01.13.06
The White Stuff
Welcome to 2006!
The start of the year found Hanne and me relaxing in Wales with my parents, grandmother, and uncle. It was a bit more subdued that last year’s festivities in Norway, but it was very pleasant nonetheless. David journeyed up to Edinburgh to visit some of his old friends from Awty who happened to be in the country.
On the 2nd of January we (just the Western’s… Hanne had to work :-() flew over to France for a week of skiing in the up-and-coming resort of Sainte-Foy. With only 3 chairlifts of it’s own (5 if you include the two kiddy lifts) it’s a very small resort, but it’s growing larger every year. A 4th lift is due to open in the 2006/2007 season which should provide access to a good deal more of the mountain. I was very surprised to find that, although the resort is very small, it already seems to be taken over by Brits! All the locals spoke very good English, and seemed determined to speak to me in English even when I attempted to converse in French… then again, my French is probably so bad I guess they figured it would save us both a lot of hassle if they just spoke English.
Sweet lady luck was on our side with regards to the weather. There was a snowstorm just before we arrived, which dumped around a metre of snow on to the slopes! Although the first day was cloudy, the rest of the week was gloriously sunny (as is evident in the pictures, most of which are too bright). I won’t bore you with a day-by-day breakdown of the skiing, but it was great. Venture Ski (our host) is a top-notch company run by some brilliant people. As I mentioned, the slopes in Sainte-Foy were fairly limited, so the staff were happy to give us a lift to the other resorts nested around the valley, such as Les Arcs, La Rosiére, Tignes and Val d’Isere (we managed to cover all of them!). On the last day Dave and I decided to switch our skis for a pair of “scratch” skis (just like normal skis, only shorter. They’re about 1m in length, but they’re not to be confused with snowblades, which have different bindings and are notorious for breaking ankles if you fall the wrong way). The shorter length made the skiing more like ice-skating, only down hill and at much faster speeds. They’re also useful for proving that white men can jump… (it’s the landing that’s the problem)!
And then, before we knew it, the week was over and it was time to return to our respective corners of the globe. This week has been spent getting back into the swing of things at work and shaking of those post-holiday blues… and once again i’ve started trying to kick myself into a regular routine at the gym. As you may have seen, food was another big feature of the holidays (bejeezus, that last one is a bad photo!).
Oh well… I’ve got a couple of months to lose it before Hanne and I are off on holiday again!
/me wobbles off to bed.
Ben said,
January 15, 2006 at 6:39 pm
Gaz ya big wobbler, you’re not trying hard enough, I’ve lost a stone over the last 6 months. Actually you don’t look bad mate, I’m sure all your working out means you’re fit and healthy. Oooo funky snow pictures = all good.
GaZ said,
January 17, 2006 at 7:39 pm
Lost a stone?! well done! But you’ll be nothing but skin and bones if you keep that up
Joined a gym or something?
Gareth Western.com » Blog Archive » Turin and Back! said,
February 12, 2006 at 7:54 pm
[...] Yesterday Nikolai and I returned from a week of skiing in Italy, not too far from Turin (where the 2006 Winter Olympics have just kicked off). I’ll write a more extensive entry once Nikolai sends me the photos from his camera, but for now here’s a couple of videos from when I went skiing in January: [...]