Today's pic - this is from escargot, I think - on my way around on the last run of the day about a week ago. This conditions were pretty nice, some splashy stuff at the edges you could fart about in. But now it's all different around here...
What can I say - rain stopped play. I'm not going down the road you've seen in this blog before - and driving back to Slough with a broken wrist is NOT on my agenda.
I'm afraid, once again, crap conditions have stopped play. Meribel and the three valleys are CURRENTLY NOT WORTH DOING - REPEAT - CURRENTLY NOT WORTH DOING!
The conditions were good up top on tuesday - and in truth, I haven't checked back up there today - but some rain and sleet(!) fell here yesterday and it was VERY cold last night, so this morning we went up the lift over sparkly cord pistes composed entirely of large-crystal ice.
I just get frustrated in conditions like this - you have to be watchful and aware of the piste more than usual, there's no fluffy stuff to play in, the noise from the board is deafening and the runs all become boring as hell: plus, at the moment, all the greens and easier blues around meribel are full of non-french skiers and boarders (all the french have already left - it's eerily quiet) sitting on their arses/sides having fallen over because these conditions don't suit anyone under intermediate.
Alternatively to the ice/iceballs, there's slush. This can be fun, but I get bored of it quick - it's tiring, wet, slow and in addition all the off-piste stuff around here is now well dead.
So I think it's time to call it a day - and go home to chill out rather than stick around here. One or two other frustrations bourne of this though:
- Wasted cash on the chalet / accomodation
- Wasted cash on lift passes - unlike other french resorts I've been to , meribel won't refund partially used passes! This is the icing on the cake from a resort where a large 7-up can cost you nearly 10 euros (admittedly in a place where you can buy a 4000 euro bottle of cognac!)
However, and bringing things around full from the opener for this post - I have broken things before. Now that I can board, and know what I like (freeride on good snowy pistes with some occasional off-piste fun inbetween) - I'm not willing to compromise just to use up a few euros of lift pass. I'd rather drive home, enjoy the drive and Nic's company, and see the cats sooner.
Aw! :)
