Wednesday morning

Another sunny morning on the piste. I skied with the beginners and nobody succeeded in wiping me out (although one or two made a pretty good effort!). We managed to descend the blue twice in the lesson with time to spare, having managed it only once (and having run out of time) yesterday, and the skiers remarked how much easier it seemed today. Progress indeed!

The beginners (plus Hannah who paid us a brief visit)

Years ago, people used to ski in interesting hats, which was always fun, but the recent very sensible move to wearing helmets had stopped that. Now, however, it is possible to buy novelty helmet covers, as modelled here by Harrison and Harley:

The chicken and the elephant go skiing

I am hoping to have some more photos from people to post later.

Beginners' progress

Our beginners have made really good progress over the first three days. We started by getting the hang of things on a very gentle slope just adjacent to the hotel on the first morning:

During the afternoon, we went up a chairlift and tried a different piste just at the top. On the Monday morning, we took a quick hop on the bus to the neighbouring village of Chantemerle and used the beginners' piste there which had the great advantage of "un tapis magique" (magic carpet), which is a conveyor belt to return the skiers to the top of the slope to try again. By the end of the second afternoon, the beginners were developing some nice controlled turns.

Le tapis magique

This morning, the instructors felt brave enough to take us all up to the top of a "blue" run and ski down it. The green runs aren't open yet, so this was going to be quite a challenge. I'm delighted to report that all our beginners successfully made it down the run with very few meltdowns. Aphra may now be in line for a special "taking down Mr Court" award as she managed to knock me completely off my feet (and skis) at one point. Needless to say, Aphra came off worse but fortunately was only winded!

Here are a few of our heroes about to ski off a snow mound:

Aphra

Freya

James