MegèveSki

Skiing alone

Today I skied alone. Miche was feeling better this morning but she hasn't eaten properly in a couple of days and she decided not to ski as she probably wouldn't have had the strength for it. This was the first time this trip that I've skied on my own for the whole time rather than just being alone after stopping to wait for someone... I always find it harder work when I'm skiing on my own, I don't stop as often and tend to to runs top to bottom with no breaks, this works my legs a little harder than when I ski with the rest of the gang.

I adjusted my boot clips last night, I've had a 'hot spot' on the knuckle of my little toe for a couple of weeks now and I thought that I might be able to relieve the pressure by moving the mid foot buckle into its other position... No such luck, the new position caused my feet to cramp up as the flex pattern of the boot changed so that when I was forward on my boots the boot clamped my foot in a stupid position... One run down under the Alpette chair and one down the bumps next to Raverette left me with feet that wouldn't last the rest of the morning so I stopped for an overpriced hot chocolate at Alpette (we've done a survey, Alpette is more expensive for drinks than anywhere else). Anyway, I supped my 5€ drink and took my boots off and let my feet recover. At that point I hoped that I'd just done the clips too tightly and they'd be fine if I let them run free for a moment and then reclamped them with less pressure...

The first run up the Raverette drag to Alpette this morning was amusing, about half way up I did the usual over the shoulder check to make sure everyone I was with was OK and following only to realise that there was nobody with me... Hmm.

I put my boots back on and they felt OK so I headed down the red path towards Fontaine. Snow was good, very good, there were a couple of small icy patches but nothing to worry about. Having done Fontaine top to bottom twice my feet were hurting again so I sat on the fence by the lift and whipped out my tool (down tiger), I undid the screws holding the mid foot buckles and moved them back to the old positions and after a run or two my feet came back to life.

I stayed over on Fontaine for a while and looped, taking different routes at the top and skiing all the way down non stop. A nice work out for the legs and I had a couple of new 'oh look how good my new balanced stance works' moments when I found those small icy patches at speed and simply slid sideways, as if sideslipping, momentarily rather than having one leg skip out from under me.

Again it was a little wierd not having anyone to discuss the runs with on the way back up and nobody to suggest alternative routes, etc... It was also wierd that I was the one with the french mobile for once so I had to take calls rather than Miche dealing with them...

After an hour or so on Fontaine I decided that I should really be doing the 'good boyfriend bit' and heading back early like I said I would; Miche wanted to go into town in the afternoon for a wander so that she could judge how well she felt; wandering around the apartment doesn't really cut it for that kind of thing. I took Jardin and headed back towards home. I took a couple of runs down the Super Megève black, and the fluffy bumps next to it and then started for home. I was a little surprised to see that the stade under Caboche was open so I did a run down that and then, well, one run down the stade is never enough so I did another and finally made it back to the base at Rochebrune by 1.30 which was about when I expected to get home. The weather was good, the snow was good and the pistes were quiet; Megève is getting back to how it should be after the (relative) madness of the French half term season...

The Sunnto S6 says that I did 12 runs in 2hrs 41 mins, including my boot adjustment stops, for a total descent of 5218m at an average of 116m/min and I'm sure the hot chocolate break screwed that stat nicely ;)