It didn't start well. The last Friday of the whole of Europe's school holidays saw record numbers of muggles all trying to get down the same slopes with even more reckless abandonment than usual. Avoiding one such muggle who literally stepped in out front me from behind a barrier with 2m notice i ended up in the entrance to a hotel. Very Bridget Jones.
Thankfully they're all going home now and even i couldn't begrudge them enjoying their last day out on such a gorgeous day as today. This is in complete contrast to yesterday where the sight of actual clouds in the sky was enough to deter probably 50% of the skiers in the area. Those fair-weather muggles missed out on the best snow in three weeks.
Natalie admires the uniquely stunning view of Avoriaz from the top of the Brocheaux lift. Actually, she's looking at me and yes, i am uniquely stunning aren't i? In this shot, you can see Bleue Arare (under the chair) and on the right of that the Arete (ridge) that is the Coupe de Monde.
Unfortunately i can't blame my face-plant on any muggles. Exactly the same problem as before. Very easy set of moguls that i managed to cross my skis on. The top ski pushes the lower into a mogul and then my brain carefully erases the next few milliseconds as i somersaulted over some hard icy bumps.
i can blame it on the snow though. Awful snow today. The 2cm of snow from the last night has frozen in and its turned to very heavy chunky ice which is nearly impossible to turn in. Combine this with tired ski legs which just did not want to jump today and you end up face-planting down the Fornet Snowcross, which is exactly what i did.
Showing me how moguls really should be done, Natalie takes advantage of the best snow of the day on Cubore, an awesome mogul-field in the Abricotine valley. Those are the Dents du Midi in the background.
The off-piste on Abricotine is fabulous so we tried to get down as far as we could avoiding the piste at all costs. Unfortunately you end up having to cross this ravine on a very (i mean very) narrow snow-bridge. We don't recommend it. There may be another way down through the trees, but after a several kilometer traverse on extremely chunky steep ice, the piste was looking more appealing, even if it was infested with muggles.
The queue at the bottom of Abricotine for our return trip to Lindarets via the Brocheaux Snowcross (which was awful, cruddy, and chunky ice, and on which i slipped so far i thought i'd sanded a hole in my salopettes) was very long and the queue time wasn't helped by the Alouette III helicopter taking off nearby. Actually, this was interesting in itself because i thought the Alouette had been retired. Also interesting as this is a Swiss rescue helicopter on the French side of the resort.
Anyway, away it flew and up went the lift and down we skied and home we came. Not our best day's skiing admittedly, but an awesome day in the mountains anyway.
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