The Olympic Torch Relay

It’s July already and I’ve just realised I haven’t posted for a while. So here is just a very short one, in fact I’ll link you to my other website for the main report.

A few days ago, the Olympic Torch Relay passed through Leamington Spa, just half a mile away from where Harriet and I live. The afternoon passed quickly due to the festive atmosphere. Canon and I were very lucky to get a half decent spot to stand, courtesy of a friendly chat to the Police. So without further ado, please link across to my Wedding website for a summary of the event, http://www.hemsleyphotography.co.uk/wedding-photo-blog/olympic-torch-documentary-photography.html  . I’m looking forward to visiting the Olympic Games in just a month’s time, can’t believe Harriet and I have got hold of tickets.

Martin 

The Pug had to go

Hi everyone from Leamington Spa. I couldn’t resist sharing a few more photos of  the gorgeous bouquetins and marmots from a few weeks ago. I had two more days of walking and shooting with Canon after the previous post but before leaving Méribel.

One of my favourite walks in Spring is up and above the Lac de Tueda area. There are a few families of marmots in the area who gradually start to wake up and begin sniffing around. This Spring it was trickier to access the higher areas because of the amount of snow still on the ground. Good fun all the same, even though the marmots probably couldn’t quite figure out what the hell I was doing floundering around. Down at the level of the lake, getting around was much easier.

I also nursed the Pug (my Peugeot car) to one final visit into the Vanoise National Parc. The stiff clutch, slightly leaky undercarriage, mis-firing engine, confusing speedo, erratic sensor warnings and various other challenges were ignored. I had a cracking location that I wanted to visit one last time.

According to my (French) wildlife book, bouquetins are rare creatures. However in the Vanoise National Parc they are of course protected, but also in fact monitored very closely. They are fascinating animals to watch.

For such large animals they have amazing balance, especially if they spotted tasty looking leaves. I read in the book that they were great climbers as well, I couldn’t believe that for one moment, and dismissed this fact due to my possible dodgy translation.

Tell you what though, they were pretty impressive. Perhaps I should have more confidence with my French? Sadly there was no delaying the inevitable that Pug, Canon and I had to leave Méribel. It was a long uncomfortable drive back. Pug had decided to deny me air con again. The CD player had gone on strike in sympathy. Plus driving along the auto route was an interesting experience with a mis-firing engine at 80 mph, for a full 680 miles in France and a further 220 miles in England.

My patience was tested to the maximum, to the point where the Pug had to go. Within a week of getting back to Leamington Spa, Harriet and I said goodbye to the Pug, and said hello to a replacement car we’ve called ‘The Silver Bullet’.

This year I plan to update the blog more frequently than previous summers, so please stay tuned. Plus I will be updating my other skiing blog regularly on www.mh2ski.co.uk . I’m even going to get Mike, the other half of mh2,  to contribute the odd post over the summer. Not that I’ve told him yet !?! Next week I’ll post another article on the mh2 blog and talk about what I’ve been up to since returning. You will also find a few more photos of marmots and bouquetins. Don’t forget you can read more scintillating scribbling on my other blog, see www.hemsleyphotography.co.uk, I’ve posted loads already.

Martin

P.S. I have this theory that makes Harriet roll her eyes. For those who don’t know me that well, I really struggle in the heat - not that I bang on about it much. So over the years I’ve invented a new ground breaking theory that helps me deal with it. I’ve decided that the UK has just three heat waves each summer. Last week was the first, which means we’ve only two heat waves left this summer, how brilliant is that?      

Peek-a-boo

I’ve had a funny time here in Méribel since my last post. One of my goals was to go ski touring, but sadly a few things got in the way of that including a poorly car, and a poorly me! However that means I’ve taken the opportunity to be as productive as I can during this down time at the end of the ski season. Plus I’ve been able to go for a couple of walks out into the Vanoise National Park.

It’s something I enjoy and look forward to each spring. For you to be reading this blog in the first place, outside of the ski season, probably means that you are no stranger to my waffling. If that’s the case, then I apologise for repeating this often quoted phrase, “I so love the mountains, and everything about them.”

The scenery blows me away, the skiing is quite a bonus without a doubt, and I also love seeing the wildlife as well. During the main part of the ski season it can be tricky to spot our furry, hairy and slimy friends. But you see the thing is, many of these friends, don’t want to be friendly with us humans thanks very much. Some creatures have zero tolerance, and others have a considerable distance as part of their personal space. This is where Canon and I play a game called peek-a-boo.

It’s exactly the same game that we all played when we were kids. You did play peek-a-boo didn’t you, please don’t tell me I was the only one with my invisible imaginary friends? Anyway our furry, hairy and slimy friends always spot Canon and I before we do them. This is where peek-a-boo comes into play.

Quite what the bouquetins and marmots think about this ‘game’ played by a bald idiot I do not know. But hey it’s a fun game, I enjoy it, and it’s a good job we are all different isn’t it? My Mum said last night on the phone that “Life would be boring Son if we are all the same”, quite right Mum, quite right.

I’ll be heading back to the UK at the weekend, leaving my beloved mountains, skis and creatures behind, but all good things have to come to an end, for another seven months until next winter. I’ve got soooo much to look forward to. It seems as though I haven’t seen my wife for ages, also friends and family. Plus I’m hugely motivated, and can’t wait to dive back into my Wedding Photography again. If you will miss reading my inane ramblings on here then please feel free to dip into my other blog occasionally on www.hemsleyphotography.co.uk . I’ll be writing regularly about a different subject of course, but with a similar style and passion.

Live with passion everyone.

Martin  

Didn’t expect that

 

Today I returned from an unforgettable week over in Val d’Isere. I was working again for Inspired to Ski, alongside one of my best mates and fellow ski instructor Slippers Jackson. The weather was pretty awful for most of the week, ie only sunny for one day out of six. The rest of the time we were submerged in thick cloud which gave us heaps of fresh snow. Perfect for the type of skiers Slippers and I were with, powder bopping and bunny hopping grown up kids!?!

Our focus was to try to find enjoyable off piste conditions, which normally this time of the ski season would be locating spring snow before it melts, instead we had to deal with fresh powder everyday. Here is Slippers on the right checking that everyone’s ‘beeps’ are transmitting correctly before we dived down the north face of the Borsat in waist deep pow pow !?!

Pow pow, “What are you talking about Martin?'” I hear you ask. I couldn’t help noticing this winter on facetube that all the cool dudes were often mentioning pow pow. So in a desperate attempt to ‘stay down with the kids’, pow pow it is during the rest of this post. At least I still pull my trousers up to where they should be. Anyway, back to last week.

Every morning before joining up with our groups, Slippers and I would have a coffee together at the Gourmandine and plan our day ahead. Our goal was to always find the best pow pow of course, but also to select the appropriate terrain that would enable our powder hounds to have fun, stay safe and work on developing their skills.

But one of the challenges over in Val d’Isere and Tignes is the sheer choice. I’d name an area, but Slippers would make another suggestion, and then we would both say ‘but how about…’.

I took my camcorder along for three of the days, and later reviewed the footage each evening with my group to help analyse and discuss further how to improve everyone’s performance.

We also practised a ‘beeps’ search on the mountain, as discussed and described on an earlier post. But the highlight was skiing the pow pow all over the mountain. Here is Slippers ‘ripping a phat one’, he’s still got the magic !?!

We were dead lucky to receive the one sunny day, everyone was still buzzing last night about Tuesday. However the rest of the time was a challenge, ‘visibility is overrated’ was quoted several times during the week. Here’s Tony still enjoying the deep pow pow in the poor vis.

“Hey Tony, are you enjoying that?” Oh, no reply, how rude……. Hang on, he seems to be choking on the pow.

Last week was such an awesome way to finish my ski teaching for this winter, an unexpected treat. I’ve got just under two weeks left here in Méribel before returning to the UK. There’s a list of chores to deal with, however I’m hoping to go ski touring and share some time with Canon hunting wildlife during my chill down period. It’s great to have passion in life isn’t it?

Martin

P.S. The great thing about skiing in the deep pow pow is that if it all goes belly up you can have a very soft landing, depending on how fast you are skiing, as demonstrated by Big Dave.

 

Sorry Dave, couldn’t resist, bouncy bouncy.

Change of focus!

Last night I popped out for an hour or so, with Canon again and his friends. Why did I do this? Firstly I’d been cooped up in my apartment all day decorating and was struggling with ‘cabin fever’,  but also the smell of fresh paint was seeping into, well you don’t need to know where it was seeping !?! Plus, to be honest, I sensed that we were in for a possible belter of a sunset. Later whilst stood by tripod, Canon and all (oh and a hip flask), I realised that I hadn’t had a decent sunset photographic session for two months.

‘How on earth did that happen?’ I pondered taking another swig of very fine Bowmore whisky from my hip flask looking down the vast valley, whilst exposing away with Canon. Simple really, it’s called work. This isn’t a whinge and a moan, because I love my job with a passion. However, often every single ounce of energy, every minute of sleep (including late afternoon power naps) and every slice of pizza is needed to help me share this passion with those I ski with. This week I didn’t have any of my own work, likewise the school is much quieter as well, which meant it was a perfect chance for rest and recovery. Some of my (alpha male) colleagues would possibly moan about the lack of work. But to be honest, because I’ve been skiing almost solidly since the end of November, I’m quite happy to slow down briefly.

I’ve relaxed for several days now, caught up on emails, phoned home a few times, done some decorating, even had a sunset shoot with Canon. But it’s snowed this week. In fact it’s snowed a fair bit. Surely I should be heading up the mountain one last time?

These two photos (above and below) have been taken from my apartment again, showing the beauty of the mountains in winter. Why haven’t I skied the last couple of days? I’ve got one more week of work starting at the weekend back over in Val d’Isere, and I need to be on top form. I understand that my clients are at a high level, red and black piste skiers who want to venture further afield off piste. That means it’s going to be pretty physical, hence I need my rest now. But I keep looking outside at this fresh snow, it doesn’t feel natural to not ski in these conditions, knowing that 20 cm in resort means a huge amount more higher on the mountain.

I’ll be catching up and working again with one of my best mates, Slippers Jackson from Morzine, on Saturday. Can’t wait.  Looks like it’s going to be an epic week. Get the feeling I don’t want this winter to finish?

Martin  

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

Spring Fever

I’m very lucky with where I live in Méribel, the apartment is perfectly situated close to the pistes, in the middle of town, but also with some gorgeous views looking down the valley. This time of year the colours down on the south facing mountains seem to change daily. Spring is on full throttle at the moment, the longer hot sunny days accelerate the melting of the snow and turn the south facing aspects from winter brown colours to green. Each morning when I wake up, I look down onto the village of Villard,  above Les Allues, just as the early morning sun lights up the small hamlet.

Oops, there I am banging on about the scenery again, just like my previous post. Back to skiing, last week I taught a small multi-national group of beginners. Let me go through the list; Connor from Dublin (who sadly doesn’t feature in any of these photos due to a niggling injury on his last day), Sam from England, Galayna from Malaysia, Vanessa from Australia and finally Ung from South Korea.

It was brilliant fun introducing them all to my favourite sport of skiing, we kept it relaxed and simple, and took it one day at a time, starting on the nursery slope, then progressing to a green piste when we were ready. The mountain has been very quiet recently, which really helped us all progress rapidly without being terrorised by whizzing maniacs.

On the final day you could see them all grow in confidence and really enjoy the experience of skiing. In fact on the fifth and final day I asked them all if they thought they had become hooked on this new type of holiday? Before I even finished the question I received the answer, it was a resounding YES. Job done as a certain celebrity chef would say.

It’s so nice being able to share their experiences of fun and progression. Starting off as wobbly jellies of stress, quickly evolving into confident snow-ploughers. It’s often sad saying goodbye to people at the end of their holiday, especially when you realise you may not see them on skis again in the future.

Both last week and this week has seen the British Alpine Ski Racing Championships taking place here in Méribel on the Olympic race piste. There’s been some awesome ski racing on view, and there’s certainly been a buzz each morning whilst the racing has taken place. More on that perhaps during the next post.

Plus as a Private Ski Instructor in Meribel, I’ve recently had, and will continue again later in the week, an incredible experience. Let’s just say that I’ve climbed another rung on the ski instructing ladder. However I don’t want to get too carried away on my blog, because I need to check the Royal protocol again at the end of this week and find out firstly if I can say anything, and secondly what I can in fact say.

Have a great week.

Martin   

Caught myself staring again !?!

How many times have you been caught staring at something, well, how do I say this, that’s gorgeous and beautiful beyond measure? I’d wager that it’s been quite a few times. But is it sad when you suddenly catch yourself doing it, or is it just human nature? No, Méribel hasn’t been invaded by super models, I’m talking about the scenery. I had a spare few mornings recently, after being terminated by some Russians (more on that later), and decided to celebrate where I live and work each winter.

I chose to go for a gentle ski by myself on Sunday, with Canon of course, in the stunning weather that we’ve been having for ages. I stared, ogled, admired, and constantly rubbernecked without limits, I felt very spoilt. Now I know I bang on about the views here constantly, and probably will do more in the future, but hey, what a place to be. Plus I also know that one of the reasons for some of you coming on a skiing holiday is to see the mountain views.

Anyway, before I send you all to sleep with my Hippy tree hugging outlook, please meet Vladimir and Sasha who I first met and taught last winter.

It’s not unusual for this Méribel private ski instructor to travel round to Courchevel 1850. In fact it’s a nice change, because guess what, I can rubberneck at the views to my hearts content whilst driving over !?! Sasha is a very strong skier at the age of fourteen, who adores skiing anything steep, with bumps and preferably off piste in search of powder. His father, Vladimir, likes to ski with his son and enjoys the challenge of improving his performance to enable him to stay with Sasha, and in one piece.

We concentrated on the different techniques required for skiing off piste, on piste, skiing in powder, through a bumps field and down steep pitches. The different options available for steering our skis were also discussed. The weather has been spectacular, but we also had a few days of strong foehn and lombard winds which affected us a little. As you can see here, it was a tad blowy which made seeing the piste a challenge sometimes.

Half way through the ten day booking, Vladimir told me that he bumped into one of his friends from Moscow (a billionaire using Vladimir’s own description) in Courchevel who was also a very keen and motivated skier. Igor (no I promise I’m not making up these names) has a passion for heli-skiing, and had organised to make several trips over to Italy with his own guide, and swiftly invited Sasha to go along as well. This meant their booking with me was suddenly terminated, I was no longer needed, sacked if you like, even demoted, or how about fired !?! Without dwelling for too long, this was when my recent bout of ‘staring’ went off the rails again, just like a heavy drinker reaching for the hard stuff.

At least staring at the scenery is an acceptable vice in society isn’t it? Well that’s what I keep telling myself.

I hope you are all enjoying the amazing spring weather in the UK at the moment, just like we are here. Please don’t worry if you are coming out on a skiing holiday over the Easter break, there’s still plenty of snow about.

Martin

P.S. I started instructing a beginner group lesson yesterday with some lovely people. It seems I’m not the only one who stares at views after all, phew, you should see them.        

Off Piste Awareness

Immerse yourself in the photo above. You are looking down into the Vallon du Saut, deep in the Vanoise National Park, from the Col du Mont Vallon. The air is fresh and chilled; the snow light and powdery. There isn’t a sound to be heard, which is eerie because two snow shoers are looking up, next to the partly-buried shepherds hut in the bottom right corner. This is where John, Gilly and I found ourselves on the last day of their weeks holiday recently. We paused, looked around, and then floated off down through the fluffy powder.

 

As mentioned on my previous post, it’s very special being able to work and share these experiences in this environment. It was John and Gilly’s first real backcountry expedition, what I mean by that is skiing miles away out of sight of pistes and lifts.

 

I’ve a sneaky feeling that they have been hooked by the solitude and the wilderness that I myself fell in love with, many years ago. It’s very difficult to describe this feeling to normal piste skiers, let alone non- skiers. But you see, you don’t just suddenly throw yourself into these situations; it would be way too dangerous. We had been building up to this moment for all of the week.

 

Each day we had been working on the psychological and technical skills required for venturing further afield. Although I had taken John into this terrain a couple of times, down some couloirs, I wanted to introduce Gilly to these same very steep and narrow off-piste challenges. In the end all three of us together skied loads of couloirs, which will remain nameless, where we developed the psychological and technical skills at the same time as enjoying the buzz. I won’t even begin to name the couloirs because it will make us sound like we were showing off and bragging about it. Plus I didn’t take any photos either because to be honest it was all gnarly enough without me getting Canon out of my backpack.

A very important aspect of skiing off-piste is starting to be more responsible for your own and each others safety. This includes being more aware of the avalanche risk, looking for clues of any other dangers, and carrying off-piste safety kit and knowing how to use it.

 

The photo above shows Gilly using her ‘beeps’ and searching for a buried victim, don’t worry not a real person. A beep (also known as an avalanche beacon, or an Arva, or pieps) is a device that is attached to your body and transmits a signal. In the event of someone getting caught and buried in an avalanche slide, other members of the skiing party switch their beeps from transmit to receive. This should allow the searching party to locate the transmitting beeps, ie the buried victim. Once located, the casualty will need to be dug out by using a shovel, another important part of the avalanche safety kit that should always be carried. But of course, this all needs to be done as quickly as possible to give the buried victim as much chance of survival. This means practice, and practice, and practice.

 

One morning we skied to the top of a very attractive-looking couloir over in Courchevel, loaded with fresh powder snow. John and Gilly were licking their lips in anticipation. But instead of us all bouncing down, I decided to turn John’s descent into a beeps searching exercise. Gilly and I skied into the couloir and enjoyed the fresh powder, then we buried a spare beeps in a bag out of sight from John.

 

John did really well with his first real life scenario, and found the buried beeps. Without disclosing his timings, he was surprised to hear how long it took to locate and dig out the ‘victim’. Every second counts in this situation. With John and Gilly now being well equipped, and practised in using this equipment, it completely enabled us to venture further afield out into the backcountry. So with another small dusting of snow just before the end of their week, I felt more than happy to take them deep into the off-piste conditions, knowing that we were all well-equipped, and practised as well. And what an experience it was.

Skiing down into the Vallon du Saut is one of their favourite walks here in the summer months. I suspect that the next time they go for a walk high up in the Vanoise National Park, they will enjoy it even more knowing that they had skied there in lovely powder this winter. ‘Chapeau’ as the French say.

Martin