Community Service

Last Thursday night I had to attend another ‘Community Service’ session. My name was down on the list; it didn’t matter if I kicked up a fuss and performed the screaming ab-dabs, community service is community service.

But don’t worry everyone, I haven’t turned to crime and then got caught by the police. Some of the Méribel Ski Instructors are given their winter season lift pass in order to do their job. In return we are expected to provide a service back to the community. This often means helping at local race events or taking part in torchlight descents.

This month is the twentieth anniversary of when some of the Olympic events were held here in Méribel. It was therefore decided that each week of the French school holidays, all four of them, there would be a torchlight descent. Hence last week some of us skied down to Les Allues in the dark with our torches.Now the thing is, it’s quite a distance from the top of the Roc de Fer chairlift all the way down to the Les Allues village. So that meant there was a bit of a dilemma, whether to take two torches in order to ensure ‘visibility’ all the way down, or to just ‘hoon it’ at great speed before your torch burnt out. There was much discussion before the off, and I opted for just the one torch. But the faster you ski, the more the risk of the wind blowing out the flame. When you look at this next photo, try to ignore the light from the flash of the camera, and you will see how little light is provided by the torch.

So, how did I get on with my one torch? It blew out twice on the way down, with frantic re-lighting, but I just made it to the village. Who says Community Service has to be glamorous?My work was different to normal last week as well. I didn’t have my usual self-generated work as a Private Méribel Ski Instructor. I rushed to one of the directors at the school and opened myself up to the mercy of the French school holidays.

The school did me proud by filling up all of my planning. In the morning I had an adult group lesson, British and Irish snow-plough to parallel skiers, pictured above. Then at lunchtime I had a mixture of short separate private lessons, French, English and a few Dutch sessions. And then in the afternoon I had another adult group lesson, this time all French and Belge. With half the week teaching in French, and the hectic lesson schedule with diddly-squat breaks inbetween, I ended the week ‘right proper pooped’. Hence very few photos were taken. A great experience meeting so many people of different nationalities, and loads of stories to tell. Here’s one, what do you think the Dutch call draglifts? The answer is, Pancakes !?! Apparently the pancake bit is to do with the shape of the disc that tucks under one's bottom. How strange that I learnt this on pancake day.

One of my personal favourite moments from last week was sharing time with Robert, above. An ex-rugby player, now with a replacement hip, from Dublin. He is scarily one of the fastest snow-ploughers in the West, and in the 3 Valleys come to think of it. A stunning ‘all or nothing’ character that made me and others chuckle many times. And no, that’s not a custard tart on his face, it’s how he applies sun block late morning, ‘all or nothing’. Thanks Robert, great to meet you.Back to normal this week with private ski instructing work. Awesome sunny weather by the way, day after day, after day…..you get the picture.MartinP.S. Going back to Community Service. As instructors we have to buy our torches, which is fair enough. But other participants, including lifties and pisteurs, are given theirs. But here’s the irony, the pisteurs (they are the awesome security chaps that look after us on the piste) are given wooden torches !?! Isn’t wood flammable?

Guess whose name is on the list for more Community Service yet again this Thursday evening. Yep, I’ll be scuffing it down to Les Allues once again in the dark.