After our great ski trip to Courchevel last month, I am totally hooked on skiing (for now at least ).  I have been on 4 weeks of business trips to Seattle over the past 5 weeks (was home for 1 week in between), so decided to take advantage of this second one to get in a ski trip in to Crystal mountain, which is about 1 hours drive from Redmond.

We started the day early, I met Karen and Gavin in a park and ride car park at 7am.  The day didn’t quite start as planned, since when I stepped out of the car and felt how cold it was, I realised that I had left my ski jacket in the hotel! Luckily we were only 10 mins from the hotel at this point, so there was plenty of time to turn back. 

Once we had picked up my jacket, the picturesque journey to Crystal began.  Karen had a big 4×4 Infiniti car which was spec’d out with every gadget and comfort item I can imagine – it even beeped at her if she got too close to the edge of the freeway lane!  Here is a little clip of the comfortable journey…

Since we were running a little late, Karen was in a hurry, so decided to overtake some slow (ish) moving vehicles, which attracted the attention of a local law enforcement officer who decided to pull us over with a blast of his siren and some pretty red and blue flashing lights.  Karen spectacularly talked her way out of a traffic ticket, although I did have to drive the car for the rest of the day (being the only one who had a driving license).  Quite the journey…

We did eventually arrive, with all of our stuff, and with no traffic fines.  The lifts opened at 8:45 and we turned up at 9am, so not too bad considering

The snow at the bottom of the mountain was a little icy and slushy, however further up and on faces exposed to the sun, the conditions were great!  I had both layers of my jacket on, so I was actually too hot at some points.  I cooled down by waiting for some of the ski lifts in my t-shirt.  There were actually a bunch of guys skiing and snowboarding in just t-shirts or vest tops!  I’m not quite confident enough to do that – it would be very painful if they fell over!

We started off with a few easy runs, but progressively took on more challenging slopes, until we eventually headed for the double black diamonds!…

Double Black Diamonds

These are sections of the mountain which are off piste, and considered to be fairly advanced (as you can tell from the warning sign).  We successfully managed to get down the slope.  I started off a little cautious, but after I made a few turns and built up my confidence I managed to get down the slope at a reasonable speed (relative to the speed I started at least).  Gavin had a little tumble on the way down, and then struggled for 5 minutes to retrieve his skis on the very steep slope.  The rest of us were too far down to go up and help him, so we had planted out ‘butts’ on the snow and waited patiently.

So besides Gavin’s little adventure, the run in the photo above did not actually turn out to be too bad, however it got worse!  We took a lift up to the top of the mountain and were faced with a choice of icy moguls or a VERY steep drop (check it out in the first pic below!!!)…

Here is Karen waving from above as we attempted to ski down…

Gavin and I attempted to get down the slope gracefully in our skis, but failed miserably.  We ended up cutting through some trees on to a more powdery (although just as steep) slope.  Eventually we managed to get ourselves down to the piste and picked up the pace.  Here is a little video clip of Gavin and Tom emerging from the trees…

It is an amazing feeling to be on the side of the mountain in snow that no one yet skied! I want to do it again!! Here is Karen sitting on some of the fresh powder…

Lunch and Apres Ski…

Whilst the variety of bars and restaurants did not match larger ski resorts, the atmosphere of eating and drinking outside was not lost. 

We had lunch and after ski wine/beer at the Bullwheel, which is right at the bottom of mountain in the same place where cars are parked to get on the first ski lift.  We happened to be there on the same day as ‘Brew Fest’, which was essentially a beer festival and bar-b-q on the decking area.

There was a good selection of food, although typically American (I had a chicken burger and fries).  The only downside was that the place was PACKED, so it was a little tricky to find a good place to sit outside (plenty of room inside).

At the end of the day, Gavin and I finished the day off with a glass of beer/wine whilst we waited for Karen and Tom to do one more suicide run of the double black diamond! (they survived).

The drive home seemed to take longer than the journey there – most likely because Karen was driving at a ‘little’ above the speed limit on the way there, and I was driving with a accurately configured cruise control speed on the way back. 

The season will be way over by the time I am next in the U.S., so all there is to say is…”Crystal Mountain, thanks for the ride, see you next season!”…

Huge thanks to Karen and Tom for guiding me and Gavin on the mountain, and an extra thanks to everyone for great company and an awesome day out! Can’t wait for next year’s ski season – roll on November!

Whilst we had lots of sunshine during our week skiing in Courchevel, we also had a day where visibility was less than perfect (to say the least).  Whilst it is not very easy to ski in a grey (cloud) or white (snow) out, it’s certainly an interesting experience!  At one point we were skiing along a thin path, next to a steep drop off piste and we were unable to tell the difference between the sky and the snow! Very weird experience – it felt a bit like we were floating in a dream surrounded by clouds!  Very cool   Here is a bit of video Mark took when we stopped to try to figure out where we were (at which point the visibility was actually a little bit better!)

Today we found our favourite mountain bar/restaurant of the trip so far! La Folie Douce appears to be quite a new place, with very trendy decor, an amazing outdoor terrace with chill out chairs and a delicious buffet style restaurant with a great selection of food.

We were actually trying to find another bar which has an outdoor champagne serving area made of ice, however our navigation of the slopes was a little off and we had to ‘settle’ for the nearest hut we could find….we were very pleased to find this place

Whilst dinners in the chalet have been amazing all week (thanks to Matt and Christie), our lunchtime meals have been a little more basic, usually consisting of burgers, crepes or sandwiches.  A few of us have been craving a spaghetti bolognaise all week, so were very pleased to see it on the menu at this restaurant.  We were even more surprised when our lunch turned up in a glass jar!  The (fresh) pasta was on the bottom, the sauce next and then some parmesan cheese.  Take a look for yourself in this video…

Very tasty! Although next time I will make sure I mix the sauce and pasta up right at the start, as the pasta in the bottom of the jar was a little dry.

Here are a few shots of the interior and exterior of the bar (click for larger images)…

Last night we decided to wonder down to the sledge run which is walking distance from our hotel.

Before we could start we had to find a place to hire sledges, which we did relatively quickly for a mere 3.50 Euros.  Due to the fact that kids were allowed to the use the sledge circuit, I had assumed that it was going to be easy and perhaps a little boring…I was VERY wrong…

The first couple of turns do start off very slowly, giving you chance to get used to the steering mechanism on the sledges.  However, as you pass the 2nd or 3rd corner, the drop becomes a lot steeper and the whole experience changes from a leisurely slide down the snow, in to a scary out of control rollercoaster ride down the winding bends of the track.

Whilst we were not going as fast as we were when skiing, it feels a LOT faster when you are sitting on a plastic tray only a few centimetres above the snow.  The handles on the side of the sledges provided a means of steering, however they were SO sensitive that they could only be used in short correcting bursts.  Every time we encountered a sharp corner, or an unexpected obstacle (i.e. some kid who had fallen of their sledge), we had to improvise a method of steering using feet, hands or anything else which was available to change direction quickly.

Of course Mark decided to strap his Flipcam HD to his goggles and film the whole thing, so here is the footage complete with Ed flipping his sledge upside down, Mark crashing in to the back of random French people and me falling off the edge of the circuit in to fresh powder snow…

Yesterday (Sunday) was our first day of skiing in the Three Valleys.  The conditions were amazing!  There was heavy snow on Saturday (before we started skiing), and it’s been sunny ever since, so we could see where we were going easily, get a bit of a tan and enjoy lovely smooth powder.

We were skiing mainly around the Courchevel area (which is where our chalet is), on a variety of blue, red and black runs.  I haven’t skied off piste yet, but I am getting more confident each day, so hope to do so before we leave. 

We did not have pack lunches prepared on our first day, so we went to Courchevel for lunch….VERY expensive  I ended up spending nearly 40 Euros on a crepe, so chips and 2 Diet Cokes.  It was a very nice spot though, we even managed to get a bit of a tan…

After getting our ‘ski legs’ back, Mark and even decided to do a bit of filming as we went down the slopes…

We finished the night off with a lovely meal in the chalet, lots and lots of wine and a very messy game of 21s (which I SO lost and ended up passed out in bed by about 11pm). 

We set off at 4:30am this morning, heading to Gatwick, flew to Chambery airport in France, and then sat on a bus for 2 hours for a transfer to our chalet in Courchevel.  The Peti Chapi Teah chalet sleeps 10 pepole (5 rooms), and comes complete with two chalet people who are cooking dinner for us right now…

Ed and I are sharing our room.  We have the smallest, darkest room, but it doesn’t really matter too much.  I think we’ll spend most of the chalet time in the communal area which has a huge dining table, a fireplace and a TV area…

We have just been down to get our hire skis.  There were three standards of skis available – Bronze, Silver and gold.  We opted for gold, although to be honest there was not a noticeable difference in the quality – will probably go for silver in future and save 25 Euros. 

It’s been a long day, so we’re chilling tonight, having dinner, maybe watching the rugby down in the bar, and then get a good nights sleep in preparation for a full days skiing!

Will try to stay active on the blogging front, but to finish it off today here are a few photos of the view from our chalet…