Skiing (Day One)

So it begins...

First up for a ski map of Flaine see here.

After a pretty big sleep in (hey we had the next six days to ski so what was the rush) we finally trundled over to the lift pass buying place around 10:30. By the look of the queues it seemed we were not the only ones that decided to start late.

Complain mode on
Who taught the French to queue? I mean honestly how hard is it to stand in a line and wait your turn? We all wanted to get started so just be patient!
Complain mode off

Well after a wait that seemed to be about three hours (but was actually only twenty minutes) we finally got our lift passes. They had this funky system where you just had to keep the pass in your top left pocket and there were sensors at each lift to detect if you had a valid pass or not.

First off we got on the brand spanking new Grand Vans 8 person chair lift. We were gonna come down a blue run called Tourmaline which looked pretty good. In Europe they have a slightly different grading process for ski runs. With green being the easiest, then blue, then red and finally black. Being my first time skiing for a while we thought blue would be a good intro.

The lift was pretty quick and in no time we were at the top. The first half of the run was fantastic. It was nice and wide and steep in places which allowed me to practice my turns. However after this the fun started. Here is a question for you. How many people can you cram on a narrow part of a blue ski run? It seems the answer is about 300 billion! Now it would seem common sense to me that if you needed to stop on a narrow part of a ski run you would naturally try to stop on the edge. That did not seem the case here. It appeared that the best position was gonna be right in my way. So after dodging about a thousand people I finally made it to the bottom vowing not to do that run again. Peter soon followed and then came poor Jules. She was in pain. Her boots were not quite right which meant she had to put a lot more effort into skiing then she needed to.

While she went off to the ski hire shop to swap them over, Peter and I decided to try another blue run. This one was called Olivine. To get to the top you had to take a drag lift which I thought would be okay until I realised it would take twenty minutes and turn corners! Halfway up Peter fell off (our first fall of the week) so he skied down while I continued to the top. The run was fantastic. It had all the qualities I like in a ski run. Wide, steep in places and not too many people. So after meeting Peter at the bottom we decided to go back up and try again. This time we both made it to the top and he agreed that the run was pretty good.

At the end of the drag lift you could catch a chair that would take you even higher. Thinking this might be a goer we caught the drag up and were gonna ski down to the lift and continue on. However this time it was my turn to fall off! I was close to the chair lift we wanted to get on so I yelled to Peter that I would meet him there. I took off my skis and walked over, but the snow was knee deep in places so it was hard going. I was absolutely stuffed by the time I made it over and it was time to head off and meet Jules for lunch anyway. So we just skied down to Flaine Forum.

Jules had not had a chance to change her boots, she was trying to get a printout of our booking for the ski hire mob first. So after lunch she went to get her new boots while Peter and I caught the Grand Platieres gondola right to the top. We skied down this awful icy and rocky (?!? ) run called Bezlebuth which then turned into the Olivine run halfway down. Jules met us at the bottom with new boots but she was still in a bit of pain so we did a green run which was close by. By the time Jules made it to the bottom she was in tears. These boots were not right either. The only possible solution? To buy her own boots of course! Peter was not happy at this idea, but there was no convincing Jules. So she skied off and we decided to go up again.

After the drag lift we got onto the Col de Plate chair and went back up to the top. This time we decided to ski down a blue run called Crystal. I was in heaven. It was great. And the best this was we could just ski down and get back onto the Col de Plate chair. We did not have to go all the way to the bottom and get the drag lift back up.

Peter and I skied here until it was too dark and then went back to meet Jules with her swanky new boots. After a soup dinner we were all stuffed and headed to bed!


The Grand Vans Lift (and Peter)



Me!



Nice skiing.....



Jules and Myself looking lovely.....