Snow Trippin: And then it snowed

Sunday, 4 December 2011

And then it snowed

At last, as forecasted, we awoke to grey, thick, heavy heavy clouds which opened up for an early morning dump session eventually giving all what they had come for. Once it started it didn't stop and the build up of snow pack was phenomenal just as Mallinson said it would. The much required white stuff was here. The main ingredient for a successful happy go lucky season and this years initial happiness pill in the form of snow had finally pitched. Oh yes, finally the white stuff had arrived! Yipeeeeee the cries could be heard from all ends of the resort. Our morning started at 8.30 am with a trip to the hire shop to collect our kit for the season, great timing. We both bought our boots with us so just had to collect skis and poles. One step closer to getting out there!

The afternoon brought linen, lots of linen, so hospital corner duty it was. Making one bed took roughly 10 minutes. 12 beds to do so that's 120 minutes! Change over day alone 2 hours will be spent purely making beds! We were pretty sure though that figure could be worked on...

Back on the training front. Among mucho lectures, tonight's pre-dinner talk was 'avalanches'. A subject that we find pretty interesting if a little crazy. New Generation ski guides headed up the talk, was sure the main speaker was a familiar Bristol based face? Will defo try to hook up with him at some point over the next few weeks. The alps has more than most ski resorts and each year receives around 7.5 million skiers per season. Per season there are around 250,000 avalanches ranking France as experiencing the most number of incidents. 90% of avalanches are caused by human intervention. Once on the move avalanches can reach a speed of 200 mph. Unless temperatures reach a numbing minus 40c mountain based snow is always on the move. Numbers of this size are bound to contain some not so nice stats. Last year alone there were 20 plus fatalities on the mountains. That's doesn't seem many given the ratio to how many skiers there actually are. But still the figure silenced the room.

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Tales from a dining table.....

The thing is, Muslims, well, they all love a bacon sandwich really.... A 'red run' well, I thought it was more like a blue. ya'de, ya'de, ya'de... You two are great, fantastic, but this lot, well, we will be writing to ATOL without a doubt.... If you two ever open a restaurant, B&B or hotel, please, let us know as we will definitely come to dine / stay ....... Here's ya, our card, do stay in touch..... Right, Ja'smine, our daughter. Do not on any count buy her any cigarettes if she asks as she is only 13 but she smokes like a train when given the chance.... Do you think my fake English ID will work in town if I try and buy some cigarettes.... Please let me make this clear. This isn't directed at you two. But you will be hearing from my lawyers.... I only told you to come back if you could sort all I asked of you.... Do you have any coke or sprite as the kids do not drink water...... It's upstairs, somewhere. Try looking in the Louis vuitton, Cartier or Gucci wash bags.... Oh no I can't eat soft cheese as I'm pregnant. Oh Dave or Fe is there any more beers as while these lot polish off the cheese I'll pop up out for smoke and a cheeky beer prior to coffee...... In the future we are just going to self design and build as even when we spent 8 million we were still having to put up with other peoples ghastly interior tastes..... Back in our day, well, things were all very different.... You know you mentioned the 'blue bus service'' is the one to use to come up the hill if not skiing back to the chalet. Well, we sat at the stop for a good 40 mins and the only buses that went past were white ones so in the end we just walked.... So, do you get to do much skiing then or have you just purely come out to cook and clean up for 6 months solid .... Oh, oven roasted cod on a bed of 'lemons', parsley butter drizzled with white wine. Can I have some sliced lemon with that.....