Somersault

Yesterday was our last full day skiing.  The sun was out, the powder was soft and fluffy, and my acrobatics was nothing short of legendary.  In short, it was a perfect day.

Me, not somersaulting on Bleue d'Arare.  i got some pretty sweet air of this little drop-off.

We met up with Dan and John by coincidence in Plaine Dranse and skied a couple of runs with them.  Well, they were on boards, but we tried to ignore this fact and pretended not to be with them if we thought anyone was looking.  We can't be caught socialising with boarders - we have a high reputation to maintain.

Ian,  Dan, and John.  We finally got out skiing together!  Note how we've cunningly hidden their board from view.

Anyway we shot off down some of the simply excellent powder and i spied a wind-lip in the distance.  i headed straight for it and, when i was about a meter away, pushed down hard.  The purpose of doing this in powder is to compress the snow ahead of you, making your own personal jump out of the compacted snow.  Well, my wind-lip turned out to be an ice-boulder from a recent avalanche and my skis went straight into it as opposed to over.

Natalie expertly navigating a tight steep canyon above Plaine Dranse.

i completed a perfect, though unintentional, forward somersault and landed on both skis and promptly wiped out spectacularly.  My skis didn't even come off.

Dan sitting on the left where he had a sympathy wipe-out to make me feel better and me, on the right, marveling over my tracks, which show how my somersault didn't touch the ground.  If you look to the left from me, in this photo, you'll find my tracks leading to the left, and then a gap, and then more tracks.  The gap is where my awesome somersault happened.

Dan had food poisoning and John was suffering with painful ribs and a very sore shoulder after a skiing incident in Morgins, so we left them at a cafe and headed on to Linga where we ate at probably our second favourite restaurant in the area.  We sat out in the sunshine and worked on our ski tans.  We could have sat there the whole day, but the powder was too good so on we went.

Me, getting some Alpine sunshine.

We skied all the way down to Linga, cheekily skiing the competition run where the piste was groomed to perfection.  We got to go fast here.  After that we made our way back over to Plaine Dranse down a new route to the far left of the Les Combes lift which was excellent through the trees.  i think we found the route that Phil has always wanted to try out.  After that is was back up Cornebois and then down the dark, shadowy, black mogul run that is Les Reynards.  i came down the powder while Natalie took on the moguls. 

Natalie, pre-moguls, in Plaine Dranse.

i think we both must've fallen at the same time.  i made one good turn and then, on a very steep section of powder, crossed my skis and tumbled headfirst down the slope landing on my back and sliding.  The slope was so steep i left a completely undisturbed gap which i'd tumbled over.  Fantastic.

We rushed around the resort, trying to squeeze in all our favourites before the end of our second-last day.  We had some great snow on Fornet, which wasn't in a whiteout for once, and then Natalie led us down her new "expert" route of our new tree run above Lindarets.  While it's true you shouldn't follow me, my wife's chosen routes are seriously not for the faint of heart.

Our skis.  We'll miss them in the off-season.

We couldn't have wished for a better day.