Opening Day - Where is everyone????

As the Aussies would say, so "where the bloody hell are you?" Opening day at our ski resort Les Carroz and there was not a person to be seen at 9am when the lifts opened. We had used traditional TC logic and arose at first light to beat the queues, but there wasn't one!! We felt a bit silly really. Like arriving in fancy dress when it's a normal party!! Aaah... those Frenchies have such a different attitude!

So it must be a British thing!? Rick was also up early and met us for a grand tour of the mountain. In less than an hour we had done a high speed cruise of all the pistes necessary for linking the 4 main areas. We skied perfectly groomed corduroy piste time and time again. Not another person to be seen. See photo below.

Mid morning, Rick left us to meet up with Liz and her family. They were on the beginner slopes and his duty as instructor began for the day. Both and Liz and Rick are so generous with their time for others. Good Karma to them!!

Left to our own devices we delved into the off-piste runs...and there were many. Some better than others. The temperature had increased a little overnight and the champagne powder of yesterday had changed to NZ/ Aussie powder ie., that heavy thick porridge consistency, especially on the warmer southerly slopes. But we found plenty of northerly aspects to ski where the snow consistency had not been affected.

We found a particularly challenging couloir under a chairlift in a bowl about half way between our resort and Flaine. Can't say either of us skied it particularly well, but it will be our "work in progress" over the coming months. On our way to this couloir Graeme managed a rather spectacular stack. Telemark skis have a fabulous tendency to spear themselves into the snow at all sorts of impossible angles when things go wrong. But apparantly, despite the "contorsionist" look of the fall, Gra was perfectly OK! Just like falling into a feather bed!!

One of the great advantages of our location is that we can come home for lunch. We are literally only 2 minutes away. While there are many good picnic locations on the mountain, nothing beats being able to have some hot soup and fresh bread and salads, rather than a boring old sandwich!!

We have a great set-up at our little home in the mountains. While we share the downstairs garage with our landlord, he only uses it to store the snow blower and some other odds and ends. We have our own dedicated drying room and laundry (see photo below) and plenty of space to store things. Thank goodness, as we have had to store 4 brand new tyres that came off our Peugueot when we fitted winter tyres.

And the last bit of news is that I went for my first haircut at our local hairdressing salon tonight. It's a very smartly decorated salon and the staff are really friendly. My hairdresser is Anna-Sophie and Phillipe the owner cut Graeme's hair the week before. They don't speak much english - which is good! Forces us to speak French! Can't say that I excelled myself in the language department on this visit, but hopefully they will be astounded with our progress over the coming months! Yeah right! And pigs might fly...!