More Skiing and Why I Love the French

Well there isn't much to say other than we skied the crap out of that mountain for 6 incredible days. Despite varied conditions (slushy at lower elevations, a day of zero visibility, some ice), we did get two blessed days of fresh snow. Generally, conditions were great.

I learned to ski in Utah with Dave and his Dad, which was a very sink-or-swim type of experience for this Midwesterner. We always skied from 9:30 until 4:30 - no exceptions or wussing out because of weather, frostbite, or poor conditions. You just freaking skied. Thus, it takes a lot to get us to quit early or just have an "easy" day, so the zero-visibility-skiing-into-oblivion (or worse, moguls) wasn't such a big deal. It's against my programming now or something to quit because I might die or impale myself. We skied pretty hard the whole time we were there in France I need to recover from my vacation now.

During this trip, I learned that staying at such a huge resort as Trois Vallees has it's pluses:

•   You can escape the crowds quite easily
•   There is lots of untouched powder after a storm
•   There is really varied terrain

.........and minuses:

•   Sick amounts of traversing (especially bad for douchy snowboarders like Dave)
•   Lots of time spent traversing
•   Lots of time spent arguing over navigation while traversing

Here is the trip report card - in the Sugar-Shane tradition:

• The food (fondue, fois gras, red wine, mountain hut restaurants, and happiness): A+
• The food prices being 2/3 more than they were in Austria at the ski resorts, 4 Euro for a coke – what is this a Giants game or something: D+
• Weather: A- (aside from the vertigo-inducing, ZERO visibility we had on a few runs on two of the days, it was worth it for the fresh snow though)
• My French, sad - I need to practice: C-
• Boot warmers, god bless whoever invented those things: A
• Courcheval, where the other half (the uber-rich lazy ones) ski: C
• Val Thorens skiing: A-
• Meribel skiing: B+
• Les Munires skiing, a whole lot of out of control kids and adults on the (mostly) bunny slopes: D
• Scott Maya skis, perfect in all conditions – groomed runs, chop, a few inches of powder, etc. They would be crap in all powder but a GREAT ski overall for the conditions we had: A
• Le Grand Chalet Des Pistes: B
• Running into the ski patrol from Squaw Valley at lunch (really, we did): A-
• The decidedly wussy Brit parents of two VERY loud kiddos right in back of us on the 7 hour train ride home. “If you be quiet Daddy will give you a sweetie”, which induced rounds of crying for said sweetie by both children. Bad idea: D-
• Customs line at San Pancras train station in London: F
• How much the Brits and French hate each other (I have never been so proud to be an American as I was on French-run train full of Brits): B-

Yup, the French know how to relax and enjoy - check out the loungers.

View of the slopes from our room.

Sledding into town below for a drink, minus the sled.

World's longest rope tow, J.V. you would have hated this one.

Yay for skiing.

Not yay for zero visibility and freezing. Thank god for the lift cover.

Gorgeous day (ha) where you could only see about 5 feet in front of you, scary.

Who is that skiing badass, oh it's me!

Dave having a zen moment.

"Check out my S-turns", what a douche Dave.

Why do I always look so much colder than everyone else?

One must always have a cafe after a meal, please people.

So typical, my veggie soup versus Dave's giant steak.

Fondue me. I smelled like feet for 2 days - seriously.

Once again, hot soup versus Dave's Pot Au Feu - OK you win.

Picnic on the train home, you don't see the screaming kids behind us there.