We spent the day skiing at Flaine today. Flaine - 1600 - 2480m is the highest area of the Grand Massif.
It was an uncertain start to the day as the weather is finally starting to change. The temperature has risen and the wind has started up. We admit to being so spoiled with the snow and weather conditions that we were both a little reluctant to don the skis this morning, especially since the skies were grey and it looked like the weather was going to crack up any minute.
Au contraire!! In fact, the sun came out at lunchtime and it remained sunny and warm all afternoon. What do we know about the weather?
The weather in Europe is quite different than NZ. Everything happens very slowly. They have a gentle weather pattern. No howling NW'esters or 4 seasons in one day! We can almost predict what the weather is going to do by what the council workers routine. If they are busy moving lots of snow and clearing the road edges, then it's going to snow. If they are clearing drains...bother it's going to rain!!
Today was a TELE fest kind of day. Not tele as in telemark, but "tele" as in Telepherique (Cable Car), Telecabine (Gondola), Telesiege (Chairlift), Teleski (Poma/Drag lift) and finally the very unique Telebenne. We went on a "lift tour" of Flaine today!!
We have never seen a lift quite like the "Telebenne". You ride it standing up. It takes only two persons and in Flaine it's used as a short access lift from the village to the main lifts. The best way I can describe the lift is to think "chariot". You climb into the little half cabin and hold your skis vertical. The back closes automatically behind you and you're away. Getting off is interesting! Easy than it looks, you step off backwards and the telebenne continues on it's merry way.
Our aim today was to see if we could manage to ride all the different kinds of lifts at Flaine. Mission accomplished! See the photos below, although we missed out taking photos of the telepherique and telecabine - you'll just have to take our word for it!
We also did a bit of skiing - here's todays footage!!
3/ Teleski de Veret
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