Crop circles cont'd

More about the crop circles later, but in the mean time Méribel has received spring weather at full throttle in the last week.

The warmer weather of the last couple of weeks has been relentless, without fresh snow, but at least most nights the pistes have been freezing well. The snow on the lower pistes are thinning, and wild spring flowers are popping up all over the place. If you know where to go and at what time of the day, you can make the best of the conditions. Which is what Caroline and I did for our couple of sessions over the weekend.During our first session Caroline admitted that she was sometimes getting frustrated by skiing in a group, struggling to keep up with them, not knowing what technique to use and hat

ing the burning feeling in her legs. Now bearing in mind that she ran the London marathon last year in a very respectable time, it became clear that fitness was not the issue. My task was to try and simplify her knowledge of technique and tactics, and then prioritise the process of improvement. It was the first time that I used frogs during a ski lesson, but hey, it worked !?! It was great for me to hear Caroline say at the start of our second session that her group had already noticed significant changes.Terry and Brandon, father and son, had four sessions with me 

over the Easter weekend. We built confidence on the green slopes, worked hard on energy efficient skiing. And then the grand finale was me taking Brandon up to the top of Saulire and skiing him down a couple of steep blue slopes on the last morning.Ok, here goes with crop circles under the Cote Brune chairlift again. I've been caught off guard by the response about my previous post titled 'Crop Circles' last week. I've received phone calls from friends in resort, to find out if it was all true. Plus I've received emails from British and French enthusiasts who I suspect have never put ski boots on before. The French guy is a website adminstrator on sightings, with the British guy having written a thesis about crop circles. So, for your enjoyment crop circle lovers, here is a photo of the second pattern.

My teaching work will fizzle out in the next couple of days. I shall have a few days off skis to re-charge, take in the spring sights including random Savoyard buildings below, but also prepare myself hopefully for some end of season ski touring. Please do keep reading in the next few weeks, even though it may feel as though the winter has finished.

Martin

PS, Good luck to Robbie with his ACL reconstruction operation at the end of this week. Can't wait to ski with you again next winter as long as you lose that awful low-hanging trouser builders- crack look !?!