Maria, Marc and Cecilia on top of Les Deux Alpes
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Maria, Marc and Cecilia on top of Les Deux Alpes |
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Amidst the busy days at work and evening pints at the local Irish bar, I easily forget how much fun it is to spend a winter weekend away from Paris in the mountains. When we do actually decide to leave the friendly confines of the city and venture into the mountains, I always end up asking myself why we do not do this every weekend! We had spent only one weekend so far in the mountains this winter - in Samoens in February, as part of the SRPC Committee d'Enterprise package ski trip. Fortunately my SRPC friends are much more ski-conscious than I, and had booked several one-week ski chalets. Maria, Marc, Cecilia, and I had decided to tag along for three days (a long weekend) of a week-long trip organized by Mike in Les Deux Alpes, just east of Grenoble.
We arrived in Grenoble around 9:30pm, picked up a rental car, and headed due west into the mountains. We stopped in a small town for a classic tarteflette dinner (mega cheese, potatoes, and ham), and then continued to our hotel. Our hotel was located in a small town just outside Les Deux Alpes. We knew that the name of the hotel was "The Panoramic", but we did not quite appreciate the promised view until we arrived at the hotel - our balcony looked over the entire valley and into the mountains beyond. We loaded out stuff into the room, and were asleep by 1am.
Mike, Doug, Marie-Pierre, and several other of Mike's friends (Chicago Jen, Chad, and Adrian) were scheduled to arrive the following afternoon. All of the ski vacation packages in France begin and end on Saturday - which makes for a crowded road back to Paris on Saturday nights.
a
sewer grate outside the store. I needed to get a tan anyway.
The four of us hopped on a passing shuttle and rode it a bit up the
mountain - we hopped off just next to a bunny slope. It was my first
time on a snowboard, and Marc helped me to get going by running alongside
while holding me by the jacket. His method worked well, and I was
able to make it down with only a few bad falls. Marc convinced me
that I would find much better snow higher on the mountain (despite my pleads
not to leave the bunny slopes). I grudgingly agreed to get on the
lift. Both Maria and Marc were also novice snowboarders, but they
had both gone a handful of times in the past few years. Cecilia had
been snowboarding for a year or two, and had even recently purchased her
own board.
Les Deux Alpes is a long station, and requires at least two gondola
rides to get to the top. We stopped halfway, and spent the next hour
or two making our back down to the bottom. I was quickly picking
up on how to stop and turn - at least in one direction. I could turn
to my left, but to go back towards the right I chose instead to go backwards
on my snowboard (instead of turning and boarding with my back facing downhill).
This technique is known by many as "leafing" down the slope. In any
case, I was happy to at least be moving.
The rest of the morning continued in similar fashion, and we had a late lunch at a restaurant on the higher reaches of the mountain. I was exhausted, but happy about my morning progress on the board. I had unfortunately taken a few bad falls on my right rib. I had developed a bad tendency of putting my right arm in front of my chest to stop a face-forward fall, and instead of actually stopping the fall, I would end up elbowing myself right in the ribs. The first time it happened I also knocked the wind completely out of myself - for the first time in several years. It was not a great feeling to be laying face down on the slope, gasping for air, with a burning rib. But after the second or third time I got used to it, and learned to wait patiently until I could again breath freely.
Our lunch lasted a bit longer than desired, and we only had time for
a few more runs in the afternoon. We arrived back at the hotel by
6pm, in time to shower and have a few beers while watching the sun set
from the balcony. Mike, Doug, and the rest of their group were just
arriving on Saturday night, and we intended to meet them for beers in town.
We were very hungry, and decided to go to a pizza restaurant and then meet
up with their group. After dinner we found them at a restaurant/bar
just along the main strip, and we had several giraffes of beer and even
a flaming shot. At 2am we decided to head back to the chalet, except
for Marc, who wanted to rally with a few of the more disciplined partyers.
We left him with the group, and promised to bring his ski stuff to him
the following morning. A few images from the day:
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Sunday March 16 - Skiing Day 2
Sunday morning went much the same - we met Marc at the rental shop
after breakfast, and headed up to the higher slopes on the mountain.
I spent the morning 
doing
a few excellent runs on the board - I was now feeling very confident with
my new ability to turn in both directions (on occasion). Maria was
now on skis, so she decided to go with Mike, Doug and the other experts.
Marc, Cecilia, and I stuck together to improve and fall shamelessly.
We decided to postpone lunch until a little later in the afternoon and
optimize the morning runs. I took a few more hard falls
on the rib, which really began to hurt. Just before lunch I took
a fall that put me over the top, and I had to sit for at least 10 minutes
before gathering the strength to get back up. We met for lunch outside
under blue skies and a hot sun.
Even after an hour break my rib was still pounding, and I knew that it would only torment my courage for the remainder of the day. I decided that I would call it a day, and meet the rest of the guys at the bottom. Marc and Cecilia went off for a few final runs from the top, and I went back to return my gear and lay in the car. It was 4pm by the time I reached the car, so I did not have much time to wait. Around 6pm Marc and Cecilia showed up - they had done a few runs before bumping into the rest of the group huddled around Adrian in front of a lift. Adrian had dislocated his shoulder, and would have to be helicoptered to a local hospital to have it relocated and put in a a sling. His injury would finish his skiing for the trip, and would require a few months of rehabilitation and healing. Definitely a tough break. I felt guilty having wimped out with my sore rib as we packed up the car and headed back to the chalet to clean up before dinner.
After everyone had showered and enjoyed a beer on the balcony we returned
to Les Deux Alps, and met up with the rest of the group at their hotel
in town. We walked to a nearby Italian restaurant, where we had a
good dinner of pasta. We then walked to a nearby Irish bar, where
we found pint beers being served in glasses that looked like liter size.
The power of deception....after a few pints we had had enough, and decided
to retire back to the chalet. A few images from the night:
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Monday March 17 - Skiing Day 3 and Return to Paris
Monday I woke with bad rib pain, after a fitful night of sleep and
dreams that I was continually being hit in the side. I would not
be able to snowboard that day. I decided to take the day off, and
catch up on email, reading, making websites, etc. I dropped off the
rest of the group at the lift at 10am, and then spent the morning walking
around town. I had hoped to find some cool gear shops, particularly
climbing and camping gear, but there was not much to look at aside from
ski equipment and ski clothing. After lunch I decided that I had
had enough of store browsing, and I retired to a cafe to read and fool
around with my computer.
At 4:30pm the rest of the group returned, in time for us to change, pack up, and head back to the Grenoble train station. The rest of Mike's group would stay the entire week, and return to Paris on the following Saturday. We arrived at the train station by 6pm, in time to relax a bit before catching our train to Paris. We were originally scheduled to transfer trains in Lyon, but our out-going train from Grenoble was delayed beyond hope of catching the Lyon connection. Suddenly we were told to board a train heading for Valence. Upon arrival to Valence (an hour later), we were then ushered onto a platform to take a soon-arriving train to Paris. It all seemed a bit random and haphazard to me, but we managed to get back to Paris at about the same time as originally planned. Of course we did not have assigned seats on the train from Valence to Paris, but we had already grown accustomed to the bar car from our previous trip. Cecilia and I were home before midnight, in time for a good night's sleep before work the next day. Another great weekend away from the Paris city life!
Note that my ribs took about five weeks to heel, including two full weeks without any running or other impact sports. Bruised or broken? I may always wonder about this question, but really the treatment would have been the same - rest, rest, and more rest.
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