in another and John tells me I can't have a new pair as a new minibus has priority.  Oh well, I'll look out the iron on patches.

Tuesday 12 February 2013

Skins

Today we skied to Giettaz and went up the first lift, where John dropped his glove.  That's what happens when you try to demist your goggles on a ski lift.  As Gordon was the best skier he opted to go down and retrieve it, but ended up on the wrong side of a gully and had to climb out with everyone on the lift shouting encouragement and advice.  There was about 25cms of new snow but it was quite dense and not as fluffy as I would have liked.  Still, it was very skiable.  However, it made walking uphill difficult.  I have had a pair of skins for about 10 years and for the first time I used them.  John walked uphill carrying his skis and beat Gordon and me to it, even though it was considerably easier on skins.

Monday 11 February 2013

Skiing to the supermarket!

We skied down to the Intermarche supermarket in Le Fayet this morning.  You go from the bottom of the Mon Rosset chair lift and keep going.  It was great apart from the middle section.  We had to walk down an icy, rocky path with insufficient snow, carrying our skis.  I couldn't decide whether it was better to wreck my skis or fall over.   We saw 3 chamois very near the bottom.  They must have come lower for food.  Carol, Gordon's partner, came to collect us in the car.
When we reached the bottom we realised there were 6 skiers coming down behind us.  We decided the only person it could be would be Alex Perrinet (the mountain guide we ski with) and John phoned him and, yes, we were right!  He has shown us a lot of the hidden off piste runs round Megeve.  It's still snowing hard so tomorrow may be another interesting day.

Sunday 10 February 2013

Petit Fontaine Sunday morning

This is me (wearing 5 layers under my ski jacket!) at 10am Sunday morning.  Where is everyone?

-15C on our balcony this morning!

Very cold today but bright and sunny this morning. a bit cloudier this afternoon.   John and I skied through the trees and got a bit lost.  The trees' revenge was to dump  snow down our necks.  There was still plenty of off piste through the trees on Lanchettes which was great fun.   Now for the rugby.

Saturday 9 February 2013

balloons

Yesterday we skied with Gordon and Johnny and Jean-Marc from the Rond Point.   I don't think we skied any pistes except to the get to the lifts. We skied the front face of Jaillet down to Megeve 4 times, catching a bus back to the lift each time.  It was a fantastic day and the sun shone.There appeared to be a race or something similar of hot air balloons from the Flaine area as they were all landing at Praz sur Arly, just down the road from Megeve.  All the accompanying cars with trailers were following them, so the balloons could be packed up and transported back.
Today was John's birthday and we skied off piste again.   The snow was not so good where the sun had caught it which made it more difficult than yesterday.   However, we saw a mountain goat eating some lichen off the branch of a tree as we were skiing off the back of Le Giettaz down to Praz.  Carol, Gordon's partner, picked us up at Praz and we all had lunch there so it was a lovely day.

Friday 8 February 2013

Disaster day

Wednesday was not a good day.  The skiing was good because we had fresh snow, but in the afternoon it started to snow very heavily and the visibility was bad.   2 of the minibuses slid into each other on ice on the Sylvanva drive.    One was the old VW  and it's battered anyway but the window now needs replacing.  The other was a rental vehicle which John and I swapped yesterday.   The side of that was damaged but it also transpired that the roof was badly dented.   We believe that ice fell off the roof of the Sylvana and caused the damage. So on Wednesday evening we had to borrow a vehicle from Ski Royal to get our guests to the airport. Anyway the vehicle situation is now sorted.  What a nightmare!
Yesterday we had some sunshine and fresh snow so the skiing was fantastic.

Tuesday 5 February 2013

Skiing cancelled

Alex Perrinet rang us to say that the off piste day was not happening because the weather was too bad.  It was raining when I looked out of the window but it turned to snow so we decided to go out.  It was VERY windy.  I thought they would stop the chairs because of the gale.  I needed my face mask - frozen snow lashing into your face isn't fun.   But we had a great day.  We skied the off piste both sides of the Lanchettes button lift and then the stream down to the track at the bottom of the lift.  That was very hairy - bouncing round corners, not knowing if you were going to meet a sudden up or (even worse) a vertical down.  I don't know how I avoided falling into the stream.  My screams are still reverberating round the gully. We had lunch at the Radaz (John and I shared a tartiflette).  It snowed off and on all day so hopefully there will be some more nice snow tomorrow, if it hasn't all been blown away.  Two of the friends we skied with are off to Verbier, but said that they would not have had so much fun as they had today, as they wouldn't have been able to see.

Monday 4 February 2013

Fresh snow

We woke up to about 6 ins of fresh snow and still snowing.  I went to Jaillet with Gordon and Neville.  We skied a couple of pistes which were lovely and then through the trees off piste to the road to Praz Sur Arly.  It was fun but a bit crunchy underneath lower down.  I finished early because we are skiing with Alex Perrinet, a mountain guide tomorrow and it will be a long day.  What a hard life!

Sunday 3 February 2013

cold and cleaqr

We skied from 9 - 5 with a stop for lunch.  Although there had been a sprinkling of snow only overnight we found some off piste pitches, particularly off the Epaule ridge.   We had lunch at the Gouet which was heaving.  People were even eating outside though it was very cold.  In the afternoon we found a perfect off piste field which was heaven.  Mostly it was wind crust or lumps of ice underneath the new snow.  I now feel exhausted and am going to have a cup of tea!

Saturday 2 February 2013

Saturday snow

It was snowing lightly when we got up so we got out early.  The off piste was not good, a covering of snow over rain crust and in some places the fresh snow was wind crust.  Still, we have been very spoilt up to now and it's good to try the challenge of skiing something difficult and staying upright.  It was very windy and all the top lifts were closed, as were the fast chairs, Mont Joux and Mon Rosset.  The sun came out in the afternoon but we had got cold and packed it in at lunch time.  More snow is forecast for tonight so maybe powder tomorrow??