A.W.O.L

Hi everyone we are still amazed at the amount of people viewing the Blog and it’s quite strange how some people are also in strange parts of the world following us.

Big news this week was our cat Millie that was adopted by Julie’s mum & dad (Dave & Brenda) went AWOL last week for 4 days but they kept it quiet from us both as they didn’t want to worry us.  While she was missing they didn’t sleep worrying and also went knocking on doors, putting up missing posters and even driving around the local area and even to our house in case she had made her way back there.  Friday morning Dave went down to breakfast and to his amazement there she was in the kitchen having a drink as though nothing was wrong, they believe that she had managed to get herself shut in somewhere and as Friday was bin day in that area that somebody opened a garage/shed to do the bins and she escaped but luckily she knew which way to head back to Dave & Brenda’s. BIG BIG thank you to them for looking after her and going to so much effort to find her.

The other news this week is that we went and picked up our ski’s, boots and poles and have been out for 4 days now and can honestly say we are loving it but before we made the change we had had a massive dump of snow so wanted to make the most of it on the boards so we headed over to the Dent-de-Burgin area where there is some amazing off-piste.  You just can’t put into words what it’s like to ride down the side of a mountain zig-zagging through trees and around rocks up to your knees in fresh powder snow, it was so good that we did that most of the morning until basically we were both knackered so we made our way back to the van for lunch and to change equipment to ski’s. Well that afternoon we got onto a lift up to some nice green runs around the Altiport, when we clipped in we thought OMG what the hell were we thinking when we can already snowboard pretty well and go anywhere we want.  But hey ho while we are here for this length of time we might as well learn to ski. Julie had had approx 6 days ski school back in 2001 and I had only done about 20 minutes on some friends skis in Canada back in 2005 so you can imagine we were a bit wobbly to begin with but after a few tumbles and a few more runs we were getting more confident.  As the sun was dropping we stupidly said shall we do the Le-Raffort run home which is a red run which goes directly to the campsite, wrong move it was horrendous, narrow, steep drops, and too many trees with our names on !!!! but we managed to get back in one piece and we definitely earnt a beer or two that night.

Well we haven’t given up on the ski’s, we have been out nearly everyday getting a bit better each day and gaining confidence, now we are able to do all the blue runs and to be honest we have been places that you wouldn’t normally see on the snow boards. We have been out a few times with Pete & Debbie skiing as they have been giving us a few tips and encouragement which is nice. Ron & Chris another couple staying at the campsite have a wealth of knowledge of the ski area so we asked them the best way over to Val-Thorens for us on ski’s, well bless them both, the next morning Chris delivered this breakdown of which lift to catch and which turn to take and even had high lighter pens and high lighted on the piste map for the way there and the return. So we set off,  just to give you an idea of how far it is to Val-Thorens an average skier/snowboarder would take about an hour to get there, all was going well until we made one wrong turn down beside this long long drag lift so we knew we had to go back up to the top via the drag so we shuffled in took hold of the pole and with an almighty jerk it launched you skywards so poles in one hand and the other grasping the button pole for dear life it started dragging you to the top, as we were going up it went over the brow of a hill so you start to overtake the lift so a bit of snowplough stance then I looked up to what looked like a sheer face of snow and ice I screamed as did Julie just behind me, I don’t think I have ever been on a lift or drag as steep as this one ever, at one point your feet aren’t even touching the ground as the cable thing is pulling you so up hill, eventually we made it to the top and we carried on with our day out to Val-Thorens (must go back with my GO-PRO camera and film the drag lift) We headed for our favourite picnic spot as the sun was out and it was so so warm, Pete & Debbie joined us for lunch and we had a bit of a chill out in the sun for a while watching people have some major stacks (shouldn’t laugh really) after lunch we followed the highlighted map back home and as we were more confident we said lets do the Le-Raffort run home, well we certainly saw an improvement over last time apart from me having a stack right at the end while Debbie had her camera to hand !!!

Been enjoying watching the Winter Olympics, great that Jenny Jones won our first bronze medal and the first on snow since 1924 - those men & women have nerves of steel on the slopes.

We have also been watching the news and just can’t believe the weather in the UK and feel for all those affected.

We have some friends James & Charlie and children arriving this w/e in Val Thorens so we are looking forward to catching up with them and doing the highlighted run back over there but avoiding the drag lift from hell unless I decide to brave it again with my Go-Pro!!

That’s is for now.

J&J

xx