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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 2886 |
5th January 2014 Skiing: Vanoise National Park, Peisey-Vallandry ski area. Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny Max Speed: Distance Covered: Sunday 5th January – Cross country skiing ***** Vanoise National Park, Peisey-Vallandry ski area. We woke up to more snow on the van and the snow plough in the car park. We got up and had breakfast then went to enquire about hiring cross country ski equipment and paying for a day. The first hurdle was being asked what kind of skiing we wanted to do, classic or nordique (skating style) – we had no idea and asked which was the easiest!! Classic apparently so we went for that. We were pleasantly surprised when the whole thing cost 35 euros. Less than it costs for one of us to have 4 hours of alpine skiing with our own gear! So we ended up hiring two pairs of very thin, very long and very light skis with grooved bottoms, poles and lightweight boots which only attach at the toe. We walked back to the van to start off as we were parked right on the beginners track. After taking 5 minutes to work out how to put them on we set off and I had fallen over before we even made it to the track. It is really weird and completely different to any skiing we have done before. The piste basher cuts tram lines into the side of the piste and you shuffle along these tracks. We felt like complete novices and were pretty hopeless on our first lap. We weren’t to bad shuffling along the grooves but as soon as there was a downward slope we were useless as there is absolutely no way to control your speed! At one stage I had fallen over in the track in front of Mag and her only option was to keel over too before she smashed into me! On another occasion going uphill, she made three attempts at getting to the top of the steepest section, the first time she slid back down backwards and the second time ended up completely flattened – face first! Mag never falls over!! We were in hysterics:) The second lap was slightly better but we felt the need to stop for a cuppa and a couple of biscuits as we passed the van!! Fortified we set off again and this time headed for the green piste which turned out to be nearly 7km long! We didn’t know that when we set out and just followed the green arrows for the La Gouille piste. We were definitely getting the hang of it and even managed to keep upright on a few downhill runs. The scenery is absolutely stunning and the snow overnight has made it even more beautiful. We had brilliant blue skies interspaced with a few floating whispy clouds. The Vanoise National Park doesn’t really get the sun in the winter, but you can see the sun on all the peaks around the edges. We past the village we walked to yesterday and went on to other small villages and some even had football pitches – all virtually uninhabited in the winter. On the return journey it was a lot more downhill and we were getting pretty good at the sliding style but as soon as we hit the real downhill slope we had more hysterics when we ended up completely out of control zooming down the track – Mag tried dragging her poles in an attempt to slow down but to no avail and we both ended up in a heap at the bottom! On one of the slopes she took her skis off and walked but then when she tried to get her toe back in the ski again it shot off down the track by itself!! We had such a good day and really loved it. We will definitely do it again and might even look into getting some cheap gear on e-bay so we can do it any time we are over here:) Mind you I don’t know if either of us will be able to walk tomorrow it is such a different style to our normal skiing and using the poles so much makes your arms ache too. We had a late lunch of scrambled egg then set out down the mountain:( We drove the back way to Chambery to save the road toll and went to Lac du Bourget – Aix les Bains to cheekily park up for the night in a car park right on the promenade by the marina!! |
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