Spring skiing, Alpes d'Huez

---

Another week, another adventure, this time we are in Alpes d'Huez, 80km from Grenoble in the Alps. I know you have appreciated the last entry as I've never received so many private messages concerning our little spoiling. Sorry if I haven't replied to everybody aleardy, getting quite crowded on the email list!

Spring ski, this is not only a first for Mari and Leslie, it's a first for me too! We had no idea what to expect, and still after a week, this was something. Temperatures reached 23 degrees Celsius on the slopes. Rivers took shape in the middle of the slopes while the snow was melting, and still, we were skiing.

I had booked on purpose a place high in altitude. For our week, we stay at the Club Med in Alpes d'Huez. I used to work for Club Med 17 years ago, but this is another story. Club Med skiing was not a first for Leslie, but it was for Mari.

As this is spring skiing...temperatures did reach...sky high. The plan was to ski non-stop every morning from 9am to 2pm with a short "wine-stop" of twenty minutes just after twelve. Alpes d'Huez ski resort is between 1800 meters high and 3330 meters. So at first in the morning, we had to deal with frozen slopes....by 10.30am the slopes were perfect, by 12pm, the snow was soft, and by 1pm, it was not muh fun anymore, ready to go back for a late lunch and drinks at the resort...and a big nap!

We skied 6 days under the sun...great sun, and a lot of very high level sun screen cream. The first 5 days were full time lessons, each of us with our own level of teaching groups. On Saturday, no more lessons, this time it was family time...family skiing. We started at 9.30am, and skiied non-stop for 4 hours...just to let you know, by 1pm, Leslie was completely dead. By friday, Leslie had skies up to 2800 meters, I went to the top at 3330 meters. On Saturday, we would all ski around the 3000 meters mark.

I'm a lucky guy, after a week of skiing, and just 4 days before this week, Mari is pretty good in parallel skiing, and ready to go down all the blues and the easy reds. Christian her teacher, call her a "natural", for sure, she will ski more and faster in the near future. Leslie has nearly 4 weeks of ski behind him, pro in parallel, and at easy in most red slopes, I'de better be careful, very soon these two could ski way better than me...soon...

Our week at Club Med was pretty fun. Would have loved that Leslie got on with some french, but the resort was full of brits and israelies, not the best way to learn French. We spent some great evenings, dancing few rocks, and few too many drinks... Few pictures of those, but not really worth publishing in travelblog. What a week...full of sun, still full of snow...and no injuries!

Coming soon, Leslie is going to enjoy Pisa and Roma with his grandparents, and he is not blogging on those yet, even if he is keeping his own journal. For Mari and I, it's time to enjoy some romance, great food and wines to celebrate our three years together...so yest, we will be back soon with more entries from France.

No more ski for us till April 2012, the plan is tu head to Park City, Utah for the end of next year ski season...more spring snow to expect there...

Live is good, enjoy, because we do...

---

Comments

[Chris and Nikki]

I think it is awesome how sporty little Leslie is. Diving, skiing, what's next? Skydiving? Looks like you all had an amazing time.