Back from the piste

I have returned from my skiing trip to Meribel in one piece and unharmed. This is good. I have not lost any of my extremities to frostbite or polar bear attack. I was also not forced to rely on my emergency supply of sherbet lemons whilst trapped in a ten day blizzard. So that's all good.



I think I enjoyed the skiing itself overall. It was sometimes a bit hard to tell at the time due to it often being both scary and hard work, but in retrospect I think it was ok. I had ski lessons most mornings and found these to be much more useful than the ones I'd had on the Sheffield dry-slope. After the first couple of hours I had got the hang of turning and was able to keep my speed as low as I wanted, which is much more than I was able to do after eight hours in Sheffield!

Over the rest of the week I definitely improved lots (as one would hope!) and was confident enough to go out on my own one afternoon for a couple of hours without feeling I needed someone to look out for me. I also managed to make it to all of my lessons, unlike most of my friends. I did leave the last (four hour!) lesson half way through though due to being tired, aching and wanting to go home.

One way to measure my improving skills over the week is to measure how many small French children I knocked over. On day one and day two, I took out two of them each day - four in total. On the remaining days I managed to avoid knocking any of the little bastards over. This definitely represents an improvement in ski skills though possibly not an improvement in natural justice.

We stayed in a chalet in Meribel at about 1600m above sea level:



Our chalet hosts, Rachel and Rowan were excellent and cooked me bacon sandwiches nearly every morning. There was also copious free wine (of which the red, at least, was quite drinkable). Thanks guys!

I'll end with some skiing tips for first timers (like me):

1. Lip balm is good. Don't wait until the second to last day to get some.
2. Don't worry about having a hangover. Cold mountain air is a fantastic cure.
3. Falling over doesn't normally hurt you, but it could damage your expensive electronic equipment. Pack things carefully.
4. Wear warm clothes.
5. It's not easy to walk in ski boots. Stairs are even harder to traverse. Plan your routes to avoid stairs.
6. Make sure you have an emergency supply of boiled sweets.

That is all!