Yesterday morning we glared at our laptops, but they refused to go away, so in the afternoon, we blinked first, and headed down to Evian-les-Bains: source of all those image-enhancing bottles we carry around with us. The nice thing about the Alps is that we literally did head "down" to Evian as it's at about 200m above sea-level whereas we're currently at 1000m. This isn't the same thing at all as heading "down" to Tesco, which may indeed be at the altitude as your house. And we definitely headed down, because my ears popped. Do your ears pop when you go to Tesco? i don't think so.
Evian was shut. Yes, obviously, it's open Tuesday to Saturday. So we window-shopped and looked at the hazy lake with Lausanne in the distance. Very pretty town, would be even nicer when it's open.
And today, present tense at last, again the pointless staring competition with the laptops in the morning followed by a "quick burn" (skiing lingo for doing a lot a runs in a very short space of time) round the Plaine Dranse area of Chatel. We like Chatel and discovered two new runs today. The incredibly steep (at the top) red run called Rhododendrons (which really should be black as its steep (very steep - did i say how steep it was?) and icy. And rocky, in fact, quite a lot of the snow at the top was gone and we had to do some rock avoidance, which on a steep is not so easy. It flattens out into a really great red piste further down though.
No really, at the top, it's very steep:
Notice that, in this photo, you can only see one red piste marker? That's because the other's are hidden over the ridge below and behind Natalie. In other words, even when you're on a steep part of the slope you can't see the steeper part because it's so steep. It was steep ok?
After that we bravely attempted a new black run we'd never done before called Les Renards. Great fun - very bumpy and a bit reminiscent of The Swiss Wall in places (another steep black guarding the entry to Switzerland).
On our way to the black run we noticed this which is a perfect example of how the runs are totally incorrectly graded. On the left, a red run. On the right, the blue run. Notice how the blue run, which should be easier, is actually steeper than the red, and that they go to the same place. Conveniently, the lady in the red one-piece was showing us how difficult this makes it for beginners who would avoid the red because its red, even though you eyes are telling you that the blue really is harder. i really do think the piste graders need to look a little more closely at the actual geography of the slope rather than the stats on how many of each colour run the resort has.
All in all it was just a fantastic afternoon. This was just before sunset on the Col du Bassachaux:
However, we need more snow. The tree-lined off-piste in Lindarets is getting very littered with tree-debris and there are plenty of rocks sticking up where they shouldn't. So, snow-dances please, and make them count!
And now a public-service announcement as part of my learn-to-ski programme. For the benefit of my viewers, i thought i'd give you a classic example of ski jumping. Notice how, in mid-air, i'm waving with one arm. Well, i'm sure i don't need to tell you how skillful that is and what a tricky, err, trick that is to pull off. Be sure to be off balance when you first take air, and perhaps a little yell at the apex to get the crowd's (Natalie's) attention. It really makes this trick stand out. i call this: The One-Armed Bandit(s).
(PS. i did land it, but that doesn't really count does it?).
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