Ear to Ear Smiles

You wouldn’t believe what has happened in the last seven days. It felt as though the whole of the French Alps would stay brown and snowless. The pistes were bone dry, with the odd mound of ‘cultured snow’ if you were lucky. But then it started to snow last Sunday night, and it snowed, and it snowed, and it snowed……. you get the picture.

After four days and nights here in Tignes we had over a metre of the white stuff in the village. What a transformation and what a relief. I’ve now been in Tignes for just over a week working for a top British ski coaching team. Catching up with Slippers (pictured above and below, see previous post), Bryan, Dave and Rupes.

The four of us had different teaching commitments and different levels. But it didn’t matter what standard of a skier you were, everyone loved these new conditions, there were smiles from ear to ear all over the mountain.

During the four days of storms, the visibility was a little tricky. We didn’t mind at the time of course, because we were all playing about in the deep stuff just like children. But then on Thursday when the high winds blew away storms, we were all stunned to see how much snow had fallen.

Some aspects gave us awesome depths, but other aspects were wind affected. It understandably took the pisteurs a while to make the mountain safe with extensive avalanche control, and then grooming the pistes for the first time this winter. Even when we could ski on the newly opened pistes, the mountain restaurants still had to dig themselves out and then get organised to serve us smiling new customers.

Because, you see the thing was, we just couldn’t stop smiling. I skied all week with Elaine, a lovely lady from Birmingham. It was her fourth week skiing, and she had never been to Tignes before. We spent every morning and afternoon together chipping away at her technique and confidence. It was a brilliant way to start my teaching this season. Elaine and I also had some great times with her friends Mike, Lucy and Captain Fred. One of my best memories from last week was skiing down from the top of the Toviere peak, one of the borders between Tignes and Val d’Isere, after a hot chocolate in the last light of the day down a deserted piste. Did you enjoy that Lucy?

It seems like it, there’s another smile. I’ve just started my second week of work here in Tignes, and then I’ll heading back to Méribel on Friday. The snow continues to be fantastic, and it looks as though we might get a top up tomorrow. Méribel opened its lifts and slopes yesterday, and it felt strange for me not being there this year. If it was half as good as it is here, then I’m sure everyone had a belting opening day. Ladies and gentlemen, the winter season has finally begun.

Martin

P.S. It seems my mate Slippers was enjoying the powder last week whilst teaching as well. How is it going Slippers?

Oh, looks like he can’t wipe off that smile on his face either.