It's snowing again / more powder to the people

Yesterday we had a fantastic day skiing in lots of lovely powder, under a clear blue sky. Quite a cold day actually, but with all that sunshine and powder, we forgot about it (although I was clearly reminded of the coldness during the first 20 minutes in the car afterward as my toes, especially the big ones, came back to life with, let's say, just a little bit of pain...).

We headed to Praz de Lys/Sommand in France, a new experience for most of our group, for once quite a small group with just four of us skiing together, and another three meeting up for lunch. Very nice to be skiing with a group of just four as we hardly had to wait for one another and all fit into the chair lift (this year, the group of friends tagging along has often touched around ten or more people, very nice for socializing, but not ideal for skiing).

Initially Praz de Lys did not seem like a fantastic place for a fun day of playful skiing, actually it looked more like a heaven for beginners (and this was also the reason why the three additional friends who were there had chosen the place) with some ok slopes for the rest of the group. But we decided to give it a try. And what luck that we did!

The day started with about 40 minutes lost in traffic on the way there, 40 minutes under which I was telling N, and myself, that look at the sun - at least we did not stay in Geneva under the stratus the whole day, but instead we are on our way to a day in sunshine. The idea being that if the station was really boring, well we would camp out on a terrace and enjoy seeing the sun for the first time in a couple of weeks.

And at the beginning of the day, once we finally had arrived and had managed to get skiing tickets after loosing close to another hour (the machines did not work in one place, so we had to drive to another etc), it looked like this was going to be more of a terrace day indeed. The lifts were old, slow, and not very steep, hence the place really felt like beginners paradise. On top, my calves had started to cramp up as they like to do when I spend too much time with the boots on before starting to ski.

Imagine therefore how presently surprised we were when, after taking the first chair lift, we went off and tasted wonderful fresh fluffy snow! The conditions were perfect: sunshine to keep us warm and for perfect visibility, cold enough to keep the snow fresh, great mounds of snow with many fresh parts left to allow us to trace our own descents, a calm station with mostly beginners meaning that we shared the fun parts with only a handful of people, and just four of us to allow for maximum skiing. A big smile quickly placed itself on my face as I floated down the first powder, and stayed stuck the whole day no matter the lengthy and unfriendly waiter at lunch, my frozen toes hurting in those horrible torture instruments called ski boots, or any other small hiccups (were there any?).

The smile stayed put only to erupt into laughter at regular intervals, and into small yelps when a surprising jump came my way or the mound of snow made me loose control and taste some fresh powder :)

It was also the first real day of off piste skiing for T, and she did a remarkable job going down that first slope. A bit tense, a bit scared, partly convinced that she did not have the skills (she does), and with advice streaming at her from 3 directions (I would have lost my temper after half a slope, but she remained calm for three!), and yet she went down, and not just once either. 3 times on that same slope, and also parts of slopes elsewhere, accumulating to almost half the day spent outside of the pistes. Bravo!

So as you can read - we had an incredible day of skiing!! And today it's snowing again! This season is in fact incredible - colder and with more snow than ever before (well almost) in Geneva, freezing temperatures at work, unhappy people walking around cold, in fact a much longer winter than usual (by mid-February, you can usually see the first people in bikini on sunny days), but all amounting to perfect skiing conditions!

Lovely!