March 20, 2020 by andreaonderweg

One week before crazy

One week before crazy

March 20, 2020 by andreaonderweg

I am sooooo lucky! In the first week of March I made it over to Les Arcs in France for a second ski week this winter. Corona was coming up, but at this time we had no idea what it would turn into. I was outside doing one of my favourite things, one last week of ultimate freedom before our high season starts in tourism. Little did I know the world had other plans. Within a week of me coming back to Berlin the whole of Europe was shut down. I feel so blessed to have had this week! You can never ski enough!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Day 1 – Weird fat powder skis, no instructor, a bunch of fresh snow. The sun was shining and it was amaaazing to be back on skis. I was surprised with how quickly I adjusted to the powder skis, even though I was skiing on the slopes. I signed up for an off piste course, but that will start tomorrow. I’m still scared and have no idea if I can actually do it.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Today I just stay on the slopes, but choose a few ungroomed ones. There is so much snow! After an hour it gets bumpy and I navigate my way through the bumps. I love moguls and find the same run over and over again. My confidence increases and I venture off piste, just on the side of the slopes. This week is going to be crazy!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — The mountain is tracked out in no time! Although it’s not too busy, even for a Sunday. I decide to explore some more runs, but mainly stay on one side of the resort. The snow is fantastic. The sun is shining! I love my life right now!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — On Monday I start my course. There is no easing into it. Our instructor starts the morning with a black ungroomed slope after our warm up. Without explanation we go into the off piste as much as we can. I’m terrified. But there are 2 off piste beginner groups and it turns out some people are not quite beginners. So we redivide the groups and I end up with an amazing instructor, Slim, who is a bit injured and is “taking it easy” and “skiing like a grandpa”. Compared to him I must be skiing like a dead person then!

JQKV9001 — Slim takes us into the trees and down flatter parts of powder. Powder skiing is about balance and confidence, so we need to build it up. Many of us feel like bambi on skis since our balance is completely thrown off and we had a few freak outs happening in the course of the week. But our new team was amazing. Everyone was allowed to take their time and we were all super supportive! This “just slowly sideslip down but avoid the rocks”-moment was one of those freak-outs.

Day 2 was another perfect day. It has snowed overnight and there was 30cm of fresh powder! So we spent the morning getting used to it, which wasn’t easy. But in the afternoon we truly went off piste. We took a route around the mountain and didn’t see any groomed slopes along the way.

There were hardly any tracks and no people. This was the true spirit of the outdoors. We were making tracks in “the virge snow” as Slim said it.

QOLN6340 — The houses on this side of the mountain were completely covered in snow and suddenly we saw a roof that looked skiable. “Let’s ski the roof” said one of my team mates jokingly. Slim was already off to go check it out. When he approved it we all took off and one by one jumped over the roof.

PSKP3351 — We all made it! And then my favourite part of the trail followed: a natural half pipe! It was so much fun! Unfortunately it was followed by the hiking bit. This was the part with the greatest avalanche risk, so we had to keep a lot of distance from each other. Because it was a very narrow flat traverse, we had to shuffle along it and it was exhausting.

When we’d recovered from our hike, my least favourite part came: the boarder cross. We went down a walking trail that zigzagged down the mountain. It was perhaps 2-3 meters wide and a clear track had been formed. This meant you just had to follow and it was hard to slow down. At first I controlled speed in a huge pizza, but my muscles were burning and screaming. We learned to use the heaps of powder on the side to slow down, but it wasn’t always enough.

At the bottom of the mountain we took a bus to the nearest lift, which turns out to be the oldest one around. There were some open gondolas in a row that you had to stand in. Much higher above us the big gondola that connects Les Arcs with La Plagne crossed the valley.

After making our way back to the UCPA center we had some avalanche training. We were all equipped with trackers and a backpack with shovel and probe. We learned how to use it in case one of us got stuck in an avalanche.

KFQW5147 — Wednesday was amazing. In the morning we had free ski time, but in the afternoon we had a lesson. The weather was changing and more snow was forecasted. Slim had big plan. Today was the first and probably only day of the week that the highest point of the mountain was open. Every time there is a lot of snow, it takes about 2 days to secure that area. Since we had so much snow, we were lucky it opened at all. Clouds were coming in but we made our way up. From over 3000m the view was incredible!

We were off on the biggest adventure of the week: the Col du Génépi . We started from the Aiguille Rouge and went down a very steep bit just beside the piste. After that it was decision time. If we were going to do this, it would mean there was no way out until the bottom. 1400 meters of vertical in the off piste. We had to hike up in our skis over a rocky bit next to slopes. This is where I freaked out. But it was worth it. Although the top looked intimidating, it was heaven once we took off!

RCDG9428 — A snack break about one third of the way down. The views are still amazing. This is a unique piece of nature in a protected area. Therefore only groups with a licensed ski guide can come here. There were some other groups, but we all managed to pick our own routes down, according to our levels. We took our sweet time.

Getting lower and lower and more and more confident. We’re all starting to find our own routes down the mountain, trying to avoid other people’s tracks and getting more confident linking turns and picking up speed. It took a lot of lift time to get back to the UCPA, but it was so worth it.

WCLG2296 — The snow that was forecasted came indeed. Unfortunately the temperature went up during the day, so the snow turned into rain at some stage, then back to snow again. A big part of the mountain was closed and the snow became heavy and sticky like velcro. It was hard to go into the off piste, so we took some easy try runs, did some exercises and backwards skiing and took easier off piste parts. It may not have been the best day, but I still didn’t want to stop.

EZTN9499 — Our last day was bittersweet. After all that snow we had some good hopes of fabulous skiing. As did all the other people on the mountain. In the morning we found that the snow in the lower areas, the only ones open at that time, was quite heavy, but it still gave us some nice skiing. We decided to have an early lunch though, hoping to make some fresh tracks in the higher areas as soon as they opened.

Our instructor was very good at finding areas where nobody had been yet. He would just traverse a bit further and find a blank canvas for us. Here we went over some avalanches.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — The powder was so great in the higher parts. We went with the powderhounds and waited for the gondola to open. When it finally did we joined the madness at the top. But where everyone skied down straight away, we were traversing a bit more to “the virge”.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — We ended up finding a run that nobody seemed to take. We actually came back 3 times to ski it again and again, making new tracks on different parts of the hill. I didn’t want it to end. The snow was perfect. I was finally feeling more confident. I was in love.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — The freedom and excitement this week was amazing. There were so many good people, who were all there to ski as much as possible. We were in the last lifts to get back.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — This is the happy face!

AIHM1422 — This week I did things I never expected I would confidently do. But with someone guiding us, taking us over terrain that helped us grow confidence, it was actually fun to go off piste. I can’t wait to do it again and get better. I’m nowhere near an amazing skier yet, but I now finally see the mountain playground in all its potential!

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