Loopy Lou

Stunning sunshine with cold temperatures has followed last week's stormy weather, we even had a little snow last night as well. I'm with Chris, Helen, Robbie and Olivia this week, and have we made the most of the conditions?

Today Helen, Olivia and I went over to Les Menuires to ski down the Lac du Lou itinerary. The girls ski to a very high level which means taking them off the beaten track, ie pistes, is an enjoyable experience. Itinerary means that it's off piste, but often a popular route used by capable skiers. The area is huge with plentiful route options after dropping over the first ridge. We found loads of fresh snow, which made our smiles grow bigger.

After skiing the itinerary we rushed back to St Martin de Belleville to meet up with Chris and Robbie for lunch. Poor Robbie injured his knee a few weeks ago whilst ski racing, which means he is unable to ski now until next winter. Every day this week the skiers have met up with Robbie for lunch. Often he is wearing his new sunglasses, what do you think? They are called Ray Ban Radiators, no sorry that doesn't sound right, maybe it's Aviators.

Today we went to La Ferme de la Choumette, which is more than just a mountain restaurant which you soon realise on approach. It smells a little farm-yardy, in fact it is a full-on alpine farm. After placing our food order, I took Robbie and Olivia down into the barn to see the animals. The first thing that hits you is the smell: it stinks, quite frankly, but in a funny way. There are cows, sheep, goats, a horse and a massive bull. Plus cheese-making next door. I'm not sure how many times we need to wash our clothes again before the smell will disappear? Sorry Helen.

This evening I took part in another special torchlight descent. I'll write about it in the next few days, but let me leave you with a photo of the sunset from the top of Saulire before we lit the torches and skied off into the darkness.

Martin

PS. Thanks to Chris and Helen for allowing me to take and use the photos of Robbie and Olivia.

Sorry boss

The month of Feb means holiday periods from all over Europe. This week is the first of four weeks of holidays for the French. So when I ask my boss for a couple of sessions off work this week I tend to get the shoulder shrugs and funny mouth shapes. Why do I want this extra time off? It's been snowing heaps and heaps of course. My own work has been thin on the ground, so why not catch up with friends and go for a ski?

My first phone call goes out to Martin Jeffers, mentioned earlier last month in a post. We soon got kitted up for off piste, and this time both armed with our Canon DSLR cameras. Although the visibility this week has been poor, bad news for award winning photographs, but still just about OK for epic powder runs. As always I'm dressed in red, and Martin in black.

The last couple of days have been bitterly cold, great for keeping the light snow conditions. So Baltic in fact that lunchtime today at the top of Saulire peaked at -15 degrees, with the bottom of Méribel only rising to -9 degrees, almost Siberian. Speaking of which, dodgy link intended, I have skied with my first Russians in the last three years.

Elena and Yury are from Moscow, on their third week skiing holiday. One of the many great things about my job is meeting people from all walks of life. We had three mornings together, and have spoken about Russian politics, Russian economics in the last ten years, and commenting on other Russian visitors to ski resorts and their fashion sense. It was so nice for me to learn more about their culture first hand.

Next week for me sees the return of the Joneses. So heaps of high level skiing, in what will be very good snow conditions indeed. Will my legs hold out from all the skiing? Will my belly hold out? They always try to force feed me with 'Filets de boeuf', Tartiflettes, and any other naughty treats on the menus and of course I can never resist.

Martin

PS. Sorry if I've over done the powder photos from Monday. I couldn't bear to show you the other photos from yesterday as well !?!

New boots

One of the most important piece of skiing equipment in the arsenal of skiers is ski boots. Without good fitting boots, it really doesn't matter what skis or what snow conditions are like, if you have ill fitting boots then your enjoyment is massively affected. My alpine boots tend to last for two winters, about 40 weeks, before their performance is reduced.

Most people often delay replacing their ski boots because their current ones feel comfortable, even amongst my colleagues. It's a big day when you walk into a shop and say "I would like a new pair please". Simply because it can be a gamble, you are trusting the boot fitter with your comfort, and certainly in my case, skiing performance. I can't deny it was any different this time when I walked into a local shop called Freeride. I didn't care what colour or make they were going to be, they had to fit and perform, that simple. Almost two hours later I nervously walked away with a new pair. And after three skiing days later, with a couple of tiny minor tweaks by the boot fitting staff, I'm very happy and relieved. No blisters, no pressure points, no tears during the day, and no constant fiddling with the clips plus additional performance. Result.

After teaching the Bolderos, Nicky and Sue, and then Martin, James and Andy this week I decided to take a well deserved day off. I popped lower down the valley to Les Allues and had a walk around this traditional village with my camera. It was the second day in a row of snow and overcast weather, so I opted for some close up photos.

How strange to see my own monument already !?! This week appears to have very low temperatures forecast and further heavy snowfalls during the middle of the week. Perfect conditions then to continue testing my new dancing shoes.

Martin

Funny times

What a bizarre week it's been. Harriet's visit this weekend was longer than originally planned. I was able to spend a couple of afternoons after work free-skiing with her and friends, a rare treat. Sunshine and great conditions enhanced our enjoyment.

Harriet left Méribel on Monday morning to go back to work at Jaguar Land Rover, only to return in resort again ten hours later. Her flight from Geneva into Birmingham was cancelled, something to do with heavy snow falls in the UK. How odd, the UK has ground to a halt after just "a few centimetres" of snow. It's all too easy for us out here to chuckle about such problems, when in the Alps life goes on as normal in such eventualities.

The snow conditions here continue to be very good. We've had some very high winds yet again recently, but this time the slopes haven't been affected anywhere near as much as earlier on in the season. The photos of Jonathan, taken yesterday, demonstrate this.

I've skied with Sparkie for a few mornings this week. We've been together now for three winters, and it's so nice to see her develop technique and confidence each visit. I've lost count the amount of times where skiing can be compared to other sports, one of which is her main sport, eventing (serious horse-riding!) Sparkie is also one of a group on holiday together.

She loves having lessons before catching up with the others in the group for more skiing. And then later being part of discussions about ski technique, ski psychology, going for it (!?!) and all the other stuff that we tend to talk about in the evening.

What's to look forward to in the next few days? We are due some more snow again. Plus, I've just had my first boot fitting for alpine ski boots in the last two winters. How did it go? How will they feel? I'll let you now in the next post. Enjoy your snow in the UK.

Martin

Goals

Since last weekend we've enjoyed fabulous skiing conditions. The snow deposited during those hefty storms has stayed fresh and light. Perfect for every visitor this week in Méribel. My main focus this week has been on helping Chris. Let me introduce you to him, second from the left on the chairlift.

I've skied with Chris for several winters and as always the main goal has been to 'stay as relaxed as possible to enjoy the holiday'. A totally understandable goal.

This goal could easily have been met by staying in the comfort zone of the fantastic Altiport (or officially named Blanchot) piste for five mornings. Don't get me wrong, it is an amazing piste for developing confidence and fine tuning technique. But there are other pistes that can be used to gradually ease the transition from greens to blues.

Chris is very analytical and precise in nature, skills he puts to good use as a Fund Manager. He truly understands the methodology of skiing. As always, isn't the theory of skiing quite simple? Putting it into practice is the tricky part. I've never come across anyone so driven, determined and intent on improving as Chris. We made it through the holiday, with improvement and staying relaxed. It looked as though Chris didn't want to stop skiing at the end of his last lesson, now that's a rewarding sign for me.

Next week promises plenty, I'm catching up with Sparkie, a motivated and successful equestrian rider. But also her husband of many (understatement) years of skiing. There's always plenty of banter with this bunch. But also Harriet is out again this weekend, just for a few days but I know she's looking forward to it.


Martin

Mr Grumpy Pants?

Being a Ski Instructor has many ups and very few downs, and I'm not talking about ski lifts being the ups and pistes being the downs. I passionately love sharing my knowledge with other skiers if it helps them improve or enjoy the mountains more. But we are all self employed, which means we only get paid when we work. This winter appears to be bringing fewer visitors to Méribel - and those who are visiting aren't booking as many ski lessons.

So does that mean all instructors are turning into Mr and Mrs Grumpy Pants with reduced income? Maybe some of them, but not this one. Not a chance. Forget it. Granted, I'm having to cut back on buying tartiflettes and ski kit, but that's no real loss. Less work means more time for free skiing.

On Thursday morning I phoned a friend in resort, Rick, to see if he fancied cruising around before my final lesson with Debra that afternoon. We met up and skied a few runs, marvelled at the scenery, made silly shapes with our shadows, and looked at various animal tracks in the snow. We also stopped for a strong coffee and put the world to rights. It felt as though I was on a ski holiday again just like all those years ago.

After coffee, I left Rick and skied off to the meeting point to join up with Debra. On the way there I had to pinch myself, to check that it wasn't a dream, because it was just so stunning. Commuting to work on skis, in such jaw-dropping scenery. Even in my eleventh winter season here in Méribel, it still gets to me. I don't recall having the same emotions during my summers with BSM, ie when not driving instructing, going for a cruise around the Coventry ring road for fun !?!

This week is also a little quiet for work, I have five mornings with Chris, who I will write about next time. We've experienced some brutal wintery storms here recently, don't forget to stay in touch with snow conditions by looking at http://www.merinet.com/snow_report.php . Snow conditions have really improved in the last week, with a little more due again on Monday.

Have a great week, and I'll post again soon.

Martin

PS. A personal message to Robbie after his nasty fall at the British Schools Championships. Keep your pecker up fella, and I look forward to seeing you in a few weeks time, please don't whack your sister too many times with the crutches.

A skier's dream

Today turned out so much better than I thought it would in many ways. As I left my apartment, skidding down the road, it stopped snowing. I collected my ski kit down at the school, walked towards the lift, and the sun came out. What with the first decent snow fall in a month, then bright sunshine, I had a good feeling about what lay ahead.

At the start of our session this morning, I learnt that Debra had never skied in fresh snow before during previous holidays. With the Altiport green piste only partially groomed, we soon had heaps of fun snowploughing in the virgin snow. In and out of the trees, checking our balance, testing our ski steering and making sure we made the most of these conditions. Smiles everywhere. Debra was buzzing with these new sensations. We can't wait to build further confidence tomorrow morning after the groomers make the pistes smoother tonight.

A couple of minutes before meeting Debra I received a phone call from a good friend of mine, Martin Jeffers. "Mate, are you working this afternoon?". Martin is a fellow ski instructor and also a keen photographer. I replied "No mate, not working but I'm still rough with man flu, little energy". He continued "Me too, had it for two weeks now, so let's go and play for only an hour. Bring your camera, I forgot mine". I replied "You Gumby, OK see you later".

Martin and I go back years, we took many ski instructing exams together, in particular the demanding Euro Mountain Security. This exam comprises of serious off piste skiing and ski touring miles away from civilisation. We trust each other and especially share the same passion for the mountains and skiing.

So off we went after lunch. We popped off here and there, got my trusty Canon camera out and just played. Fantastic fun, my first free skiing since telemarking a couple of weeks ago.

We didn't last long with energy, one hour in fact, but it didn't matter. As soon as I got home this afternoon, it clouded over and has been snowing again since. A skier's dream.

A cup of tea was gulped at home, then I plonked down on the sofa and fell asleep yet again for 45 minutes. Damn that man flu, can't complain though, it allowed me plenty of fun today with Debra this morning, and then Martin this afternoon. Even more snow is forecast for the end of the week, loads in fact. Bring it on. Just in time for Chris and Stuart's arrival.

Martin

It's snowing

This morning I was woken up by the noise of road clearers outside, nothing to do with litter, but moving snow. Fantastic, I really don't mind being woken up so early by that.

Last night it was raining in resort, but the forecast confirmed that the precipitation was to continue with the temperatures dropping. Thank goodness it did. So here are just a couple of photos grabbed early this morning. I'll take the camera out to work today, so hopefully I can post a few more photos later on tonight. I'm really looking to forward to today's skiing.

Martin

Man flu

First things first: the sunny weather is relentless at the moment. Day after day has been glorious. I now don't bother looking out of the window first thing each morning in anticipation of what the weather will bring . It will be a shock to the system when the blue skies disappear.

Normally this week of the season is very quiet for work. Visitor numbers are always low. So when my "man flu" started at the weekend, I was relieved that I had hardly any work. Time to recharge, the free skiing can wait for another time, just get rid of the sniffles and sore throat. It's my biggest fear being ill during the winter because energy levels can drop, enthusiasm can wilt, and maybe that endless patience......... well let's not even consider what a disaster running low of patience would be. Most blokes can relate to the effect of man flu, we all try to avoid banging on about it, but believe me it's a challenge. Quite how us fearless blokes get through each day without complaining I do not know.

So my last session with Jim and Geraldine (with man flu, remember) really focussed on pressure control, we really went for it. Then Rick booked a lesson - he was willing to be exposed to my man flu, what a soldier! We went to town on extreme scrubby turns and extreme carving turns. Phew that took it out of me. But then Helmine, Louise and Phil contacted me for a couple of lessons, whatever happened to this being a quiet week? We also exaggerated pressure control, we went to war with squashing the bugs, and we made sure we piloted the skis. Lemsips and Sudafed were running out now. Then finally Mary, Jane and Rohiyah (pictured above) kept booking me to continue building their confidence snowploughing on the green slopes.

Maybe I didn't need to worry about the dire effects of man flu, the bookings kept coming. I personally think that Lemsips and Sudafed are overated. Maybe spending all day in the mountains, with sunshine and fresh mountain air being surrounded by motivated skiers is the best cure. Amazing stuff that, because keeping on top of man flu is no easy thing, as blokes know, not that we like banging on about it!?!

Early indications show that we are due some snow early next week, I'll keep you posted. Plus I'm looking forward to meeting Debra. Have a good week everybody.

Martin

Typical early January

With the festive period and the Russian Christmas behind us, Méribel is a quiet and more peaceful place compared to recent weeks. January is one of my favourite months with empty slopes, cold temperatures and very often sunny days. The first photo shows the view from my bathroom window, which was taken early this morning before going to work. It may explain why I start each day very happy and relaxed. There has been a trend recently of cold, clear blue sky days much like today, typical for January. I understand that the UK has been colder than normal this week, unusually getting almost close to alpine figures. The second photo was taken yesterday morning down at Chaudanne confirms this, please note the temperature reading of -10 degrees.

However, a few days ago we again received some light snowfalls just like last week. Even though it wasn't a heavy snowfall, every little helps. With the cold temperatures keeping the new snow light, and the excellent piste grooming every night, we are still enjoying good conditions.

This week has been fun catching up with some of my regulars, Dan and Kay earlier in the week, then Jim and Geraldine today and later on again this weekend. I also took Harriet back to Geneva airport at daft o'clock on Tuesday morning. This afternoon was my first spare time in several weeks, so I asked if I could telemark with Jim, Geraldine, Rick and Lisa for company. So after the morning lesson and lunch, I quickly changed into my telemarking kit, and off we all went over to St Martin de Belleville. It was great fun sliding downhill together, looking at the views and generally enjoying ourselves.

Next week looks very quiet for me work wise, so I will take this opportunity to recharge my batteries, and then go for a slide. I can't think of a nicer place to be.

Martin

PS. New Year resolutions need adjusting, three pizzas and one tartiflette have somehow popped into my diet in the last seven days !?! How are you doing?

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everybody, and welcome back to a sunny but cold Méribel. Yesterday and last night we received some fresh snow which freshened the mountain nicely. The first two photos were taken today, what a great start to 2009.

These photos introduce you to Arthur, my companion for this week. At 8 years old he is a typical smiley fella, who is now increasingly on the lookout for jumps. We've certainly found plenty of those so far this week, even a few extra secret routes containing bumps and jumps in the Altiport forest. But, interestingly for his age, he also adores learning technique. This means every day I'm able to go through some exercises with him which directly improve his skiing. He is desperate to ski as well as his much older brother one day, I have no doubt that this will happen.

On New Years Eve I took part in the torchlight descent. It was as much fun as ever, and a real bonding experience with the other instructors. Maybe this is something to do with various drinks being passed around before the off. There were a couple bottles of the local brew, genepi, that I spotted which I was able to avoid. Unfortunately my hip flask of whisky didn't last long, thanks Ian and Mike !?! This time my torch didn't blow out on the way down for the first time ever, result.

We all have another descent next week to help the Russians celebrate their (orthodox) Christmas. The numbers of people on the pistes will drop drastically this weekend with the end of the festive period. Next week I'm looking forward to catching up again with Dan and Kay, and also with Jim and Geraldine.

My New Year resolutions are to ski more, and eat less tartiflette and pizzas. It's not going very well though, I ate a tasty pizza at lunchtime with Arthur and family, oops. Have a great week.

Martin

PS. Thanks to Arthur's parents for permission to take and use the photos.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everybody from Méribel. There's been a festive feel around the mountain in the last few days. This has been helped by wonderful weather with sunshine for several days, as illustrated in the photo of Harriet taken yesterday on Christmas Eve.

There have been the usual sightings of Father Christmas costumes and hats on the pistes and in town, especially last night outside the Tourist Office. Every Christmas Eve here in Méribel we have carols sung by those willing to let rip, expertly accompanied by professional musicians. The atmosphere was friendly and warming despite the chilly temperatures. In the photo from left to right are Cat, Jeffers, Emily and Harriet.

The piste conditions are holding up well despite the increased numbers of visitors. Skiing and sitting on chairlifts has been a pleasure this week helped along by the sunshine and views. I've spent a couple of sessions with Ella, from Australia (via Hampshire). It's her first time in the French Alps, and on skis, so we've had the usual wobbles along the way. It's great to see how quickly novices pick up the skills needed to be able to balance and turn on green slopes. Ella even managed to enjoy the process. Here's a photo of her this morning, I hope her family can pull themselves away from their barbeques in the southern hemisphere summer sun to take a look?

Next week promises plenty. I will catch up with Arthur and family from Monday. Plus there is the Méribel ESF torchlight descent and fireworks on New Years Eve. Will we all stay upright? How many times will my damned torch blow out? Will there be enough whisky in all of our hip flasks to last the descent?

Have a great festive period.

Martin and Harriet

New Skis

It's very difficult to select a pair of skis that provide good all-round performance. Let's face it, whenever we read articles in the press about equipment, or walk into shops, we are bombarded with so much choice that it's tough to even define what type of skier we are. On Tuesday I walked into a local shop called Freeride.fr to pick up a new pair of skis for the winter. How will they perform? How will they feel? Will they match my uniform?!?

Much to my wife's despair, I love new skiing equipment. New clothes, new sunglasses, new hats, new telemark, touring and slalom skis etc. But what is it that makes new equipment feel so fantastic. Is it because technology evolves every year? Maybe. Is it because anything new feels like the next best thing? Maybe. I can't decide on this. I try to relate it to other things in life, for instance new running shoes, a new bread knife, a new laptop, or even a new car. They all feel fantastic.

Anyway, back to my new skis. Since last Tuesday I've had a mixture of teaching and free skiing in different conditions. Which has helped me form an opinion of them.... They absolutely rock, they're awesome, the edge grip is fantastic but at the same time they give me versatility when I need it. How does this happen? I don't know, I can't pretend to understand all the technical wizardry, they just feel great.

But hang on a minute, isn't that what this sport is all about, feeling great on skis in the mountains? Feeling great by using the effective tool of snow plough turns on the green slopes. Feeling great by achieving parallel turns on an icy blue slope. Feeling great by making it over to another valley away from the usual area. Or feeling great by carving down slopes that you didn't think were possible to carve.

For the techno types out there, the skis that have helped me feel great the last few days are Head Super Shape Speeds 170. I'm sorry Harriet for getting carried away again with new kit, I know it was your turn this winter for new skis, but I've just seen another pair that I wouldn't mind trying. Tools of the trade.

Martin

PS, thanks to Freeride.fr

PPS, thanks to Rick for taking the photos of me late on Thursday afternoon in the fading light.

Carving and Bumps

Hello Team. This week feels as though it's flown by since the last post. Helen and Olivia have had every morning skiing around the mountain since Sunday. Helen is gradually gaining her confidence after last winter's incident. I can see every day, just from her body language, that she's happier on her skis. As for Olivia, it's very interesting to see her skiing develop. We have skied together for nearly four winters now, but in the last twelve months she has spent some extra time skiing with the Kandahar Ski Club. This race training has clearly developed her skiing, not only gaining extra speed but enhancing control. Have a look at her carving technique above, and the clean tracks left behind in the snow.

In the last few days the FIS World Cup Bump skiers have been training and entertaining Méribel. Today was the grande finale, with an awesome display of skill. Over the lunch period it was encouraging to see an excited cosmopolitan crowd gather which included both visitors to resort, plus locals, and of course television crews.

It's amazing to see the best in the world at the pinnacle of their sport. Very motivating, not that my knees could realistically cope with such demands, even if I felt I could train again to the extent of these athletes.

Snow conditions have changed constantly over the last six days. On Sunday and Monday we experienced some ferocious winds here, with gusts of up to 200 Kilometres an hour on the peaks. This meant that some aspects had been stripped of loose snow. However, I've been moving around the mountain freely since the weekend, and haven't noticed any serious loss of snow on the well- prepared pistes. Oh yes, it snowed again yesterday, so everywhere has been freshened up nicely again since these storms.

So, the next few days offers plenty. From Saturday onwards all of the lifts and pistes should open.....Let's not forget that Méribel is smack bang in the middle of the biggest ski area in the world. Plus, some sunshine is expected, I'm looking forward to that because we haven't seen much recently. Most importantly for me though, Harriet is flying out on Friday evening for a few weeks. Happy days.

Martin

Piste Conditions

Hello everybody from a very cold Méribel, which is currently suffocating underneath yet another fresh thick blanket of snow. I can't believe how well the winter season has started. Every piste that I've skied on this week has felt creamy, fluffy, velvety, forgiving, dreamy and any other words that spring to mind........If you've been lucky enough on previous holidays to have had these sensations, then you know what I mean, it's very hard to put into words. Anyway, this is how it is right now, every turn, every piste, each day, even on the way home at the end of the afternoon. Now before you strike me off your list of friends and walk past ignoring me in the (snowy) street, I just want to mention one more thing, there's nobody here, it's deserted. I just love early season skiing.

Early season skiing is exactly what Rick and Paul came out for this week. Their goal for the first few days with me was to kickstart their skiing. For example fine tuning balance, double-checking the quality of steering and making sure that no new bad habits creep in. It really doesn't matter what standard of skier you are, it's all very important stuff. Rick and Paul are at a very high level, so it didn't take long for me to really dive further into their performance: using my video camera helped with this.



Sometimes it's easy to become obsessed with technique, but we found it useful to learn and understand what else can affect performance. We spoke about the relationship between technique, tactics and pyschology. In conjunction with using the video, we broke down what would happen if we changed one of these three inputs. We also found it useful to talk about these inputs in sports that they participate in back home, golf and tennis. This helped the understanding further by comparing these sports to skiing. What I found interesting was that as soon as we went back out onto the mountain, they were both ripping around in control and with playfulness. I was really pleased with how those sessions went.


So what is there to look forward to in the coming week? Lisa had her first lesson of the winter this afternoon, see us together below, with more to follow this week. Helen and Olivia are also arriving at the weekend. Last December Helen unfortunately got hit by some rotter on the slope, and has spent most of the last 12 months recovering with a couple of operations on her shoulder and heaps of rehab. She emailed me last night and told me that she could not wait to get back on skis again. So with more lifts opening at the weekend, my job is to find some quiet slopes (that won't be difficult) and build her confidence back up again. Also the World Cup circus is coming to Méribel next week, with the first round of the bumps season long competition. I personally can't wait to see these rubber-legged individuals in action.


In the meantime, have a good week everyone, and don't forget to keep fit over the festive holiday period. You are all staying fit, right?

Martin

Smiles Everywhere

Sunday morning and I open my eyes searching for the radio alarm clock. Through half open eyes I can see the numbers 07.20, and hear the radio come to life. Hmm, toasty warm bed............ I open my eyes again and see different numbers, 07.35. Yikes, time to get up, blimey it's cold. I bumble downstairs, yes it's colder this morning, where's that coffee pot? Time to rub my eyes again and walk to the window, WOW.

It's one of those 'heart stopping moments'. The view was fantastic, it's sunny, something we haven't seen for ages. Yesterday was the first day of the season here in Méribel, and it was a 'little' overcast, however the conditions were amazing. I managed a couple of ski runs before starting work at 10.30, a huge smile grew on my face, but then hang on a minute, everyone else had smiles as well. So it was then time to meet Jan, Karin, Jill and Cecilia.




So over the next two days I spent time talking, laughing, skiing and eating (tartiflettes!) with the girls. I had really forgotten how much fun this job was, especially to see the amount of progress people can make in such a short space of time. Today was fantastic, cold, blue skies, empty pistes, lifts working and of course those views. But then before you know it, people go back home to the UK, thankfully normally there are plenty that take their places. So, tomorrow I will catch up with Rick and Paul, and then towards the end of the week Lisa.


This week promises lots of fun in the sun, empty pistes and a bit of free skiing for me, and you never know, I may even evetually get connected to the interent again. Thanks Jan for letting me use your connection this evening. Have a great week everybody.


Martin

It's a great start

Hello everybody from a very chilly but white Meribel. It's soooo good being back in the mountains again, especially seeing all the fresh snow. The temperatures are very low, so there are also huge piles of artificial snow now being created, squashed and groomed by the piste bashers.

The conditions are better than normal, which means that the opening date of the resort has been brought forward a week to this weekend, fantastic! However, because I am so impatient to get on my skis, I went to Val d'Isere yesterday for my first few wobbley turns. My feet objected to being introduced to their 'home' for the next five months though, ie ski boots. Snow conditions were great, but the weather was challenging with poor visibility. But quite honestly I didn't care, I was skiing again, it's that simple.

My plan before starting work here on Saturday is to have another day or two in Val.......I'm still patiently waiting for France Telecom to restart my internet at home (I'm writing this post from a friend's machine, thanks Suzy!) Harriet is able to check my inbox regularly back in England, so I am being kept up to date with emails. Hopefully I'll be fully operational soon, in time to report back about the big opening this weekend.