MegèveSki

Skis that make sure you're working

We skied Mont d'Arbois with Chris today. I thought it might be nice to ski off the back of Mont Joux and down Epaule towards St Nicholas as the views over there are wonderful. It was clear enough to see the bridge at the top of Aiguile du Midi and I could just make out the cable car. The snow wasn't that good (we're being fussy now, I think), some of the runs are quite exposed and well travelled and there are some rocks showing. After some time over there we headed over to the front of Mont Joux for a while where we saw a parapent take off and then down to Etudiants for a couple of runs down by the drag lift before going to Les Mandarines for lunch.

Today was the first day that it's been nice enough to sit outside since the snow came. It was lovely on the terrace at Les Mandarines and the views were stunning. After lunch we skied down to the Ideal chair and then down to Monts Rossets, over to Princess, a quicky down the Princess black and then down Pylones to head back across to Rochebrune. Once last run down under Caboche and then home.

In the morning my skis were giving me a hard time. On steeper slopes they were chattering and hard to control. It quickly became fairly obvious that I wasn't comitting enough to the steeper slopes, I was slightly back, not on the fronts of the boots and not forcing the skis to be under control and they were letting me know... Once I realised what was going on I managed to get them under control and stay forward the whole time in the afternoon and had some great skiing. I think I actually prefer to have skis that require a little more work since it's likely to prevent me skiing lazilly - if I don't work them then they misbehave and the ride isn't as good; if I work them properly they're very sweet... The run down Pylones and the Rochebrune slalom slope were excellent, fast and controlled and I was forward and in control the whole time. Although I need to work harder on these skis than on the XScreams they give back much more when you put the effort in...