Mountains. Snow. Burgers. Happy Place.
- James
- Jan 22, 2023
- 2 min read
Rumours of no-snow in Chamonix are – thankfully – complete nonsense. Instead, a dump a few days after I arrived coated the slopes in at least 40cm of powder. That was bested last week by three straight days of fluffy, fluffy goodness and a temperature dip to make sure it sticks around. Cue some of the best snow you could hope for and a soft landing when your aspirations outstrip your technique. What a start to the year.
Adjusting to fun-employment has – unsurprisingly – been dead easy. No emails and no powerpoint. I am not even sure I have Excel installed on my computer.
Replacing economic productivity is the pursuit of really good skiing. That means going back to (grown up) ski school for all things hors piste. Out are snow ploughs and snaking across the mountain in a convoy of five year olds, decimating everything our path. In is a chap called Mark who has been skiing since before I could walk and seems to have every ski qualification under the sun – English or French.
True to our student form, none of the group wanted to make life too easy for Mark. We never missed a chance to collapse into the white stuff, be it the consequence of an unplanned jump, an errant lift … or skiing into a tree that definitely was not there moments earlier. (Only one of those three was me!)
Mark took it all in his stride and spent the week coaching and cajoling us down hidden couloirs and powder bowls that the locals do not want you to know about, all the while nudging us to get weight further forwards or pressure more even. An utterly brilliant teacher, would highly recommend for anyone looking to refine their skiing: allmountainperformance.com
The downside to all this skiing is constantly sore legs. The upside is constant hunger: exactly how it should be in a town full of pastries, alpine food … and the best burgers on the planet. I'm making friends with all the important people - aka the teams in the local coffee shop, boucherie and fromagerie
Next week is a foray into ski touring, aka skiing up hill. Touring is brutally hard work but a great way to accumulate more kit (eye-wateringly expensive: thinking of funding by selling photos, organs, the odd limb - hit me up) and to get away from the piste areas into proper back country. Exciting!
What’s up
Burger consumption: those who know, know.
The snowfall: couple of metres in a week
My left ski: somewhere up the slope from me, buried under a couple of feet of powder.
What’s down
English bootfitters: the locals just do it better.
Frank: the practice transceiver who managed to get buried in an avalanche five times… In the space of half an hour… On a piste.
Orange France: “ah bonjour monsieur, we are very sorry but we will not connect your broadband until you pay us a €400 security deposit because you are still on a database that by law we should have taken you off when you closed out your last contract with us.” I will never complain about UK broadband again.
Comments