Ski Stories

Hi everyone, and welcome again to another post from your favourite blogging Méribel ski instructor. Before I start, is it me, or are the days getting shorter and the mornings chillier? A couple of weekends ago Harriet and I caught up with a bunch of our friends to celebrate one of their big birthdays. We went for walks in the Derbyshire countryside, and ate together in the evenings around a huge table. And you know, it was interesting how many times the subject of skiing popped up, not initiated by me I might add. Skiers were certainly outnumbered by non-skiers, but that didn't stop the occasional story from slipping out between us.

And this got me thinking, every skier has their favourite story to tell about the sport and their holidays. We all have them, in fact the chances are we all have way more than just the one.

Even if someone has only had one week of skiing, they will have a story. Perhaps they have crashed into their group during a ski lesson. Actually I did that once, knocking over three people during my first ever ski instructor exam. Oooops! Others might recall adventures when they went the wrong way in bad light, and ended up on a black run! More stories could be associated with apres ski, or the 'morning after' sufferfest. Maybe having luck with weather and snow conditions and cruising down an empty piste in absolute bliss. Or skiing down in fluffy powder, having managed to catch the first ski lift up. There are so many stories out there, we all have them.

And that still includes me, even after twenty-three European ski seasons, plus another two down in New Zealand. In fact there are several from last winter. Here is one from that strange period of life; I'm sure you all know and vividly remember that the ski lifts didn't run at all. This meant skinning up the mountain, which took several hours each time, before skiing down again. On the last day of March, Ian and I decided to drive across to Val Thorens for a change of scenery from the Méribel valley. We were also investigating the possibility of an 'adventure' over to Pralognan, but before committing to this we needed a fact-finding mission first to see if it was possible. On arriving in Val Thorens we parked up, attached the 'skins' to the bottom of our skis, and started heading up the mountain.

For those of you familiar with Val Thorens, we skinned up the Moraine blue piste, which runs underneath the new Moraine bubble, and then continued up underneath the old Col chairlift. These lifts formally - and accurately! -known by some people as the 'Fridge and the Freezer' ski lifts. You can guess how cold they can be sometimes. It took us a few hours to reach our destination; the Col de Thorens which reaches over 3,100 metres in altitude. Normally when reaching the top, we would have a leisurely picnic and put the world to rights. However, even though it was the end of March, it was freezing cold up there with quite a strong wind. We agreed to delay our lunch, and quickly ripped off the skins in order to ski off to find shelter for our picnic.

In this part of the ski area there's a mountain restaurant called Le Caribou, some of you may know it. It's quite a distinctive looking building, and offers shelter in both good and bad weather. This is where we aimed to have our picnic. However, as we approached, we could see that the terrace had been roped off to discourage access. Not wanting to be beaten, and don't tell anyone, but we found a way to squeeze through this obstacle and sneak onto the terrace. What could possibly go wrong?

We found our spot out of the wind, and settled down onto the decking. With tired legs and empty bellies, our picnic was just the ticket. We were rather pleased with ourselves with the exercise, the weather and the views. But all of a sudden there was this almighty thud close to us, and we jumped out of our skins. A huge lump of ice had slipped off the roof, and crashed close to us resulting in the loud noise. That was close, we thought. And then a few seconds later, we heard a door open and some footsteps heading our way. We looked at each other, gulped, and realised we couldn't make a run for it.

A guy turned the corner, looked at the lumps of ice on the decking, and then said "Bonjour!" to us! We thought we were in for a rollicking, but in fact it was the opposite. He asked where we had just skied from, what the weather was like up on the Col, and how the snow felt on the way back down. He explained that he was the owner of the mountain restaurant, and we said that we were ski instructors over from Méribel. On hearing this he asked us if we wanted a quick Génépi? We couldn't believe our luck. He went back into the restaurant as we peeled ourselves off the decking. And a few seconds later his son soon appeared with said liquor.

It was such a nice surprise and totally unexpected. We chatted for quite a while. The owner said that he used to be a ski instructor before buying the mountain restaurant, and that his son was in the process of completing his instructor exams. Every winter they live above the restaurant, even during the pandemic!?! The bizarre winter of no ski lifts running and an empty mountain, continued - but it now included having a Génépi on an empty terrace in the bright sun! It was late lunchtime, and needless to say, the terrace would normally be a buzz of happiness with people having an outdoor lunch in the March sunshine.

We all thoroughly enjoyed our tipple, and the chat, it was such a cool thing to happen. We said our thank yous, a cheery goodbye and have a good end of season(!), and Ian and I packed up our things before clicking back into the skis. Skiing down the Moraine piste without anyone around us, during the winter of the pandemic, and the sweet taste of Génépi still with us, was a very surreal thing.

By the way, we never did have our adventure across to Pralognan; another French lockdown started just a few days later! That's one of my many stories from last winter, and I'm sure I'll ski over that way again this coming winter, with a small smile on my face. Please forgive me if I drop a few of these stories if we get to catchup. Skiers do love to share their ski stories you know.

The first of the wintery snowfalls have arrived in the Alps, and Social Media is starting to become a little more active from the ski resorts, with mentions of countdowns to ski lifts openings. Fingers crossed we should be able to build on our list of ski stories this coming winter. Live With Passion. Martin.