It all started earlier this week when Gill Lloyd invited us to meet them for a couple of days skiing over Easter. There was no snow at Prat Peyrot last year so the boots and skis that I bought the year before (against Jan's better judgement), have been rotting in a wardrobe ever since. Having taken a quick look at this website, I called Jean Paul, my friendly ski instructor, and booked a lesson for 11.00 am this morning. The ski station is only 1 hour 40 minutes away so it's easy to get there and back in a day and as the dogs sleep all morning, they wouldn't be too inconvenienced.
When we arrived at 10.15 the place was empty. There were only six cars in the car park and Jan was the first up the button lift. She couldn't believe her luck. It was a warm, beautiful sunny day, no wind and with a beautiful blue sky. She had the mountain side to herself, amazing.
Me, I'd forgotten how hard it was to walk with two huge, heavy lumps of concrete strapped around my feet and ankles and I waddled, awkwardly, over to the ski school to find JP.
As I tried to walk in the bloody boots, hold onto a pair of skis and two poles, I stopped to consider that we spend all our life trying hard to stand up straight and not to fall over on snow and ice and then, when we decide to ski, we have to learn all over again. Dumb or what. If only I'd started earlier but my parents had little money and I never got the opportunity. As I grew older my interest lay in sunshine holidays and skiing never really appealed.
It was great to see all the little mites, some can't have been more than 4 years old, whizzing around but I was happy on the starter slopes whilst Jan sailed down a precipitous cliff which they had the nerve to call a green run.
JP was patience itself and I managed to remember some of the basics from two years ago. He soon got me slaloming around tiny cones but, and it was a big but, my right calf muscle started to hurt, really hurt. You have to use muscles in a way that is not normal so I was glad when the hour was up.
Jan looked good and later swooshed up to me sitting on a chair nursing my aching limbs. God I felt decrepit. Anyway, she was tired as well, so it was off to the cafe to rest our bodies and get stuck intosteak anything with chips.
When we arrived at 10.15 the place was empty. There were only six cars in the car park and Jan was the first up the button lift. She couldn't believe her luck. It was a warm, beautiful sunny day, no wind and with a beautiful blue sky. She had the mountain side to herself, amazing.
Me, I'd forgotten how hard it was to walk with two huge, heavy lumps of concrete strapped around my feet and ankles and I waddled, awkwardly, over to the ski school to find JP.
As I tried to walk in the bloody boots, hold onto a pair of skis and two poles, I stopped to consider that we spend all our life trying hard to stand up straight and not to fall over on snow and ice and then, when we decide to ski, we have to learn all over again. Dumb or what. If only I'd started earlier but my parents had little money and I never got the opportunity. As I grew older my interest lay in sunshine holidays and skiing never really appealed.
It was great to see all the little mites, some can't have been more than 4 years old, whizzing around but I was happy on the starter slopes whilst Jan sailed down a precipitous cliff which they had the nerve to call a green run.
JP was patience itself and I managed to remember some of the basics from two years ago. He soon got me slaloming around tiny cones but, and it was a big but, my right calf muscle started to hurt, really hurt. You have to use muscles in a way that is not normal so I was glad when the hour was up.
Jan looked good and later swooshed up to me sitting on a chair nursing my aching limbs. God I felt decrepit. Anyway, she was tired as well, so it was off to the cafe to rest our bodies and get stuck into
As we had a bit of time on our hands, the roads were clear and, we'd never done it before, we popped over to the meteo station at the summit nearby. As the bottom picture shows, it's a real top of the world experience but without the need for oxygen or crampons.
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