Yesterday was our first proper full day off and as we now have our lift passes it would have been rude not to go on the mountain. Dan took us up to show us some good runs and to help us get orientated with the pistes.
We knew Dan was a pretty good boarder, but it turns out he's much better than we thought and we set off at pretty much full pelt! I don't think I've boarded so fast in my whole life! Thankfully the snow was close to perfect and my board is so much better than my last one so it was quite good fun!
On one of the lifts you pass right by some of the mountain ridges and Dan was pointing out some of the advanced off piste that you can get to in the area - terrifying just to look at, never mind to contemplate going down! Over the other side of this ridge was a nice and (comparatively) shallow gradient off-piste slope down from the ridge back to the piste. We decided it would be a good idea to try it and get an introduction into off-piste riding.
It was a bit of a hike to get to because the lift obviously doesn't take you up to the ridges, but we weren't going to the very top so it was only about five minutes. Thankfully when we got to the point that we were going to descend we looked over the edge and it really wasn't that bad. A bit of a steep bit to begin with but then shallowed out and then just rolled nicely all the way down.
Ian set off first and made a nice sweeping arc for his first turn, whilst shouting back up the slope about how amazing it was - good multitasking. He made it down in about twenty seconds flat and it looked pretty easy so off I went.
My descent was somewhat less smooth, although my somersault probably looked pretty cool (had I meant to do it!). Off-piste boarding obviously involves a different skill set than regular boarding!
The rest of the morning we spent on a few other slopes, seems like there's plenty of nice Blues around the place. I had the chance to take a few pics whilst Ian dug himself out of some side-piste powder...
We had a quick lunch of crepes and coffee with Dan and Becky who had come to meet us, then Ian and I headed back up the mountain for a couple more runs followed by an apres-ski pint in La Refuge in Plagne Centre.
Feeling pretty battered from a hard day on the mountain, we spent the rest of the evening watching Strictly Come Dancing, the X-factor final whilst eating spag bol, homemade by Becky. All in all a satisfying day!
Had quite a few aches today although would have gone out again - except there were more snow blizzards - yey!
Also, tonight we are having a very well timed visit from Massage Me! Double Yey!
November signing out
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