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Cecilia, Maria, and Rich |
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size,
and spent my younger years doing "urban sports" such as basketball, baseball,
and track. Unfortunately the physical abilities developed in these
types of activities, such as hand-to-eye coordination or aerobic endurance,
do not really contribute to the balance skills needed to become a good
skier. But last year I discovered a winter sport that re-energized
my enthusiasm for buying a lift pass, and whose initial learning curve
does not span decades. Snowboarding.
Don't get me wrong - I am sure that it takes lots of hard work, significant
time, and superior skills to become a great or even good snowboarder.
But it also offers 
inexperienced
snowmen like myself an opportunity to quickly reach a level of satisfaction
and fun. I decided to make the switch from skis to snowboarding last
year, during a weekend trip
to Les Deux Alps with a bunch of friends from the Paris gang.
I must credit my buddy Marc for helping me accelerate through the possibly
painful start of the learning curve - he grabbed my jacketfront and
dragged me around the bunny slopes for about 15 minutes, until I could
figure out how to keep my own balance, then he made me ride the lift to
the top of the mountain, where the snow was much more forgiving than on
the well worn lower runs. I did not avoid pain altogether, as I repeatedly
elbowed myself in my ribs while falling, and repeatedly knocked the wind
out of myself. But even with the rib pain it was a fun start.
Unfortunately we did not go back to the mountains again that winter, and
I had to wait almost a whole year to try it again.....
This year's work-subsidized ski weekend proved to be even more fun then
the previous year's trip
to Samoens. We had recruited new friends to go, including Rich,
Amy, and Pearl, and several people (Mike, Doug, Rich) even bridged the
weekend over into a full week of skiing in nearby Tignes. The trip
started, as usual, at about 11pm on Friday night, when the sleeping bus
boarded and left from the SRPC packing area. The bus ride is the
only semi-non-enjoyable part of the trip, as it is difficult to get a good
night's sleep in such limited quarters. The layout is albeit much
more suited to sleeping than a normal bus, with the seats flipped up into
long bench-like beds, but is still a bit weird for actual sleeping.
In any case we survived the ride, and arrived in Valmeinier semi-refreshed
on Saturday morning, ready to ski. Valmeinier is a small station
that exists for the sole reason of skiing. It is hard to find these
types of places in North America, where most ski towns were towns long
before skiing became the main local industry. We stayed in a pleasant
B&B right on the slopes, no more than 100 feet from the lift.
We had a quick breakfast and coffee in the B&B, changed, rented gear,
etc. and hit the slopes. It had snowed earlier in the week, and the
weather had remained cold, and the snow was still excellent.
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The majority of our group were snowboarders, and I had already made
up my mind to brave a second day of boarding. I fortunately talked
Rich and Pearl into boarding as well, for their first time. The three
of us rode the lift to the top, spent about an hour making it down to the
bottom, then had a brief lesson just before lunch. All three of us
took well to the instructor's advice, and by the end of the day we were
a semi-stable but very functional bunch. That night the whole group
had dinner together at the hotel, and crashed hard after a good day on
the slopes.
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The following day Pearl and Amy slept in, so Rich and I were on our
own with our boards. We spent the morning doing the same blue run,
and got progressively better. Amy and Pearl joined us after lunch,
and we spent the afternoon together. Mike, Robin, Doug, Tullio, Cecilia,
and Maria even joined us for a bit. I must admit that their arrival
was a pleasant but disturbing surprise - I think that all of us wiped out
immediately. That night we again had dinner in the hotel, this
time it was Raclette, another high-calorie winter favorite. After
dinner the majority of the group boarded the bus, to start the overnight
trip back to Paris. Cecilia and I had reserved an extra night in
the hotel, and would ski another day before going back to Paris on the
train. My desire to stay the extra day was not only to work on my
boarding, but to avoid the bus ride home :(. Mike, Doug, and Rich
left in their rental car, headed for Tignes, which was approximately 100kms
to the northeast. After a brief periods of getting lost, running
into closed roads, and a quick mistaken detour into Italy, they arrived
safely in Tignes.
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Cecilia and I spent Monday on the slopes, doing many of the same runs.
It had snowed overnight and in the early morning, so the snow was great
- even on the most ridden trails. On Monday afternoon we packed up,
took a taxi down to the St. Michel local station. We caught a local
train over to Chambery, then the TGV back to Paris. We were home
and asleep by 11pm, well satisfied from a good long weekend on the slopes.
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