Will's Life.: February 2008

Sunday and Monday,

Les Gets by night view from a walk into town. On our walk into town we saw a long line of skiers going down the mountain carrying lights. It was a great sight and we were lucky to see it.

Finally got out to the slopes again at Les Gets with my Sister, brother inlaw, two nieces and my sisters friends, Andree, Neil and Soli for a weeks snowboarding. Despite them all being skiers, any chance for me to go boarding was welcome.

We had an unfortunate 3am start for the 6.45 flight, on Sunday morning. Once we were up an in the car everything was fine though.

Aran playing games in our chalet on Sunday afternoon.

After a short flight and 90 minute drive we finally got to our destination Les Gets by 12.30. We had arranged a chalet for the eight of us with Andree’s brother who owns it. The snow wasn’t quite as abundant as I had hoped as it hadn’t snowed since the 4th February, but on the runs there was plenty of snow to play with, even if it was a little icy on some runs.

On Monday I was finally out on the slopes after dropping the kids off to Ski school. Because Andree and I had just dropped Aimee and Elise off at Ski School there was the mother of long waits for the bubble lift to the top, as all the ski schools and hundreds of kids were queuing for them as well! Finally by midday I was on the piste and ready to go.

Aran and Aimee at the base of the green piste.

Unfortunately I had a bad start on my first run down the piste. Much to my embarrassment, I fell down four times on the way down the relatively simple blue run. It’s really just not the same going down the indoor Manchester ski slope compared to the conditions on a real run. There are a lot more bumps and inconsistent gradients on the real mountains compared to the artificial indoor slope. The indoor slopes are very smooth and a more or less constant gradient down hill, while the real pistes are quite bumpy and range from steep drops to very flat plains.

Helen pulling along Aimee on the flats.

On my second run I was much better and made it down the same slope without falling down once. After that, things went much smoother for me, I still had a few falls but they were on much steeper gradients and something that I expected while I was pushing myself. I was surprised at how difficult it was to get back into the groove of snowboarding after such a long break of a few years.

My final run down to the town I caught a mogul while turning from heal to toe on my snowboard. After falling down with some force onto my front, I continued sliding down the mountain on my front with snow flying everywhere and my arms crossed. I eventually slid round with my feet pointing downhill, put on the brakes with my snowboard. Got up brushed off snow and carried on with a big smile on my face!

Elise having fun.

I have a one on one three-hour lesson tomorrow afternoon with a snowboard instructor. I’m looking forward to some tuition on how to come down the slopes with a little more control. Sometimes when flying down the steeper slopes I do feel a little out of control and would like to know how to control my turns while avoiding picking up too much speed! Most of the time I can just run with it and stop at the bottom but occasionally I do have a big out of control fall.

Tuesday.

Tuesday night out meal. From left to right, Neil, Aimee, Elise, Soli, Andree, Helen and Aran.

Slow start to the day today as everyone had a lie in this morning. I finally got back on the slopes at 11.30, had a few runs on the blue slopes around Let Gets before heading off for my one on one three hour lesson with Mint Snowboarding. The meeting point was in the next set of slopes at the top of the Pleney bubble lift. I was a bit concerned on my route to the Pleney site as Neil said he followed part way along my route and said there was a really steep horrible slope at the end, which he’d never go down again! Even his instructor told him not to go down the blue run when they were learning.

The Viking hotel where I met Tammy from Mint snowboarding.

When I finally got to the steep part I thought it was really easy and nowhere near as bad as he described. In fact I thought it was very easy to board down. I got to my meeting point half an hour before I needed to because of the easier than expected run.

Tammy.

My teacher was called Tammy and she was the founder of the Mint snowboarding school a couple of years ago. She was very friendly and we got on very well throughout the lesson. She helped me correct all my bad habits, and there were plenty! We had to almost go back to basics to correct my habit of crouching to balance rather than standing up straight. Three hours later she had me standing up straight and leaning down the slope on my turns to turn quicker and have much more control. I did fall over a few times but each time was followed by a laugh.

I was very happy with my lesson and despite the expensive rate it was very well worth every minute. Tammy took me around all the other blue runs in the neighbourhood and also pointed out some other areas, which were well worth visiting later on. Tomorrow I’ll put into practice all my new skills and also be in a good position to explore the rest of the red and blue runs in the area.

Wednesday.

Some of the spectacular views of the pistes.

Got an early start today to get down to the piste by 9.00. My legs were starting to ache a bit this morning, however not as much as they would at the end of a full days boarding.

We took the route straight on in this picture, the drop to the left was a great red run!

I took Neil and Soli to some of the slopes that I went around yesterday. We had quite a good time exploring the western Pleney side of Les Gets. It was really good to put to practice some of the new techniques that Tammy had taught me yesterday.

The same position as the previous photo, but looking right at the drop we had just come down from.

Just before lunch I went down the main blue runs with my Sister, Helen. It was good fun to initially follow her and then fly past here with a big whoosh! Then Aran and I did the same things. We also did a small slalom run with banked edges, which we all managed without falling over.

I also tried one of the button lifts without much success. It was so difficult to get onto the lift as a snowboarder. I must have looked like a right idiot in front of everyone coming off the lift at the beginning. After lunch Helen tried the same lift and came off as well. Fortunately I was able to capture it on camera!

In the afternoon I went off on my own as everyone else was a little too tired to carry on. I went back to some new pistes that were in the vicinity as this morning. Lots of fun but my thighs were really starting to ache quite a bit on my last run down to Les Gets. I really enjoyed the freedom of going wherever I wanted to and managed not to fall over as well.

Thursday.

There was some low cloud cover on Wednesday and Thursday, you can't see the top of this mountain because of it.

For me today started feeling like a zombie, because of a cold that I had caught. I was so bunged up and had such a sore throat that I was tempted to just stay indoors. I managed to get out onto the slopes and I was really glad that I did.

Andree, Soli, Neil and I went out on some more runs on the west of the resort. We all had an excellent time and discovered some great runs, which we could all manage with ease.

After lunch we all got together to do some green runs. The eight of us had a good time following each other down the runs. After a couple of runs we then attempted the blue run down to Les Gets. It was a run that the Kids had done at ski school and Helen was a little apprehensive about doing as she wasn’t a confident skier yet.

Me, looking like I'm standing in front of a picture rather than really being at the top of a mountain.

In the end everyone got down fine and I was the only one to have a fall! I was on my heel edge on the flat snow and looking at the kids come down and didn’t think for a second and then caught a toe edge landing with a big whumpf on my chest. I have some bruised ribs but otherwise feel fine. Neil and Aran saw me fall and I think I’ve put them off snowboarding for now.

At the end of the day my legs didn’t feel tired at all, so I think I’ve mastered being able to snowboard without much effort or tension in my legs.

Friday.

Aran and Neil about to head down from the top.

We started another morning at 10.30 on the piste. This time we took Aran along with us to show him some of the other runs outside of the starter ones. The clear nights sky did mean that the slopes were quite icy in the shade. We went on some of the runs on the backside of the mountain and parts of the runs were very hard and icy.

After this we decided to get back on some new runs down from the top. We went down one new run and then followed some familiar routes from the previous few days.

In the afternoon we went out on another blue run that went all the way down to the next village in Morzine. We all went along with Aimee and Elise too, I was generally following the kids and helping out whenever any of them fell over.

Aimee did fly past me at one point and all I could hear her say was “I’m going through a forest.” A few seconds later she had fallen over after going a little too fast. When I quickly boarded down to her, fortunately she was laughing with some snow on the helmet and face.

Once we got to Morzine Neil, Soli and I took the last chair lift to the top and then made our way back to Les Gets. Meanwhile Helen, Aran, Aimee and Elise took a taxi back to Les Gets because they were a little tired.

My last chair lift view on my last run.

I had a really nice final run back down to Les Gets, mainly on my own and any other people around me too.

It was a real shame that I had to finish the holiday as I was really enjoying all the runs. From Tuesday onwards I was generally getting better and better at my boarding. It may be a while before I get out on the slopes again, but I’ll really look forward to the next time.

A Friday afternoon to remember.

After getting back to the UK, even after a day I’m really missing the snowboarding on the piste. I could have quite happily carried on snowboarding for another week. I think that visiting Tescos today made me even more depressed, as everything else seems so mundane and boring in comparison.