Diplomacy

I’d like to introduce Phil to you all, a lovely chap who continues to make me giggle constantly. We first skied together last winter, with his wife and ‘kids’, so when I received an email from him recently to say they were coming to visit Méribel again over Easter, I very much looked forward to their lessons. What is it about Phil that makes me laugh so much? To be honest I can’t quite put my finger on it. During our first session last week he said, ‘These goggles are killing me, I need to buy a new pair’. Silently and swiftly I looked in the other direction, then chuckled and thought to myself ‘How about adjusting the straps and moving them away from bending over your earlobes, that might help!’

 

Anyway, enough of that. We had a brilliant couple of sessions, where we spoke about finding the perfect position to stand on our the skis. For some people finding this balance point, or as I call it the 'sweet spot' of the skis, is the Holy Grail. Whilst working away on our balance, and tweaking other aspects of our technique, we made the most of the conditions and ventured all over the massive Trois Vallees ski area. We visited one of the highest peaks, the Cime Caron in Val Thorens at a lofty altitude of 3,200 metres, and played around on red and black pistes in Courchevel as well. Both Di and Phil have an academic Mechanical Engineering background, so it wasn’t unusual to be on the receiving end of some very technical questions. Phil would often say to me ‘Am I being stupid, but………?’ And then he’d look at me like this !?!

 

My diplomacy was being tested to the limit. Ok, granted I’m being a little cruel, a cheap joke as many people would say. The Evans family were fantastic fun to ski with, I’ll look back on our sessions with fond memories. Thanks for the Mutzig beers at the Barometer bar before you left at the weekend, I’ll look forward to seeing you again in the future, with or without new goggles !?! Good luck Phil for the interview you have this week, but please please leave your ski goggles at home. Speaking of diplomacy and the Royal Protocol I mentioned last week….. Nope, too early for that just yet.

 

Thankfully the weather has changed since my last post. The blistering heat of a false early summer has moved on, replaced by a few small cooler weather fronts with the odd snowfall as well.

 

April is often the start of the high altitude ski touring season. My work hasn’t quite finished for this winter so I’m not part of this just yet. However I can’t help but notice other mountain visitors taking full advantage of the favourable spring conditions.

 

The temperatures have dropped as mentioned earlier, with the odd fresh snowfall, which mean the super fit ski tourers are in their element. These athletic types are the ones who happily walk/skin up hill for a couple of hours or so, in order gain some fresh tracks in often inaccessible areas by ski lifts. The photo above was taken looking across to the Glacier du Borgne. There are no ski lifts anywhere near this area; the tourers here have rightfully earned their fresh tracks.

Ok, here goes with the continuation of the carrot I dangled during last week's post. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m not exactly one to bang on about myself, I just try to enjoy the mountains and get on with sharing my passion with whoever I share my day with. So when one of my ski school directors told me about my next booking, I got extremely nervous. Do you remember how you felt on the morning of your driving test? Do you remember how you felt on the morning of your wedding (for those of you who are married)? I could continue with this theme, but you get the picture. I had one of those very nervous moments again in life last week when I realised I was about to ski with a member of the Royal Family. I was booked to ski with HRH Prince Edward, also known as The Earl of Wessex. Granted, I’ve had the pleasure of skiing with many captains of industry in the past, including the odd ‘Lord’ and ‘Sir’, even several Olympiads as well. In fact even my father-in-law is a Knight of the Realm. But this seemed completely different somehow. I’d never skied with a Prince, what would he think of me? What should I say? Would he like how I skied? Me, nervous? YOU BET.

I didn’t need to worry though. I was soon put at ease and prepared in advance by one of his ‘people’, a lovely chap called Jim who I got on with very well and was also a great skier. Jim explained that the Earl liked to ski fast, on the tails of his guide's skis, and loved carving. You’re not kidding !?! We had two brilliant days skiing blasting around the mountain. We had the odd official duty to attend to, plus spending time with his family who were on holiday. Here is a sneaky photo of the Earl during a prize ceremony at the British National Alpine Ski Championships, in his white puffa jacket.

 

I completely chickened out of asking him to have a photo taken of us together. It just didn’t seem to be the right thing to ask. But it will be always etched into my memory…… the son of a carpenter (Dad) and PA (Mum) from Sussex gets to ski with HRH Prince Edward in the biggest - and best - ski area in the world. A very very humbling experience.

Live with passion everyone.

Martin