MegèveSki

Do you know the way to St. Gervais?

Another clear, cold day. Some slight cloud in the valley but nothing to complain about. The wind seemed slightly lower, but just as bitter. It seemed warmer in the sun than yesterday but colder in the shade... We decided to explore Mont d'Arbois a bit more and headed down towards St. Gervais.

We skied some nice quiet runs with good snow and amazing views of Mont Blanc. These will be great for taking our next guests on next week. We found a couple of new restaurants, but didn't try them, and finally dropped back over and skied down to the base of the Princesse lift before heading back up to L'Igloo for lunch.

After lunch we skied off of Mont Joux and finished on the Mont d'Arbois side with Pylones. Back on the Rochebrune side we did a quick run down under Caboche and then headed for home.

My skiing was variable today. I was still working on the problem that I'd had yesterday and I was deliberately being very picky so that I could work through potential causes quickly. I started with my boots a little less tight; I've been skiing with looser boots recently to get more flex from the boot - by leaving the second buckle from the top a little looser I get more flex on the boot with less effort and it doesn't really affect how the boot holds my foot. Anyway, the recent soft stuff caused me to want to crank the boots up a bit more so for the last week or so I've been skiing with them tighter. So first thing I started with more flex but that didn't really change things that much. The right leg was still prone to get too far forward and cause the juddering that I'd experienced yesterday. Wider stance, no change, narrower stance, no change. Turning just with hip crossovers seemed to help, but I think that was more from taking a slightly different line than actually addressing the problem. Eventually in the afternoon I realised that I was breaking at the waist too much and that I should be standing taller. A couple of runs with a tight core, my arse pulled forward and my chest and chin high helped me find the right mix and things started to come together again. With a taller stance, my bones stacked up and my feet tucked under me the problem went away. On the final run down I tweaked the stance a little more by holding the ankle flex all the time, rather than unflexing at the end of the turn, and that seemed to add a little more control to the mix. Now, I wonder if I can recapture this tomorrow and then somehow ski enough so that I can burn in the muscle memory... Complicated stuff this skiing...

Miche had a great day and the canting adjustment seemed to work...