cheeseit

Today has to have been one of the most perfect days skiing I can remember. We got the bus around 8:30 up to the cable car at Le Fornet, then took the bubble lift up to the base of the Montet. We spent the next hour or so doing the various blue and red runs up on the Montet a few times. The Montet area was pretty much the only area (bar a little bit of Solaise/Madeleine) that was open when I came to val in December 2006, so it was good to get the same runs in with a decent amount of snow and such good weather. On that subject today was the first sunglasses (opposed to goggles) day, and I regretted later on going for the full thermal underlayers.

Once we'd finished with the Montet area we headed down via the easy and very fast blues to the mid station, then up the chair lift a couple of times to the base of Signal. I only did this once, it's an ungroomed red, reachable only by a button lift, that in places goes on a gradient of 50%! The powder was lovely and by the lower section I'd just about got the knack and managed to relatively quickly shoot down it. That's not to say I didn't have a spectacular wipe out near the top, although today it was my pole that I managed to lose! We then headed down via the Vallon and Mangard runs to the cable car base station at Le Fornet, and caught the bus back into town for lunch.

After lunch we headed up the Solaise Express and straight back down the red Piste M, which although a little harsh in places, was good fun. After that we did a few more blues up on Solaise and Cugnai, which was a fun red powder bowl. I managed to for once not fall over. We also had another run down the red Arcelle, although this was no way near as fun as on Tuesday. We headed back down Piste M, although this wasn't as fun due to more people being on it, especially one bunch of clown snowboarders who seemed to think that when you need a rest you can just lie down in the middle of the piste.

Next it was up the gondola to the top of Bellevarde and few runs before heading back to the hotel. I don't know what changed between the bottom of Piste M and the top of Bellevarde, but I just had great run after great run. Most of the runs were churned up into small moguls, which normally I'd hate, but I was jumping over them and doing quick turns. My legs for once also didn't ache, which they normally do after lunch. But I wasn't complaining and I stayed out with Andy and James for another run. We got back around 5, had some tea and cakes, then headed out for dinner around 7.

For dinner after a second attempt at a coin toss we decided to go to the same restaurant I'd been to last time I was here However on arrival it turned out to be fully booked, so we went to the restaurant that James and Andy went to the last time they were here. It was very nice, I had Oeuf Cocotte au Foie Gras et Ses Toastes to start with - an intriguing egg casserole in which the yolks were suspended and still runny inside. For main course I had the venison which was also very good. The desert menu was somewhat uninspired, so we headed back for another early night.

The weather was spectacular today, and there's supposed to be more of the same for the rest of my visit. Despite applying lots of sun tan lotion, I appear to have still caught the sun, but mainly on the end of my nose, which is not a fetching look.