Skiing Throughout the Year: January

20th January 2008

This week I bought some new skis, only my 4th pair since I started skiing over 30 years ago. K2 Apache Recon, 181 cm.. I’d spent 2 or 3 years hanging onto the belief that I could ski on my old 203cm K2s from a bygone era. Then last year I left them in the cellar and rented, taking pot luck on what the hire shop had, in order to learn about different ski types. I knew what I thought I liked. What I skied on best was something different. In December 2007 I skied on some K2 Apache Recon. They were sensational – I bought some.

Lots of snow came in early December 2007, but by late December the slopes were getting a bit tired. I decided that I would not ski until there was more snow. Snow came this week and so the weekend was a definite possibility for skiing. I’d promised to go skiing with S, a family friend, and early in the week we started texting about skiing at the weekend. Sunday it was. She arrived at 7.30 at our apartment and at 7.40 we set off for Champery, the gateway to Portes du Soleil. We were on the cable car at 9.10. The day was one of blue sky, warm temperatures and snow that varied from hard packed (on the Swiss side of the resort) to powder and some slush in France.

We did 20 runs, at high speed, going to Les Crozets, Champoussin, Avoriaz, and Chatel. We chatted non stop about our kids, spouses, life, friends, skiing and travel plans. The views were fantastic, the best run was the race course above Avoriaz – superb powder snow, hardly skied on. We arrived at “the Wall” on the way home, with tired legs and so declined the descent, taking the chair down. Prudence. The new skis turned out to be a good choice, matching my fast skiing on the cruising slopes whilst providing quick edge to edge turning on the steep stuff.

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