Powder Playground and Tapas Smorgasboard Fri 15 Jan

It is my final ski lesson today. I head up the mountain in the morning to practice and have a really good morning focusing on my turns in imperfect snow.

While eating my lunch up the mountain I see the ambulance helicopter land and transfer a person on a stretcher to a waiting snowmobile. I can’t work out why the helicopter doesn’t take the injured person straight to the hospital unless it has another rescue mission to perform. It is a powerful reminder that skiing is a very dangerous sport.

I meet Terri in the afternoon and discover that only two of us will be skiing with him today (Ivan and I) as Julian wants to ski with his mother on his last day and Vaughan is skiing with his girlfriend. The photo shows Terri, Ivan and Julian.

We set off in the direction of the notorious ‘Wall’, also known as Chavanette. The Wall is a very steep mogul run where two to three people die a year according to Terri. I am therefore very pleased when we traverse across the top of it and head over the ridge to the right of the Wall. Here we find another powder bowl with very few tracks. Perfect powder practice playground. Unfortunately because the weather has been warm a crust has formed on the snow turning it into ‘la croute’ which is not perfect for practicing. By heading to the shade though we still find some powder and my turns improve immensely.

Definitely an area to come back to after a fresh fall of snow and 15cm is forecast for Sunday (fingers crossed). The run back to a lift is easier than the Thursday route too (although it leads to the red run that Kate and Dan hated).


I bump into Adam as I ski down to the bus stop and he suggests we go into town for a drink. We change our shoes and head down there, after a few shops and errands during which Adam munches a tartiflette flan, we head to the wine bar to enjoy a glass of wine. I spot an amazingly imaginative gourmand tapas selection on a nearby table and we order one to share. A photo of the plate of food is above. At 12€ it was very good value and extremely tasty. I’ll be back for this dish again!