Yum, Yum....Les Contamines. What a deliciously divine ski area! And we didn't even experience her in the best conditions. A windy and cloudy afternoon, followed a warm and sunny morning. As we mentioned yesterday, the weather is finally starting to change and while the Meteo is predicting snow, the temperatures have been increasing steadily every day. Fingers crossed, we'll get some of the snow that is currently crippling Britain.
Situated at the end of a valley running alongside the western flank of Mont Blanc, Les Contamines has amazing fall line, huge areas of ungroomed and, what looks like, endless touring!! Hmmm...our kinda hill! Definitely a place that we'll be coming back to!
2/A few Racer Kids too! This is an 8 year old doing 80kmph!!
Les Contamines ("LC") also wins the award for the weirdest gondolas we've struck so far in Europe. They must have got their lift system from the Poma sale catalogue, either that, or LC was an experimental installation by Poma. Their gondola's are double sided and designed to take 6 midgets or 4 normal sized humans, or 2 rugby players. (Actually, strike that. The entrances are too narrow for a front row'er even if they squeezed in sideways!!). The shell is made of fibreglass and both the rear and front doors open & close on their own random timetable. An adventure in themselves, I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to use these gondolas in a busy period when everyone is pushing and shoving. Maybe that's why they don't fit rugby players?
4/ "The experimental Gondolas at LC!!"
And finally our day ended with a chance meeting with a lovely frenchman, Daniel, who was trying to learn to telemark. As the clouds were rolling in and the visibility drove us further down the mountain, Daniel came over to say hello to us when we stopped half way down the run. It was day 2 on telemarks for Daniel and he was obviously looking for some pointers. "Voulez -vous venir avec nous?", I asked. As soon as the words were out of my mouth I hoped he understood that I meant we'd be happy to help him, rather than any other scary interpretation!
What ensued was an hilarious telemark lesson conducted in "franglish" as Daniel spoke no English and we no French. But somehow he got the drift and he followed Graeme down the slope 3 or 4 times. At least by the end of the afternoon, he had the downhill ski forward and his turns were looking less alpine and more "telemarky".
Daniel shouted us to a coffee afterwards and we learned that he was 55 and a strong alpine skier. He had spent all his life in the mountains, skiing and climbing and he now works as a Lift Engineer at a ski resort near Annecy. Didn't quite catch on where it was exactly. But we did get that he was separated from his wife, with 3 sons (30, 26 & 22). He skis all the year on the high glaciers at Tignes & Val d'Isere. He wanted to learn to telemark to keep his interest in skiing alive. (Some may think that telemarking has just the opposite affect! They are not called "Misery Sticks" for nothing!!).
A delightful man, we hope that we'll catch up with Daniel again when we return to the little gem that is Les Contamines!!
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