Speedtrap

Today we headed over to Super Chatel to meet up with Grant and his family and extended family who are having a week's holiday there.  We planned to picnic on the way there but a lack of basic supplies at home and Champion not supplying any vegetarian options in their ready-made sandwich section meant that we had to eat at That Restaurant At The Bottom Of The Morgins Lift. 

We were meeting up with Grant after lunch, which was just as well because it took us a good two hours of skiing to get there.  Actually, the overwhelming majority of the travel time was spent on stopped lifts.  Not only can the enormous load of muggles not ski, they also don't know how to get on and off lifts, causing endless stoppages.  You may have gathered i'm not a huge fan of the half-term crowds.

Photographic evidence of Grant in the Alps.

Actually, for the interested minority, That Restaurant At The Bottom Of The Morgins Lift is actually called Les Fontaines Blanc.  After lunch we ascended the totally snowless slopes of the south-facing side of Super Chatel and met Grant at the ESF.  We jaunted around the resort for a couple of hours until we found the speedtrap.  This is a cool 300m drop that you take in a schuss and pass a radar gun which measures your speed.

Of course, Natalie and i had to try it out.  However, their equipment is clearly mis-calibrated because it clocked me at 65kph but Natalie came in at 69kph.  Actually, i think i was in a head wind and i distinctly remember a group of small children and hedgehogs crossing the piste in front of me that i had to avoid before the finish-line.  It was pretty interesting to realise that you can very quickly get up to 70kph on an easy blue run.  i really wonder how fast we go on the fast reds in Linga.

And we were there too.

The snow in Super Chatel was not that great, unfortunately.  Those slopes are low down and in direct sunshine.  We're also at day 14 now with no snow and the pistes are slushy and icy.  We returned via Pre la Joux and over the Col du Bassachaux back down to Ardent picking out some nice bumps on the way.

Tonight we've had an exciting evening at the Laverie and tomorrow is a full work day which isn't such a bad thing because the resort is so crowded lately.