Mardis Gras 2008. A good year, I think you’ll agree…
Archives for 2008
Still alive, well, kind of.
As suspected, last night’s Mardis Gras festivities were utter, brilliant carnage.
There are loads of photos that I’m going to be getting my mits on soon, but for now you’ll have to get an idea of how daft it was just from the picture below of Sandy (the lanky-grade-one-tech-passing-falling-over-machine) dressed as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.
More evidence to follow.
PS it snowed last night (but it turned into a little pesky rain in town by the time everybody surfaced with their post-festivities hangovers this morning), and blue skies forecast for the rest of the week.
Laaarverly.
In the sunshine
Sunshine is great – especially when said in Sandy’s best comedy Manchester accent. Or maybe by Noel Gallagher.
Suffice to say, we’ve got loads of it again today, so everyone’s raced up the hill to enjoy it – if they’re not busy teaching, or hammering down Savoleyres doing race training with Alex. Or if they’re not me – sitting in my flat going through the es website and writing a list of amends and adjustments.
It’s glamorous stuff…
Rumour is that more snow is coming middle of the week – the remnants of the filthy weather everyone seems to have had back in Blighty. It’s also set to get a bit cheeky on the wind front over the next few days – you can see the wind starting to whip up the fresh snow up high in the picture below…
Plus it’s Mardi Gras on Tuesday. Which will be pure carnage, so – if I’m in any kind of fit state to type – we’ll be sticking up the evidence in pictures on Wednesday over an Alka-Seltzer.
We’re so very, very, er, proud?
As Ski Instructors we spend an awful lot of time training for exams, and then taking them.
And when we’re not doing either of those, we’re worrying about them…
So it’s brilliant news that Sandy – my flat mate and Top Northern ES Instructor – got back from Val D’Isere yesterday having passed his Grade One Technical exam, which is the very highest technical exam there is in the British system, and on a par with any exam that any country in the world has.
Impressive stuff.
So perhaps we can excuse the fact that he was feeding shots to complete strangers in The Pub last night (as well as Olly, above, who’s not a complete stranger, and also passed the One Tech – nice one mate).
Well he hasn’t got any lessons today, so maybe leaving Coco at 4 am isn’t so bad. Especially as he was aided and abetted by the boss…
PS it’s snowing and there are rumours of a big, filthy, dirty storm next week. Bring it on…
More snow…
Last night we had a dusting of snow, and we all woke up in a very cloudy and very white Verbier.
The weather forecast said scortchio, but that was clearly rubbish. Which is why I took out loads of warm clothes, no sun cream and the low-visability lenses in my goggles.
Fool.
By 10.30 we were sweltering in La Chaux, all the cloud had gone and we were treated to stunning views across to Mont Blanc.
I was sweating like a pig in a sausage factory.
The moral of this story? Have a little bit more faith in snow-forecast.com. And with this in mind, they say it’s going to snow tonight.
So tomorrow I’m leaving the suncream at home, putting on loads of warm clothes, and crossing my fingers…
Something starting to happen in the stratosphere this evening…
A day out of Verbier
Bruson is great – ok, maybe a bit icy, and there are the T-bars, but still great. And it’s covered by your Verbier lift pass, so we popped over today for a look.
The lift takes you to Le Chable, get the bus over and head up on the old-and-knackered-but-cool two-man chair.
It’s not too high, but it’s SO quiet it’s unbelievable.
However, if you go over – and you should – get the bus back to Chable. The ski down the tracks can be a little ‘agricultural’…
Oh, and don’t get up three hours late with a hangover and miss the bus.
And don’t go with Iggy and Stef.
The lads at the top:
The snow disappears en route to Chable: