My first days in Val Thorens
After a successful off piste course two years ago, I decided to book another off piste course with UCPA for my first ski trip since COVID started. On the first morning we got our backpack with avalanche equipment and checked everything was working. Taking the shovel, checking the emergency numbers, assembling the probe… everything was in order. After what seemed like ages, we finally hit the slopes. Well.. for a little while. Then we searched for powder. And it wasn’t hard to find!
It seemed like I’d chosen the perfect week since there’d been a big snowfall before my arrival and this week the clouds were moving out, making room for the sun. Only on Monday morning it was a bit grey, but the instructors were checking levels, taking us only to short bits off piste. I felt great. My turns were amazing. I felt fearless and just went for it.
Because of the heavy snowfall the avalanche danger was high and therefore our afternoon started with a long video about avalanches. Seeing the power of nature was quite intimidating. But it wasn’t just theory we had to learn. Once we were back outside we started to practice skiing down in a zigzag pattern with our receivers, trying to find a buried bag that pretended to be a body in an avalanche. We then got an explanation of the final search stage. However, we could’t let this amazing day go to waste, so the instructor took us to some very quiet places in between the marked runs. There were no people, only untracked, pristine snow. We were knee deep in powder. This promised to be a great week!
We started the second day with our final group of 8 and our instructor Valentin, who decided to make an intense, long morning until 13.00H. By the time we got back at the UCPA we had to rush to lunch before they closed the kitchen. We were the last ones left in the dining room. When I brought back my plate, the kitchen hand had already cleaned up the cleaning table! We had a good rest before we went back out again and only returned when the lifts were closing. We got lots of skiing done. There was a great off piste run just off the side at Boismint chairlift. We then went all the way up via Moutière, Grand Fond to the Cime Caron. I had no clue where I was and blindly followed the instructor. At the start of a run he would ask us about safety. “Where on this slope would you ski?”, making us aware of potential dangers and learning to look ahead.
Often we would traverse off a groomed run and end up in an area without many tracks, with lots of deep snow. But today my fear had returned and when Valentin filmed, I made some amazing turns before I got distracted and fell. I wasn’t the only one either. To my right my team mate was looking for his ski in a deep layer of snow. At least it was a soft landing in all this snow! We did some pretty steep bits but also wide flatter parts. When we came to a nice stretch in the sun, Valentin took photos and of course I face-planted and buried myself in snow right in front of the camera. I resulted in some great action shots. Valentin found us some nice natural jumps and a bumpy traverse. Then we hit some firmer snow with icier spots and I fell and lost my ski. I think I got more tired from getting up than from skiing today!
To finish off the day we took the Pionniers lift over the village. It’s quite scenic, although you can also look into people’s hotel rooms. Just off Corniche we went off piste. It was time for search and rescue training. One by one we skied down looking for a bag under the snow again. It took long time, maybe 1,5 hours, before all of us were done. At least we stood in the sunny part of the mountain while waiting. When it was my turn I carefully started skiing down, but my tracker started picking up other signals, pointing me in the wrong direction. Eventually I got close, took off my skis and started probing the snow with my stick. You throw it out and make a long stick like the frame of a tent. It was harder than I thought. Imagine you have to find a body in the snow with a stick! I had no idea when I was feeling the bag or just a bit of grass! Once we were done we were challenged by the last narrow path into the village. Then we raced down to the UCPA. Time to rest! We would need the energy for the rest of the week!
