The final ski

For ages Ian and I had been waiting for a break in the weather for our final ski of the season.

At the beginning of this week we eventually spotted our opportunity, and ventured upon a two day ski tour up inside the amazing and beautiful Vanoise National Park.

We stayed overnight in a mountain refuge before an early morning start up La Grande Casse, a towering mountain with a huge steep glacier visible from many miles away. This was our way of celebrating the end of the winter and spring together. We were both in the environment that we love, skiing in the high mountains.

During the trip we spoke about how good our winter had been. We spoke about the great snow conditions, and also about how much we loved our jobs as instructors. It's always good to communicate with colleagues and learn from each others experiences.

For the record we didn't quite reach the peak at 3,850 meters, however an amazing experience for us both all the same. It has to be said that crampons attached to our boots were used more than skins under our skis for safety going up.

I leave Méribel on Friday to return back to England for the summer. There is plenty for me to look forward to. For a start I haven't seen my wife for over three weeks. Plus I'm really excited about catching up with my family again, to see how much my nephews and nieces have grown, and also friends who I haven't seen since I left the UK November last year.

At the end of next week, I will pick up 'Noddy' my new little BSM car, when I shall start straight away with a new batch of learner drivers. Back to teaching again, in a very different environment, but enjoyable in a different way. I'm aiming for a high pass rate for my learners again this summer, but also without any crashes this year, wish me luck !?!


Hopefully I will see some of you over the summer, but especially again back in Méribel next winter. I hope you have all enjoyed reading my blog this winter, and I wish you all an amazing summer wherever you are.


Martin

PS, Over the winter I often crave for fine English food and drink. So this weekend I will probably dive into fish and chips with mushy peas, washed down with proper beer, fine English ale. How big will my belly expand after such delights?

Searching for Marmottes

In between dodging daily rain showers and decorating duties this week I've been searching for one of my favourite high mountain creatures, marmottes.

They are lovely little furry animals who hibernate over the winter, often underneath chairlifts, and pop out of their burrows from late April onwards. Some of them tolerate humans from a distance, others certainly don't. So to be able to observe them from a distance has been an amazing treat this week.

Sometimes they crawl along their bellies like commandos, for some reason. But this chap got bored and let out an almighty yawn, even though it looks like a war cry. Check out the teeth and claws.

The area that I've been looking for them has been in the majestic Vanoise National Park. Méribel is right on the edge of this stunning area and includes towering peaks, calm lakes, untouched and strictly protected flower and fauna. A truly spiritual place to experience.

Ian and I are closely keeping an eye on the weather for our last ski, but I'm now quickly running out of time. I'm leaving Méribel at the end of next week, so I'm not sure if our planned trip will be possible. As always, I'll keep you posted.

Martin

PS, Have you ever played a competition called 'Spot the ant in the flower' before? Me neither, so heads down, concentrate, and best of luck to you all. The first prize is a Tartiflette next winter courtesy of me.

Charlotte the Chevreuil

After a day of decorating, I decided to go for a stroll before dinner. My faithful friend called Canon came along as well. Would we see a sunset, more spring flowers or any wildlife?

No sunset because of clouds, plenty of spring flowers to trample over, but the bonus of the evening was bumping into this young Chevreuil. Being part of the deer family means that they are very timid and nervous of us humans. But Charlotte, as I've named her, seemed very relaxed and was happy to pose for a staggeringly long five seconds before 'BOYYING', off into the trees she darted. Thanks Charlotte for this experience, I enjoyed meeting you briefly.

The resort has ground to a halt with holiday visitors. Building work has re-started, chairlifts are being serviced, even apartments are being decorated !?! Which leaves time for exploring the area on foot. I'm constantly finding new footpaths, trying to remember routes for mountain biking and walking in the summer, or even skiing off the beaten track next winter.

I love stumbling across spring flowers next to remote mountain huts and wonder what history they all have. This one was a lovely suprise, full of character, and a reflection of the Mont Vallon peak in the window.

Ian and I are still planning a final ski tour at high altitude. But we have to wait for a clear weather window of two full days up at 3,800 meters. But also away from something called the Champions League, says Ian, whatever that means? In the mean time, back to the decorating grind for me, and the occasional walk with my mate Canon of course.

Martin

PS, Harriet, I promise that the decorating list is being ticked off, honestly !?!

Méribel's Gebroulaz glacier

Over the last few years my passion for ski touring has continued to grow. There's nothing like being miles away from any man-made structures, experiencing the best that the high altitude mountain environment can provide.

Before each ski tour many questions are asked, how much physical effort is required, how many hours will it take, what might the snow be like, what are the dangers, will the risk assessment be accurate ?


Last Saturday Ian Saunders - a great friend and colleague of many years - and I went through this list before we commited to our latest adventure, the access and descent of the Gebroulaz glacier. Most visitors to Méribel don't realise that at the head of the valley exists this massive glacier. This is mainly because there are only two places in the valley to see this huge expanse of slow moving solid ice.... from the top of the Saulire peak and behind the Mont Vallon bubble.

With the bottom half of the Three Valley ski area quickly melting, the Gebroulaz stands proud, strong and very white, thousands of meters above. The peak is at a breathtaking, and lung busting (for ski tourers), 3,450 meters or 11,500 feet above sea level.

For the record, the snow was awesome due to a sudden drop of temperature. It took the usual eight hours for the round trip from Méribel. The high risk of crevasses on the glacier was always evident and reminded us to be cautious.

Once the main part of the descent was completed we stopped next to the Refuge du Saut for our picnic. After which we had to continue down to Mottaret, via Lac du Tueda.


At 2,000 meters we ran out of snow to ski on: fortunately our ski touring boots can turn into 'rigid' walking boots from normal ski boots to help in such eventualities. How weird did it feel being in full ski kit, walking through fields of spring flowers, watched by bewildered visitors ?


I also had a fantastic weekend with Harriet before she flew back to England this afternoon. We are now planning our summer in the UK (damn, no high alpine mountains !?!). But hang on a minute, it's been raining and snowing heavily here in the last 24 hours. Can Ian and I possibly squeeze in another adventure? I'll keep you posted.

Martin

Suddenly that's it !?!

Hello everybody, and welcome to my last post about my work this winter. I finished my teaching with Diane and Rachel on Friday. We discussed the power of the mind, how to feel relaxed on skis, and ultimately how to say 'no' to situations and people. Can I just say that at this point I just love my job, it's the best thing ever without being smug. But boy oh boy do I get tired at the end of each winter season. With that in mind, I did absolutely nothing for three days other than recover, and take these photos.

But what a great place to do that, spring time in the Alps. The flowers stop you in your tracks, the trees slowly wake up, and the noise of the streams just explode. Each day gets warmer and warmer. Snow depths that build up all winter suddenly melt and that in turn expands the rivers, as seen here of the Doron cascading down the Méribel valley.

I hope you don't object, but I would like to continue the blog for a couple of more weeks, even though my work has finished. I would like to share with you my experiences in the high mountains before heading back to England. In the next few days Ian Saunders, a great friend and colleague, and I have planned a few ski tours. Plus, my wife Harriet is coming out for a long weekend this weekend. Happy days.

Martin

PS, for those who know me, I'm about to return to my place and worst ever state of fear, the Peclet glacier very soon.....

Crop circles cont'd

More about the crop circles later, but in the mean time Méribel has received spring weather at full throttle in the last week.

The warmer weather of the last couple of weeks has been relentless, without fresh snow, but at least most nights the pistes have been freezing well. The snow on the lower pistes are thinning, and wild spring flowers are popping up all over the place. If you know where to go and at what time of the day, you can make the best of the conditions. Which is what Caroline and I did for our couple of sessions over the weekend.

During our first session Caroline admitted that she was sometimes getting frustrated by skiing in a group, struggling to keep up with them, not knowing what technique to use and hating the burning feeling in her legs. Now bearing in mind that she ran the London marathon last year in a very respectable time, it became clear that fitness was not the issue. My task was to try and simplify her knowledge of technique and tactics, and then prioritise the process of improvement. It was the first time that I used frogs during a ski lesson, but hey, it worked !?! It was great for me to hear Caroline say at the start of our second session that her group had already noticed significant changes.

Terry and Brandon, father and son, had four sessions with me over the Easter weekend. We built confidence on the green slopes, worked hard on energy efficient skiing. And then the grand finale was me taking Brandon up to the top of Saulire and skiing him down a couple of steep blue slopes on the last morning.

Ok, here goes with crop circles under the Cote Brune chairlift again. I've been caught off guard by the response about my previous post titled 'Crop Circles' last week. I've received phone calls from friends in resort, to find out if it was all true. Plus I've received emails from British and French enthusiasts who I suspect have never put ski boots on before. The French guy is a website adminstrator on sightings, with the British guy having written a thesis about crop circles. So, for your enjoyment crop circle lovers, here is a photo of the second pattern.


My teaching work will fizzle out in the next couple of days. I shall have a few days off skis to re-charge, take in the spring sights including random Savoyard buildings below, but also prepare myself hopefully for some end of season ski touring. Please do keep reading in the next few weeks, even though it may feel as though the winter has finished.


Martin

PS, Good luck to Robbie with his ACL reconstruction operation at the end of this week. Can't wait to ski with you again next winter as long as you lose that awful low-hanging trouser builders- crack look !?!

Crop circles

The Oxford English Dictionary defines phenomenon as 'a fact or situation that is observed to exist or happen, especially in one whose cause is in question'.


There have been many been dropped jaws, shrugged shoulders, and conspiracy theories going around resort in the last couple of days. Two 'crop circles' have apppeared from nowhere underneath the Cote Brune chairlift high above Méribel Mottaret. Produced by bored pisteurs, out-of-work ski instuctors or friendly alien visitors? Who knows, but they are very precise!?! And no it's not April Fools Day.

The Joneses are back in town this week. Robbie, the son, is busy being bored because he is unable to ski due to an ACL operation next week. Olivia, the daughter, is busy training in the ESF Competition group. She has so far picked up a silver award in the Chamois slalom race, and a vermeil award in the Fleche giant slalom race, well done. Which only leaves Helen, Chris and I to go searching for spring snow conditions off piste.


Spring snow is where the snow is still frozen from the overnight cooling, it then transforms into softer smooth layers just before turning into stodge as the sun and air temperatures heat the crystals. If caught early enough it provides lovely delicate sensations. We worked on sensitive pressure control, and how to use both of our feet as one unit for steering the skis. Helen and Chris described it as 'like skiing over pillows'. A new description that I haven't heard before, but I just smiled, nodded and agreed with them!?!


Don't tell anyone, but I'm slowly getting photographic geek tendancies, where most evenings I take all my kit to a secret location to take sunset shots. Each evening, in a geeky fashion remember, I capture mountain images each one different depending on weather conditions. The other evening my solitude was rudely interrupted by a piste basher, captured below in a blurred fashion, but I don't think I was spotted shuffling behind the tripod to hide.

Easter is suddenly busy with work, in what is bound to be stonking spring weather again. Have a great Easter weekend.



Martin

Chasing Chemmy

There is a buzz around the resort at the moment, what with the spring weather, the Altitude Festival and of course the British Ski Racing Championships.

The other day we experienced the staggering effect of a thick sea of cloud splitting the mountain in half. The first photo is of Arthur at the top of Saulire, with the sea of cloud below him. Speaking of Arthur, my goodness is he improving this week, what with skiing down steep reds and carving on greens and blues. Most days his parents meet up with us which enables Arthur to show off his skills. It's great for me to be able to see how proud they are of him.

This second photo was taken on the same day, when in fact Arthur's parents were riding up in the Courchevel cable car, with Mont Blanc poking through in the background. The piste conditions are now typical of spring, firm in the mornings but softening late morning. There's still plenty of snow around with no notable piste closures.

The British Champs started on Monday, I've been watching some of the races and I can't deny that I've been keeping my eye out for the top stars. Yesterday evening Graham Bell jogged past me in the street, wow he has muscular legs!?! I was able to see some of the Men's downhill yesterday with Ed Drake ( last year's winner ) almost badly injure himself near the end of the course. Finlay Mickel, pictured, had a great run down. I've also been looking out for Chemmy Alcott as well, more of that later.

After taking delivery of a new filter system for my camera last week, I went up to the Blanchot with all of my other kit and took this picture. I really enjoyed being out in this amazing area capturing the event. I'm looking forward to catching up with the Joneses again next week for their final ski of the winter.

So, Chemmy.... I've seen her several times from a distance and really wanted to talk to her and maybe even have a photo with her. But I came over all shy each time. The zoom lense was fitted instead, and I took this shot for all of my readers to see. I'll write again next week.

Martin

PS. Thanks to Arthur's parents allowing me to take and use his photo.

On strike

For most of this week the spring weather has been on strike. It felt like the start of winter with several cold, windy and snowy days. Tough to be skiing in, but that meant even more of the fresh stuff. We've also seen some stonking skies this week as well, please note that this photo has not been touched in photoshop.

I've had some sessions with Sarah and Georgie this week, pictured below. We concentrated on building confidence at the start of the week by looking at increasing speed control on various pistes.

We looked at making the turning ski grippier in the snow, not by using muscular strength, but by using our body weight. My philosophy is to direct our body weight down to the sweet spot of the ski, underneath our feet, which as a result increases friction between the sharp metal edges and the snow. We found that there are many times when we can in fact have too much friction, so we also looked at how that could be managed. A great choice to have, enough friction, or too much friction. Tony, Maggie and friends were also introduced to this choice, as well as multi-tasking further with steering control.

The weather today improved greatly, which allowed me to make the most of the quiet pistes, and to again appreciate the scenery. I caught up with Rick who kindly took some photos of me enjoying the fresh conditions.

It's a busy week next week. The Altitude Festival is returning to Méribel for a second year. A long list of celebrated stand up comedians, international DJ's and musicians including KT Tunstall are all performing. Have a look at their website for more details, http://www.altitudefestival.com/ .

Last year's Festival was a great success, including the world's highest comedy show at the top of Saulire. This photo was taken last year up at Saulire with Marcus Brigstocke and Andre Vincent after the performance.

Britain's best ski racers are competing here in Méribel at the British National Ski Racing Championships all week. Plus, and most importantly for me, I will be skiing again with Arthur. I need to get re-charged in time for Arthur's visit because he always skis hard and fast, and takes jumps at any opportunity. I'll let you know how it all goes next week.

Martin

Road trip

It's time to own up yet again that I just love skiing. I adore being in the mountains skiing with friends, and sometimes, just sometimes I miss those ski holidays from all those years ago. So last week it was decided that I would selfishly book a day off from work, so that Harriet, Rick and I could all go to Val d'Isere for the day and partially relive such times.

Our friend Phil G from Nottingham was on holiday over there. We drove over with our flask of strong coffee, a bag of pastries and a rendezvous at the bottom of a chairlift. What a great day, awesome weather although very cold; great snow, plus a naughty lunch of burger and chips. We even risked skiing down the 'Face' black piste which hosted many of the World Championship races last month, note the scaffolding for the spectactor stands in the photo above. I've never skied on such an awful piste for years: it was steep and very very icy. We even competed in our own version of 'The World Side-Slipping Championships', because there was no other option to side-slip however much we tried to turn effectively.

Thankfully that took place mid afternoon, so the only option was to then head for the sunny slopes and stop for a vin chaud. Boy oh boy, I was really in holiday mode, to the point of enthusiatically participating in exaggerated discussions on who won our championships, Harriet swears she won because one 'turn' resulted in at least a forty metre descent !?!

Earlier in the week I skied with Jan. Her goal was to try to gain more confidence in skiing away from the piste, whatever the conditions. The Spring sunshine had taken away the possibility of finding powder, so we really concentrated on fine tuning on-piste skills.

Balance and steering - especially patient steering with her feet - were practised off the side of the Mont Vallon pistes. Video was also used during the morning to help Jan see for herself the important effect these skills have, on both piste and off-piste performance.

We both benefited from great weather to be able to work in such environments. To be honest, last week was amazing. Day after day of bright Spring sunshine, without the snow being too affected, with my favourite sunsets to boot. This picture was taken looking down the valley with the Brides-les-Bains bubble in the foreground.

I also had a few sessions with Vadim from Latvia. He arrived at the beginning of the week tired after a heavy workload in the last few months because he works for the Latvian Central Bank. We concentrated on the importance on the role of the turning ski, instead of getting distracted by other factors. With this we were soon all over the mountain. Another great example of meeting wonderful people in this job within the mountains.

Speaking of which, the Dublin bunch from last week. Mary, Rohiyah and the others skied really well developing their confidence by practising the transition from snowplough to parallel skiing on the green pistes.

Next week looks as though the fine weather will continue but with cooler temperatures. I have very little of my own work so I'll keep you posted on what comes my way. Have a great week everybody.

Martin

Sunny days

March has finally returned to normal. After plenty of winter storms recently, we are back to normal March conditions, ie stonking sunny days with warmer temperatures. Sunglasses and strong sun cream are the norm now, plus baseball caps for the chosen few with little hair !?! Snow conditions are still excellent, even with the change in seasons. See the photo of me taken today by Harriet.

Last week was great fun. I enjoyed looking after a kids' group lesson of blue piste standard. They were made up of three Russians, three French and a girl from Hong Kong. No pictures of them for obvious reasons (permissions from all parents / instructor language limitations!) but what a lovely bunch. They seemed to be loving the sport, even though their instructor wasn't quite fluent in all of their native languages.... It was great to see them smiling every morning before the lesson started, and tired but satisfied when meeting up with their parents at the end. I'm still searching on the internet for 'one behind the other' in Russian though. Not to mention "Wait for me at the top of the lift, Mikhail!"

On Friday last week I took a day off, and tried to simulate a scene from the film 'Dumb and Dumber'. In other words I placed myself directly under the flight path of a busy airport, not Heathrow, but a more chilled out but active Méribel Altiport. What a buzz experiencing both the take offs and landings. Brownie points to those who can name the ski lifts in the background!

This week I'm meeting up again with some lovely ladies from Dublin that I first met in January. Their goal is to start the process of moving on from the trusted snowplough to the 'Holy Grail' of skiing, the parallel turn. Plus, Harriet is working hard on her skiing.....This morning we worked on her being more stacked for carving, in other words having a robust body position over the skis. She has really worked hard at this the last few visits, and it's paying off fantastically.

Martin

Super Saturday

After teaching Anna on Saturday morning, I caught up with my wife Harriet for our first 'Love Ski' in several weeks. The weather couldn't have been better, our first sunshine for many days. Plus, heaps and heaps of fresh snow.

It had recently stopped snowing after nearly 48 hours, up to half a metre of the stuff on the upper slopes. In fact we had too much fresh snow for powder skiing, it sounds bizarre doesn't it.

Medium to flat slopes were useless, we stopped dead in our tracks with the sheer resistance. But no way did I want to go on steeper slopes because of the higher avalanche risk, as tempting as it was!?!

So we looked around and found the odd safe pitch. By the way, I don't think Harriet was posing for the camera with her smiles, because both of these shots were taken with a zoom lens.

I can't deny that I love the photos that Harriet took of me wearing my new goggles. I just love the reflections of the mountains and weather, and of course the photographer as well.

Yesterday was also amazing weather, sunny and cloudless skies. But today went back to you know what, yep, heavy snowfalls all day. What a fantastic start to March.

Martin

March snowstorms

It's great having Harriet back in resort. I now don't have to worry too much about the next meal, the food shopping, and the car being dug out at the end of a snowstorm (apparently she managed to ski this morning too!) It's snowed heaps in the last couple of days, which meant a tough week with the weather, poor visibility but fantastic fresh snow conditions.

This week I've had the pleasure of teaching complete beginners, where we've all experienced various emotions and sensations. On Thursday for the first time ever the team skied on the fabled fresh stuff, brilliant reactions all round and endless smiles. They all said that it was much more enjoyable skiing than on 'normal' snow, even though the visibility had dropped.

Each day their confidence grew, to the point where on Thursday they were ready to let rip and go for the racing snowplough position. Oh dear, I may have started something there. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting people from various backgounds, including an Irish banker, a Dutch Government immigration lawyer, a French journalist student, an English midwife, a junior doctor from Cambridge and others. Skiing is a great leveller.

In the next few days the weather is forecast to improve, plus our good friend Dominic will arrive for his first skiing holiday in many years.

Martin