Rare or very rare (even weird) are the days that pass by without me doing a mistake...
i was going down in the side of a red track and since i was getting to a cliff (or funnel shaped part of the track), i had to get back to the central part of the track. To do so, i had to climb a "little" (little from far away!) but rough edge made by the trucks that flatten the snow road . so i just turned to change from the nice soft off piste to the normal track. I saw a 50 cm wide snow block right in front of me and though: "great lets make some dusts with this soft block of snow!". i should have taken time to think about it a bit longer... i appeared very soon that the soft snow block was in fact not that soft at all!
this is the part that i will have difficulties to tell because i just do not know what happened. I found myself out 4 m further, up side down, smashing the biscuits in my favorite back bag, the snowboard over my head. If this was a cartoon story, i would say that the snowboard got driven in the ice like a stake into the ground and that i just took off...
now i know what are the "36 candles" looking like ;)
Sarah could testify, i think she saw everything...
conclusion: even red tracks are dangerous!
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Friday, March 16, 2007
16-3-07 Les 7 Laux (again!!)
A day when things are not exactly as foreseen but that was nice :)
One thing not to do when you meet the cousins of a very good friend, is almost kill one of them:
Full of courage (some say craziness, insanity), we climbed to the top of the station and begun by a dark track. it was fine but very icy. I saw José "Zé" falling some 75 m down. He lost a ski and i though how bad is it to fall in that slope... that was exactly what happened to me 2 seconds after that though. The place and the moments are never the bests... So i was sliding on the belly and knees and going down faster and faster...without any control of direction, except about going down the black slope (the lines drawn on the icy snow by the truck to flatten the track in the direction of the slope strange fully forbid to follow another direction). Suddenly i realised that i was going right to Zé at full speed. Knowing that that guy is Portuguese, i should have said "CUIDADO"but instead i just screamed "ATTENTION". Zé turned his head and had just the time to move enough for me (Max the missile) not to smash him completely ! i ended my trip 50 m further... oufti!
-Lets do a red track next time?
One thing not to do when you meet the cousins of a very good friend, is almost kill one of them:
Full of courage (some say craziness, insanity), we climbed to the top of the station and begun by a dark track. it was fine but very icy. I saw José "Zé" falling some 75 m down. He lost a ski and i though how bad is it to fall in that slope... that was exactly what happened to me 2 seconds after that though. The place and the moments are never the bests... So i was sliding on the belly and knees and going down faster and faster...without any control of direction, except about going down the black slope (the lines drawn on the icy snow by the truck to flatten the track in the direction of the slope strange fully forbid to follow another direction). Suddenly i realised that i was going right to Zé at full speed. Knowing that that guy is Portuguese, i should have said "CUIDADO"but instead i just screamed "ATTENTION". Zé turned his head and had just the time to move enough for me (Max the missile) not to smash him completely ! i ended my trip 50 m further... oufti!
-Lets do a red track next time?
Sunday, March 11, 2007
11-3-07 les 7 Laux - Prapoutel with the Sarahs and me
A nice day that almost did not happen that fun for me ...oups
I woke up at 7h00 with my little "radio-réveil" which is much more fidel to wake you up than give hi-fidelity music...well this time also the "waking up function" was not on its best day!
The meeting was a 7h00 in the gare routière de grenoble....
I was indeed supposed to wake up at 6h00 to get up smoothly, wash my face (for the 100% awaken to be guaranteed), get dressed, prepare a sandwitch, eat some miam miam home-made beautiful crepes, finish preparing the bag for the day, ....
Only the vital steps were made with extreme velocity:
I jumped out of bed, grabbed my agenda with the phone number of Sarah T. plus some junk that were on the same table but still no idea how it got stuck in my hand... and ran to grab the phone.
i left a message on Sarah's messagerie : imagine that you have a few seconds to tell you are going "probably" to be late and that you ll run as fast as possible to be there before the bus leaves 50 min later... Probably when she heard the message she had a big laugh because of my sleepy way of talking (i phoned before the cold water on my face!) and the mixed structure of the ideas ;)
At 7h30 i was paking the car in the gare routière. oufffff!!
Thank you Sarah for buying the ticket for me before the bus was full. You took a huge risk! (she did not have her mobile phone...)
The site of Prapoutel is beautiful and the snow was made of great powder ;) we slided down a lot on the dark tracks without killing ourselves!!!! we are all "pro" now...
I woke up at 7h00 with my little "radio-réveil" which is much more fidel to wake you up than give hi-fidelity music...well this time also the "waking up function" was not on its best day!
The meeting was a 7h00 in the gare routière de grenoble....
I was indeed supposed to wake up at 6h00 to get up smoothly, wash my face (for the 100% awaken to be guaranteed), get dressed, prepare a sandwitch, eat some miam miam home-made beautiful crepes, finish preparing the bag for the day, ....
Only the vital steps were made with extreme velocity:
I jumped out of bed, grabbed my agenda with the phone number of Sarah T. plus some junk that were on the same table but still no idea how it got stuck in my hand... and ran to grab the phone.
i left a message on Sarah's messagerie : imagine that you have a few seconds to tell you are going "probably" to be late and that you ll run as fast as possible to be there before the bus leaves 50 min later... Probably when she heard the message she had a big laugh because of my sleepy way of talking (i phoned before the cold water on my face!) and the mixed structure of the ideas ;)
At 7h30 i was paking the car in the gare routière. oufffff!!
Thank you Sarah for buying the ticket for me before the bus was full. You took a huge risk! (she did not have her mobile phone...)
The site of Prapoutel is beautiful and the snow was made of great powder ;) we slided down a lot on the dark tracks without killing ourselves!!!! we are all "pro" now...
The gang
The wind blowing the snow away from the top!!!
Going down a dark track (top), but i is not hard enaugh, just follow the traces just above the red arrow on the picture below, it is the path i drew in the snow going down to the right.... :)
hey what about a photo with both the Sarahs ?
i already had one photo with both the Susanas in Allevard...
now i just miss a photo with both the Sofia ;)
only S... women hehehhehe
hey what about a photo with both the Sarahs ?
i already had one photo with both the Susanas in Allevard...
now i just miss a photo with both the Sofia ;)
only S... women hehehhehe
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Chamrousse (again!)
with Susana, Ricardo and Max.
Originally, we plannified to go to Les 7 laux by bus but although we arrived at 7h20 at the gare routière, it was too late ... bus full!! so we went to chamrousse...again for me...but why not after all...
We had ice snow by the morning, melting during lunch, and soup afternoon, ;) bus was cool, after 6 h of heavy sportive exercices, Ric, Susy and i decided to find a seat to lay of all our broken long. However, we found strengh to crawl to the churros shop!!! miam ;)
In a little corner, we found Mike trying to get some rest... we caugh him for a photo...
I only arrived home at 8h30... we were stuck in a huge 3h traffic jam !!! horrible ...
the good thing when we have friends is that there is always something to do, so we joked a bit...
The good thing about being stuck in a traffic jam is that you have all the time you need to catch a nice picture of the sunset...
Originally, we plannified to go to Les 7 laux by bus but although we arrived at 7h20 at the gare routière, it was too late ... bus full!! so we went to chamrousse...again for me...but why not after all...
We had ice snow by the morning, melting during lunch, and soup afternoon, ;) bus was cool, after 6 h of heavy sportive exercices, Ric, Susy and i decided to find a seat to lay of all our broken long. However, we found strengh to crawl to the churros shop!!! miam ;)
In a little corner, we found Mike trying to get some rest... we caugh him for a photo...
I only arrived home at 8h30... we were stuck in a huge 3h traffic jam !!! horrible ...
the good thing when we have friends is that there is always something to do, so we joked a bit...
here are the athletes
The good thing about being stuck in a traffic jam is that you have all the time you need to catch a nice picture of the sunset...
The end ... unless it continues?....
Sunday, February 25, 2007
25-2-07 Chamrousse 1650-2250m -max-sarah-mike-andrew-trevor and family
what could happen when you are with friends in a station that you do not know very well, with a map that is just as usefull as a box of chewing gums to orientate you in the colourfull tracks, when snow is falling and fog forbids to see further than the few 75 m sphere around you?
this is part of the answer: you do mistakes and get lost!
Sarah and I went down a little after getting out of the telesiège and though seeing a little nice blue track. Down there we realised it was a dead end because the "tire fesse" was off. Full of courrage (not feeling like walking back up by feet to the top with the 50 cm deep snow layer = the usual lazyness that caracterises me), we decided to follow fresh traces of ski going down the hill over the delimitations (off piste). i said: "that guy must have found a track".
that was going fine, sliding down for 5 min, until the moment we realised we were going down to a valley full of stones and trees without any apparent tracks to get to the lifts... OUPS! (was i thinking inside myself from deep in!)
i realised how wrong i had been.... the only option was to go backwards following our traces. The landscape was awesome and we could see the traces of an old avalanche just above us ... that motivates to climb...
30-45 min later, after climbing up very slowly the hill, completely exhausted, spiting our lungs in the snow, we reached the blue track so much wanted...
we are safe again... for the moment at least (the season is not over yet!)
this is part of the answer: you do mistakes and get lost!
Sarah and I went down a little after getting out of the telesiège and though seeing a little nice blue track. Down there we realised it was a dead end because the "tire fesse" was off. Full of courrage (not feeling like walking back up by feet to the top with the 50 cm deep snow layer = the usual lazyness that caracterises me), we decided to follow fresh traces of ski going down the hill over the delimitations (off piste). i said: "that guy must have found a track".
that was going fine, sliding down for 5 min, until the moment we realised we were going down to a valley full of stones and trees without any apparent tracks to get to the lifts... OUPS! (was i thinking inside myself from deep in!)
i realised how wrong i had been.... the only option was to go backwards following our traces. The landscape was awesome and we could see the traces of an old avalanche just above us ... that motivates to climb...
30-45 min later, after climbing up very slowly the hill, completely exhausted, spiting our lungs in the snow, we reached the blue track so much wanted...
we are safe again... for the moment at least (the season is not over yet!)
the victims of the montains:
********Top secret pictures********
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Vaujany 11-feb 07 (Alpes d Huez)
with David, Estelle, Sarah (2) and Maxime
the beginning of the day was chaotic because some of us had some difficulties to find the path in the fog.... and kept falling and falling.... ;)
but the afternoon was very nice. the snow ultra powder
have a look at some nice views of the mountains...
do not search for the Yeti or "abominable maxime des neiges" anymore...
some views of the montains with actresses...
the beginning of the day was chaotic because some of us had some difficulties to find the path in the fog.... and kept falling and falling.... ;)
but the afternoon was very nice. the snow ultra powder
have a look at some nice views of the mountains...
do not search for the Yeti or "abominable maxime des neiges" anymore...
some views of the montains with actresses...
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