MegèveSki

Miche back on skis

Miche was feeling well enough to ski today. We had an afternoon lesson booked with Lucy and Miche wasn't sure if she would be up to a whole day skiing or if she'd be up to having a lesson so we took it easy to start with with some runs down under Caboche and down the Stade. By the time we needed to head over to Mont d'Arbois to meet Lucy Miche was feeling good and she ended up skiing for most of the lesson...

At the end of our last day's skiing with Lucy (the "challenging" day) we had ended up on some slightly cruddy powder and Miche had some problems with it so the first thing she did today was ask Lucy for some tips on how to handle it - I had warned her that this would inevitably lead to that being the focus of the lesson but she asked anyway... I guess she was feeling better than I realised... ;)

In the bubble up to the L'Igloo Lucy explained the theory and then we dropped down towards Les Communailles off piste across the fields between where the Betex bubble comes up and the Communailles drag lift. The snow here was the worst we could find; the season is so good that it's hard to find bad off piste conditions, the snow just seems to stay as light fluffy powder. The stuff we found was slightly, ever so slightly, wind blown in places which gave it a bit of a crust, but nothing too nasty. We skied down practising the new techniques which seemed to work well; push down with both skis to form a platform so that you can rise up from it and pivot the skis - get a little air if possible to make things easier... Miche had a bit of a tumble on one of the steeper sections, but it was all soft stuff so, apart from the mess, she was fine.

Once at the bottom of the fields we cut onto a snow-shoe path through the trees and used the slightly concave shape of the path as a very small half-pipe and skied down through the trees to Les Communailles. A nice little run and one that Lucy later told us was designed to get Miche to look ahead more - you needed to to know what was coming next.

We then took the drag to the La Croix chair and worked on some on piste technique as we skied back down to Les Communailles. Another fall for Miche whilst doing one of the drills. We stopped at one of the restaurants for a coffee and a rest and then took La Croix back to the top.

Down towards the Mt Joux chair and then over to the Stade Slalom run to work on our hand and arm positions (Miche's were too wide and mine too close...) Up and down here a few times and then into the soft stuff between Stade and Valamonts to put the upper body work together with the earlier off piste work. At this point Lucy picked me up on a few more issues (I have some strange neck and shoulder contortions...) and Miche did really well, earning a, well deserved, "that was excellent, ski like that all the time!" from Lucy. We skied on the soft stuff a couple of more times and then dropped down to the Ideal chair and then back up to the top.

Miche was tired and hungry by now so she stopped and Lucy and I headed off to Les Voltigeurs to work on my shoulder and head issues (at least my problems are working their way up my body, eventually they should fall off the top ;) and I'll be free of them). A couple of runs down the black to work on getting my downhill hand and shoulder lower, to move my weight move over the downhill ski, and to stop my head following my hand (and bending down towards my downhill shoulder). Interestingly I had no idea I was doing stupid things with my head and, I think, by the time we'd finished I at least could tell when I was doing it - which is always the first step...

Once we'd finished on the black we did a quick run down the L'oratoire blue to the Ideal chair and back up to the top for a coffee with Miche.

We finished the day with a run down the top of Pylones and then onto the Le Schuss red to finish up at the bottom and then back across the Rocharbois and home.

A good day where I had some new problems to work on and where Miche skied really well in some challenging conditions. Tomorrow we're off to do the Praz -> Flumet -> Notre Damme de Bellecombe circuit with Lucy.