End of the ski season...

Today I returned my rented ski equipment to Intersport (which for future reference isn't open at lunch time, those slack French). The skis have really served me well this season - Val Thorens, La Faucille, Crozet, Crozet x 2, Avoriaz, Morzine, Beatenberg, Grindelwald, Contamines, Morzine x 2, Avoriaz x 2, Argentière. Twelve outings! And that's not including the six days of skiing I did on the Engelberg ski camp using borrowed equipment. That's eighteen skiing days over the winter! Not bad for my first season... I'm quite happy about my progress over that time as well, I reckon I could now probably safely make my way down any groomed slope... Note I say safely, not elegantly... I'm nowhere near an expert skier and still freak out when faced with a steep or bumpy slope.

The ski gear definitely paid off the 112 euros I paid to rent it all. (For my piece of mind, I'm not going to add up all the money I've spent on skiing over the past few months since I know it's defintely in the vicinity of 1-2k). I was quite worried when I forked out that first set of money for the gear and the clothes at the end of October since I had only ever skiied once before a few years ago (in California of all places!) and it was only for a couple of hours. My fears weren't alleviated by my first outing to Val Thorens back in November, which was quite a painful adventure. But things improved from there and I've really come to enjoy the sport and already miss it and the beauty of all the mountain resorts, though I'm quite happy about the arrival of spring and all that it brings with it... warm weather, leaves and blossoms on trees, flowers in the fields, more of my research group at CERN (though this last one has mean I had to give up the CERN van and am now riding into work)...

Here's hoping that I'll be back for the end of winter next year, preferably in time for ski camp... (I don't want to come back any earlier than March since winter in Geneva really is miserable with skiing being its only redeeming factor and I don't know if I'll have the time for it next year with the LHC actually being on and needing to write my thesis and all.)