Morzine

Just got back from my second outing with the Université de Genève Sports Universitaires. This one was much more enjoyable than the previous one, basically due to the group of people I was skiing with, as most of them spoke English, as did the instructor, but I'm getting ahead of myself...

This time, I signed up with the intermediate class, since I was bored last time in the beginner class. When the seventeen of us started out, I was worried that this was a really bad idea, as we went on a blue slope to warm up and to get to the bottom of a ski lift for a red slope which looked quite difficult from the chairlift. We then had to go down one by one so they could judge our abilities. Luckily I got put into the beginner intermediate group, which was where I wanted to be, since steep slopes frighten me and I have issues stopping still.

So we spent the morning on blues, practising technique. Lesson one was about leaning forward for stability. Lesson two was about always keeping your upper body facing downhill all the time, as if you were checking out a skier in front of you. Lesson three was about changing body weight while turning, unweighting the skis before a turn, then weighting them afterwards, like turning in a car, decelerating beforehand and accelerating afterwards. Lesson four was about using our poles effectively, planting the inside one forward before the start of a turn.

Then it was lunch, which was by far, the lowest point of the day. Firstly, it took the restaurant around 40 minutes to get us our food, and I couldn't eat much of mine as it was smothered with cheese and made me feel sick. And secondly, one of the middle aged French men on the table behind us were bothering me. Trying to get my attention by flicking my pigtails and saying they were pretty, or touching my shoulders after I was massaging them. Urgh. And when I got up from the table to go to the bathroom, asking if the little dog under the table was mine. This one I did not understand, are Japanese girls known in France to have cute little dogs with them when they go skiing? And then when we were leaving, he offered one of the guys on my table a drink said that his Japanese friend at the table was very attractive and that he was offering private ski lessons if she was interested. Shudder. I wish I knew enough French to be able to put him in his place and not just ignore it. I wish I was somewhere I don't stand out because of the way I look... Sigh.

Anyway, we skied the rest of the afternoon, going down one red and then practising parrallel turns on blues, skiing all the way one to the car park instead of taking the cable car, which was pretty cool. I think I'm going to be pretty sore tomorrow though...


This is the view from the top of the first red run we went down in the morning. Very scenic, except for the fact that we were stuck in traffic for way too long in that fog on the way home. The runs at the resort were quite romantic actually, winding their way through the pine trees and with mountain peaks in almost all directions.