It had all happened far too quickly for me to even be excited yet and I whiled away the hours reading, planning uni work, and pondering the best way to get from the train station at Cluses to the ski resort in Morzine. I decided a sign was necessary.
I'd been warned that a taxi would be pretty pricey. Fair enough considering it's a 30km trip - make that 60km for a round trip.
So I thought I'd go with the French tactic of covoiturage - car sharing. Essentially pre-arranged hitch-hiking where you pay some of the petrol. Or just sharing a taxi. That would half the price at least!
Unfortunately, it became apparent on arrival at the station that the pickings were fairly slim. And to make matters worse, it was snowing and the roads were terrible.
There was me and two other girls; one of whom was trying to find a taxi to a hotel in Cluses (without much luck), the other however, had skis....
Long story short, we all piled into a tiny 3 door with the ski girl's boyfriend who had come to pick her up and he gave a little taxi run. It was only a bit later that I realised he wasn't actually going particularly near to Morzine... But every little helps and half an hour later (following a snow plough) I was dropped in the snow outside Taninges tourist information centre, opposite a hotel, 10km closer to my destination. I rang a few taxis with no luck. It was around this point that I began to wonder if I might not arrive... I had a breif chat with an English woman who happened to be meeting her sister outside the tourist office who then made the very good point that I'd already hitched 1/3 of the way... Why not continue?
Within 10 minutes I was headed to Morzine with a ski/snowboard fanatic helicopter engineer heading up to meet his mates. Win! He knew the roads well and was very good company. He was even kind enough to take me right up to the chalet, where none other than Sam Varcoe (one of my house mates from last year) was waiting outside to meet me! Just in time for dinner.
It took me a while to work out that I had actually made it, was in a chalet full of my friends, and would be skiing the next day! I think they were just as shocked after I told them I'd ended up hitching there....
Baby steps
Sam and Glenn had appointed themselves ski tuesday for Wednesday; Glenn in the morning, Sam in the afternoon. But before even getting onto the slopes, we had to pick up my rental skis and get ski passes.
One hour later, and we were halfway up the mountain and it was time to get clicked in. Glenn took me through the basics of how to stop using the "snowplough" technique and how this helped you to steer, we then went down the first baby slope. 40 minutes later and I was making my way clumsily down the first slope, spending more of my time in the snow than on it but luckily it was a particularly snowy day, not so great for visibility, but it hurts less when you fall....
After meeting up with Sam and Tom for lunch in a cafe in Morzine, Glenn and Tom headed off to play whilst I headed up the Gondola once again with Sam.
After seeing how far I'd got (and being a bit impressed I might add!), Sam decided I could probably handle parallel skiing and since I was half doing it already, it might make my life easier!
*This essentially involves skidding with your skis parallel when turning rather than gently shifting your weight across skis pointed inwards - however, this requires a bit more speed*
I actually found this technique a bit easier, less painful on the knees too which can't be a back thing. The one thing I hadn't quite got the hang of earlier on, was that it's a really bad idea to try and control yourself with your arms when you feel out of control... So I had a bit of a sore wrist.
The hardest part of the whole week was the final run of my first day. My lessons had gone well and I'd picked it up pretty fast, however I was now getting tired and being a novice, I didn't yet have the muscle memory to do anything without concentrating. But skiing home was the only option. It took a while, but eventually we made it, finishing off with a short stretch of off piste across a powder field - great fun, you end up with your skis under about a foot of snow!
Everyone was already back at the chalet when we got in and I soon secured myself a massage with the offer of one in return, after which we both felt a lot better. Topped off with a shower and I was just dandy, and feeling very proud of myself for having managed to progress so far in just one day.
Evening activities consisted of: Raclette, beer, wine, cheese, more beer, more wine, and eventually sleep. It was brilliant to be in such a relaxed environment. With 13 people you don't really need any entertainment - especially after a few drinks!
Shaking up the blues
Getting up was not a pleasant experience. Fuzzy wine head, plus every muscle complaining from misuse and tumbles is not a great mix. Orange juice, cereal and coffee made for a quick fix, then getting out in the cold and getting phyical was a great remedy.
We spent Thursday going round runs all at our own paces, with runs that all fed into the same basin which enabled me to build up my confidence a lot and even managed to knock out a fair few runs without falling over!! I was beginning to get the hang of the blue slopes - steep bits to practice going fast but wide enough to weave down and with a clear less steep bit ahead, just incase you were scared of losing control.
Plus who can have a bad time with friends like these....
I was trying to work my way up to doing a red run in the afternoon, and the boys were eyeing up the yeti... I black run which ran the length of the mountain face in full view of the main chair lift.
We stopped for lunch again, with this impressive view from the window:
After food, the sun came out for a bit, the first time I'd seen it since I'd arrived! It actually makes a massive difference with regard to how you ski as the terrain is a lot clearer! The sun coming out also meant the ski had cleared, revealing some absolutely spectacular views.
For the final route, we met up with Georgia, who had been skiing elsewhere and planned our final route home - lots of blue runs!
I then discovered that Georgia was probably my perfect skiing partner. She's been a fair few times before but just prefers taking it slower on the blues!
The route home was a spectacular easy run through the forest, at a shallow enough gradient to take in the view as you go.
We had decided that Thursday was the best day to try and go for a meal together (give Sam a break from cooking!!) so being the best linguist of the group, it fell to me to ring around the restaurants to check prices and see whether they could accomodate us, and after one failed attempt, we managed to find a reasonably priced restaurant for that evening. Success!
We had started drinking when we got in off the slopes, meaning that by the time we got to the bar I didn't actually want any more!! Fortunately for me... Meant I saved a reasonable amount!The food was delicious and the atmosphere was excellent, all compounded by the fact that it was beautiful outside and the snowflakes were perfect... Just like the kind they show you in science books!
The walk home was hilarious, with a lot of drunken silliness and playing in the snow...
And it didn't really stop once we got in...
Sleeping on the sofa meant that I was always the last to bed, however I did get in a cheeky nap on the other sofa while the stragglers discussed something or other. I'm sure it was very important.
Last but not least
The last day of skiing came around far too quickly. Nobody was up particularly early. We had to head into town to drop off our boots at the ski hire shop so we'd have something to walk back in after returning them later that day. This involved skiing with a bag and a stretch of off piste to cut a chunk out of the route and head straight down to the shop (which was visible from the route we were on).
Friday was a beautiful day. The sun was out and the views were absolutely spectacular. Unfortunately this meant the slopes were a bit icier than they had been, but I'd got the hang of it well enough to be able to deal with it by this point. The first stop was to head up the mountain, jump in the snow, and crack out the champagne. As you do.
I spent the majority of the day with Georgia, and once we had decided that it just wasn't worth waiting for the snowboarders (very different styles of moving means that a blue is actually not the easiest slope on a board!) we headed off together and matched each other fairly reasonably. I was even beating her at some points! She told me afterwards that I had excellent technique but occasionally I would just get the balance wrong and topple over. Happy with that for 3 days. :)
We were having so much fun skiing about that we kind of skipped lunch, heading down to Morzine around 3.30 as Georgia was spent and I needed to sort out my bus ticket for the following day. I decided I wasn't quite done though... So headed back up the slopes from the first day (when fed into the village) to get as much as possible out of my ski pass and rental before the lifts closed at 5.
The chairlift took my halfway up, I came down, thought about taking my skis back, decided against it.
I took the gondola all the way back to the top, determined to make it my best run and pushed off.
Despite the ski schools, ice, busy slopes, aching muscles... I managed to bomb down the slope, overtaking left, right and centre - WITHOUT FALLING ONCE!
It was a brilliant feeling and I felt like I had definitely done myself justice, time to pack up and head to the pub to meet the others and get some munch - snails, garlic bread and happy hour with a live band. What more could you want?
The last night was a bit of a mess really. But entirely hilarious. I think this about sums it up....
Over as quickly as it had begun...
Needless to say, nobody got much sleep, the morning was hard, and I slept most of the way back, too tired to be particularly bothered about having to get a later train due to traffic jams, I just dozed and watched the snow whizz by....I got to Saint Etienne only to get caught in a snowstorm. Fortunately Dominique was there to pick me up in his 4x4 so it was no longer my responsibility. He also informed me that I would stay the night with them and he'd give me a lift back in the morning. Fair enough given the conditions.
All I had left to do was make light conversation and stay awake long enough to be polite. Oh yeah, and try to get enthusiastic about raclette for dinner.... again.
Although it may have been short and unanticipated, I think in hindsight it might have been one of the best holidays I've ever been on. I was totally disconnected from everything except what I was dealing with at the time and truly managed to relax (despite the aches and pains).
Looking forward to seeing everyone in summer and hopefully another ski holiday at some point!
No comments:
Post a Comment
If you want to leave something here for me, I'll soon pass by and collect it.
Comments or questions welcome :)