Loads of the white stuff

I've thought of a few other things I like..

The lady in the supermarket that gives us 10% discount off our shopping now we've become familiar faces.

Saturdays. They are change over days and the slopes are empty. No queues and nobody wrestling to get to the front of the queue whilst standing on my skis in the meantime. It's great.

Since my last post it continued to snow until sunday lunch. That was 4 days of snow resulting in at least 120cms. I think last saturday was one of the best days skiing I've ever had. The visibility still wasn't great but better than it had been and I had my first true experience of floating in powder snow. An experience I'll have to go in search of again. Like I say, the slopes were quiet and there were very few tracks in the snow. It was knee deep powder on piste let alone off. Just aswell as the avalanche risk off piste has been 4/5 the last few days. Unfortunately we woke on sunday morning to very strong winds. There were only two lifts open in Val Thorens but even these closed by lunch time. It seems to have blown some of the snow away but hasn't done too much damage. The sun was shining in clear blue skies again on monday and a fantastic days skiing was had. Just our legs are complaining about it! We went to Courcheval today now there's been snow as this had been in a desperate condition the last time we tried. It's been another days great skiing but either they didn't have as much snow or there was less to begin with but I think the best skiing is still to be found in Val Thorens.

Stef has been enjoying a new pair of skis the last few days and seems to have found an additional gear. His previous new pair (the ones we bought for this trip and have lasted all of three weeks) broke. How is not quite so clear. He did take some spectacular tumbles in the powder but nothing you wouldn't expect a pair of skis to be able to withstand. However, one of them appeared to bend upwards from the front of the bindings to the tip of the ski. This resulted in half the ski being lifted from the snow making it difficult to edge. We've taken it into a few ski shops and apart from a few smiles the general opinion was that it is probably a fabrication fault. Apparently if they had broken in a fall there should be some evidence like cracks on the outside or the ski would probably snap when they were all bending the ski to its limit. Anyhow, they've been sent to Rossignol to let them decide. Meanwhile Stef was skiless and has bought a new pair called Dynastar TroubleMakers - very appropriate. This was already an expensive trip!