(no subject)
Back from Skiing with my parents in Les Arcs. Should be back in York tomorrow.
Snow conditions where absolutely great, a truely abnormal amount of snow for April. Also the entire resort was less than 50% full, which meant that the pistes and lifts where almost utterly uncongested, a first in 15 or so years of Skiing.
Managed to avoid any kind of injury, in fact I only actually fell over once, amusingly on the very last run down on Friday, on one of the easiest slopes, and for the exact reason I expected (catching edge in deep snow).
Had a fair few near misses, just keeping balance and one case of skiing off-piste and back on again to avoid moguls as big as me.
Until the final day the weather was fairly favourable, mostly overcast and cold, but kept the snow in good conditions.
On the final day however the heaven's decided to open and resulted in the heaviest snowfall I've been in my life. However as we where just managing to ski back to the chalet in whiteout conditions, my former ski-instructor friend decided to stay out for "one-last run"
Cue skiing through alpan forest in deep, fall-fresh, untouched powder snow, with barely a single other soul on the slope. The snow was so fresh and thick it was like ethereally gluiding over it.
If Tilda Swinton had walked out in a chainmail dress with some turkish delight, I'd have been only half shocked.
Pure awesome.
So awesome we did it again, and noticed on the second ascent the snowfall was clearing somewhat.
And so we did it another time after that, some of the best skiing I've ever had.
For those who care, Les Arcs is a relatively small (or at least *compact*) resort with very good lift access. I may have a bias from the relative lack of other skiers but it was by far the most accessible setup of any of the French Alpian resorts I've been to. A very nice selection of Blue, Red and Black runs.
Also managed to finish reading Labyrinth by Kate Moss (so can finally give it back to Cybertrixx) which is full of 13th Century Cathars, Heresy and the Albigensian Crusade, and hence makes me squee entirely too much even if I found the end a little disappointing.
I've also managed to finally get properly into reading Paradise Lost with enough momentum to read the damn thing. Rereading the end of Book II with the ascent of Satan into Chaos whilst your plane is descending into landing is a fun literacy exercise.
Snow conditions where absolutely great, a truely abnormal amount of snow for April. Also the entire resort was less than 50% full, which meant that the pistes and lifts where almost utterly uncongested, a first in 15 or so years of Skiing.
Managed to avoid any kind of injury, in fact I only actually fell over once, amusingly on the very last run down on Friday, on one of the easiest slopes, and for the exact reason I expected (catching edge in deep snow).
Had a fair few near misses, just keeping balance and one case of skiing off-piste and back on again to avoid moguls as big as me.
Until the final day the weather was fairly favourable, mostly overcast and cold, but kept the snow in good conditions.
On the final day however the heaven's decided to open and resulted in the heaviest snowfall I've been in my life. However as we where just managing to ski back to the chalet in whiteout conditions, my former ski-instructor friend decided to stay out for "one-last run"
Cue skiing through alpan forest in deep, fall-fresh, untouched powder snow, with barely a single other soul on the slope. The snow was so fresh and thick it was like ethereally gluiding over it.
If Tilda Swinton had walked out in a chainmail dress with some turkish delight, I'd have been only half shocked.
Pure awesome.
So awesome we did it again, and noticed on the second ascent the snowfall was clearing somewhat.
And so we did it another time after that, some of the best skiing I've ever had.
For those who care, Les Arcs is a relatively small (or at least *compact*) resort with very good lift access. I may have a bias from the relative lack of other skiers but it was by far the most accessible setup of any of the French Alpian resorts I've been to. A very nice selection of Blue, Red and Black runs.
Also managed to finish reading Labyrinth by Kate Moss (so can finally give it back to Cybertrixx) which is full of 13th Century Cathars, Heresy and the Albigensian Crusade, and hence makes me squee entirely too much even if I found the end a little disappointing.
I've also managed to finally get properly into reading Paradise Lost with enough momentum to read the damn thing. Rereading the end of Book II with the ascent of Satan into Chaos whilst your plane is descending into landing is a fun literacy exercise.