Rollercoaster Ride

Hi everyone and welcome to the latest blog post from Méribel. I've had a really interesting week teaching many different people, in ever-changing weather and snow conditions. As is expected from the middle of March onwards, snow conditions evolve on a daily basis. Night-time temperatures can affect how much the daytime melted snow freezes. Thankfully the temperatures are dropping nicely at the moment to help the mountain refresh regularly. All of these photos have been taken since last weekend.

We've also had several weak snow fronts come through this week which has given us some really nice dustings of the fresh stuff. Nothing huge, but every little helps. February was a very dry month, as was the start of March, so it's nice to have these tiny top ups as we enter into spring. A real treat.

I've had a couple of sessions start in the Courchevel valley this week, one of which led to me having my morning commute on skis. I aimed to be on the first Saulire Express bubble at 9am, which meant I almost had first tracks down the Combe Saulire red piste into Courchevel.

One of the people I taught this week was a chap called Andrei. This lesson came from the ski school, with a rendezvous at the Hotel Coucou. It was a Russian looking name on my ESF planning details, but I couldn't be sure until I met him. It's common knowledge that there have been fewer Russian visitors to the French Alps the last few years. Covid of course was one reason, and then the outbreak of the Ukraine war has been another. This has meant I hadn't skied with any Russians for about five years. Until this week.

I met Andrei at his hotel and we chatted away with what he wanted to do. I could tell straight away that his English language skills were excellent, with just a hint of a Russian accent. During the course of the morning I learnt that he studied engineering at the Moscow State University. The degree was taught 50% in the Russian language, and the other 50% in English. After graduating he left Moscow and lived with a family in The Netherlands for a while, where they also communicated in English. He has also worked for an American company for ten years, and then a German company where the common language was also English. That explained his excellent language skills! He now runs his own company in Russia that renovates and services large agricultural machinery.

I of course was curious as to how he was skiing in France, when many Russians are unable to. But I decided to keep this curiosity to myself and not raise the question. We had an interesting ski, and he was very motivated to improve his technique. We skied all over the place including Mont Vallon and the Saulire side of the Méribel Valley.

Also this week I was back with Richard B, for the second time this winter. He was telling me what happened to him the day after I last skied with him. He was staying in Courchevel Moriond (1650), and wanted to head over to 1850. On the way over there, after having used the Aiguille du Fruit chairlift, he was skiing towards Suisses. Out of nowhere, a snowboarder crashed heavily into Richard from behind. So much so that he thinks he passed out for a while. He remembers hearing people (pisteurs) using walkie talkies, and he was evacuated off the mountain in one of those sledges us Brits call 'blood wagons'. He was checked over in the 1850 Medical Centre, and thankfully no real physical damage was reported other than a banged up arm and shoulder. In short, he was extremely lucky to escape so lightly.

The person who knocked him over didn't hang around by the sound of it. I explained that this situation is my biggest fear every winter. Yes the mountains can be a dangerous place, and yes I could fall over and hurt myself. But my biggest fear is being skied into by one of these out of control Muppets. Richard also told me that the cost of being evacuated off the mountain in a sledge is 600 euros. Gulp. Thankfully he had paid for a 'Carte Neige' insurance cover at the beginning of that week, so he didn't have to cough up this amount. Thought I might mention this so we can all learn from his unfortunate experience.

Richard and I had a fun day. We recapped some of the things we worked on a few weeks ago, and we continued consolidating these skills. It was so nice to see how much Richard's skiing has improved. He had been stuck on the dreaded 'Intermediate Plateau', but is now working his way off of it. Well done Richard, a great effort.

Leading up to this winter, an announcement was made that a new mountain restaurant was being built in Val Thorens. When I first skied over to this location (Cime de Caron) in December, the restaurant was incomplete with tradesmen still busily beavering away. With the Cime de Caron cable car out of action all of this winter, the only way of accessing this restaurant was via the Orelle Valley on the Caron bubble. Last Saturday I was able to go over there when I was skiing for myself.

As you can see, it hasn't been built with traditional materials, such as wood and stone. But then I guess it could be argued that Val Thorens often has quirky looking buildings and ski lifts. Although not a particularly large mountain restaurant, it does have several floors. There's a separate wine bar of all things on one floor, alongside a boutique. The next floor up hosts the restaurant. And then finally right at the top there's a rooftop outdoors bar area.

The views are of course spectacular both from the rooftop, and also inside with floor-to-ceiling glass windows. It is the highest mountain restaurant in the 3 Valleys at 3,200 metres. Fingers crossed the Cime de Caron cable car will be running again next winter, which will allow easier access.

Right, that'll do for now. I hope you've enjoyed this week's blog post. My instructing continues this weekend with Sparkie, then I'm open to the school next week. A few more light snow falls are due through the next 48 hours, with cool temperatures. Then it looks as though warmer weather will creep back from the middle of the week. As ever, don't forget to Live With Passion. Martin.