Powder hounds

Let me introduce Mark, a G.P. from Windsor in his mid-fifties who's as fit as a fiddle. I skied with him for three sessions at the end of last week.

At the start of our first session I asked him what he wanted to do. He answered 'Martin, I skied like a demon on the piste yesterday in the sun, but as soon as I go off piste it often goes to pot. So I would like to learn how to cope better off piste.'

This was quite brave bearing in mind the fact that the snow conditions at the time off piste were challenging, plus the visibility was poor the majority of our time together. However, we got straight to it and started to break down how to ski in the fluffy stuff. We looked at getting better balance, plus we worked really hard at effective turning in variable snow conditions.

The last morning together climaxed with perfect, light, deep, fresh snow. The problem was though, the visibilty remained poor as captured above. However, Mark was buzzing from skiing in such lovely snow with his much improved skills. It took a while for the mountain to gradually open up, due to the ski patrol working hard to make the area safe. But I was able to talk to the lift operators to stay informed, because I was determined to be ahead of the rest of the folk on the mountain to get fresh tracks. It worked a treat: we managed to be the very first up the Roc de Tougne lift to be able to ski down the un-tracked Lagopede piste. In fact, the second descent gave us about three minutes of semi-decent light.

We managed three rotations up and down Lagopede with hardly anyone else around us, mainly because no-one could physically see the lift running and piste open. It was a great way for Mark to finish his holiday, with a massive beaming smile.

I would like to introduce someone else to some of you, my wife Harriet. She is a Mechanical Engineer in London, and forty something. Harriet is an experienced skier who couldn't believe her luck with the snow conditions during her long weekend here in Méribel.

She also loves skiing off-piste in fresh conditions, so it was great for us to make the most of the snow conditions after Friday night's storm.

We ventured over into the Belleville valley just as the lighting improved. The nature of off-piste skiing means that every turn feels different, some turns feel amazing in the light fluffy stuff. But other turns can feel a struggle especially if some tricky invisible bushes get in the way !?!

We had heaps of fun exploring the area, skiing in-between shepherds' huts and through back gardens. The snow conditions are at their absolute best at the moment; it's very cold and there's more snow forecast in the next few days as well. The powder hounds should be smiling for quite a while yet.

Martin