Dawn Light, Uploaded by M+MD
Dawn Morzine, Uploaded by M+MD
Called at 7.30 as usual. Still a bright sky. It looks like weather-wise we have had it all this week - snow and sunshine. We have the usual breakfast but were slower than usual getting started and by the time we got to the bubble the queue was not so long.
We arrived up to find that our class was gone! We were only about 5 minutes late. Lisa and Senan had gone up the chair lifts and arrived 2 minutes after us. There group was also gone. They headed down for the Belvedere lift with intention of heading over to Les Gets as that included going down the dreaded (psychologically) Crocus run, that was not for us. In any event we would just slow them down. So we went down to the Nabor lift for an easy run around.
We were both pretty wooden and un-coordinated and were finding it just a little scary! Our legs wouldn't do what the brain instructed and the brain wasn't sure what to do anyway, so maybe the legs were right!
Mags stopped to fix her boots ad I took off my skis and walked the 50 metres to the top of Pleney. At 1550 metres this little hill is taller than our Carantoohill - the highest mountain in Ireland! It was a beautiful vista all around and today we could see Mount Blanc - its about 15 kilometres as the crow flies, but it is usually covered in mist. I took some pictures and headed back to Mags.
Just a little puzzled and unsure of ourselves we made our way to the end of the Belvedere lift and enjoyed the view some more. Then we stopped at Le Vaffieu and had a coffee to collect ourselves. One thing sure it was a blessing that we had missed our class because by know I would have been in the horrors with this brain and these legs. After coffee we did the run down to Nabor lift - our old familiar warm-up run. At Nabor We felt brave enough to try the Piste D run down to Les Mouilles.
Taking it Easy, Uploaded by M+MD
We went back around to do it again and we met up with our class! "Just in time for the test" said Joseph. They had been down in the direction of Nyon. So we joined them down the familiar Piste D almost to Les Mouilles and then traversed across to Piste C and around to the Atray ski lift. There ESF Ski School had the award ceremony. Of course we all had passed and the test was nothing other than keeping up with the group or just enduring the 5 days! Then we had some Kir and cheese and sauscisson (salami). The kids hadn't found their group but most of the ESF groups were there. We located their instructor and collected their certificates. Then we rang them and they skied down to meet us.
Graduation over we headed back to the top on the rickety Atray ski lift. It stopped for a few minutes near the top. Mags had gone on ahead and I remembered that she had trouble with this lift on Wednesday.. When we got off we found out that the reason for the stop was not Mags but the bar had bounced back down as Lisa and Senan were getting off and the footrest had caught Lisa by the neck. She was not hurt though she was shaken. Senan had fallen hard on his bum. I think that is the end of Piste C for us. The newer chairlifts have a much better design - the balance of the bar almost carries it up by itself. We stopped by Pleney for cocas and beer and I had a sandwich. We heard from Katy - her exam had gone well.
After lunch we were ready for more skiing. The tiredness was going away and the stamina increasing. I even managed to take Piste B home! Chris took this video of Lisa going down a small part of the Piste B stretch.
Friday night we were invited to Deirdre's friends daughters 18th birthday celebration. They are in Les Gets for 10 days. We had Champagne in their friend's Tim and Sue's chalet and then we walked down to the restaurant with some snowball skirmishes on the way! There were 18 of us for dinner. We had a lovely meal including what Roisin called "Hot Rocks, Hot Rocks" - steak self-cooked on the stone. The birthday cake arrived with candles that were more like fireworks. Lots of signing of happy birthday in a couple of languages. We finished up with the men settling the bill over a interesting local eau de vie called "Genepays".
We got a taxi back to Morzine at about 11.45. To-morrow is our last day skiing.
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