A day in the sun

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Ruth and I were awake before the alarm clock demanded our attention, keen to open the blinds and see if the sun had come or we were still in the middle of a cloud. Fortunately the mountains had reappeared so we went to breakfast looking forward to a sunny day.

We followed our usual routine to get into the heart of the ski area. This involved walking across the road, catching the closest ski lift to our hotel, this takes us to the top of the nursery slope so we cut can across to the base of the nearest gondola where we get up to what we have termed mid-mountain as it seems to be in the middle of all the runs. We then took the chair lift up to allow us to follow a track to the extreme edge of the resort and our favorite chair and blue run combination. The sun was just finishing its journey up the slope and the rollers on this particular run were in great shape. We looped this run a couple of times then JJ and I left Ruth on this run while we explored the black down to the town. We had planned to take 45 minutes to run down and catch the gondola back up but it took about half of that. It was a lovely wide, consistently pitched run and was well groomed so it was a pleasure to run down. After this we rejoined Ruth for another loop on the blue run then we went in for a drink having skied for a couple of hours.

Suitably refreshed and warmed (we sat in a sunny window) we set off all together down the black to Aprica. Ruth was nervous of the run as it was a black, however, she found it easier than expected and her turns were well controlled all the way. Then it was up the gondola and chair lift to the top before catching a track back to mid-mountain; during this run JJ and I ran off piste and skied under the shair lift in the bumps which had formed. Then, when we reached mid-mountain, it was up the chair lift and, having persuaded Ruth to take the button lift, a trip to the very top of the resort. From here the views are spectacular.

We descended along various colours of runs back to mid-mountain and spent the rest of the morning looping around the chair lift from mid mountain.

We had spotted a pizzeria in the trees along one of the runs so we headed there for a late lunch and ordered pizza, which was freshly cooked for us. We all enjoyed the rest and warm-up in the restaurant.

The afternoon plans were to try some runs we had not tried before so we went all the way down into the town at the other extreme end to the morning, caught a chairlift back up and then ran all the way down, through mid-mountain, to the middle gondola. We were all getting weary so we planned one last run in the sun; we went all the way to the top (gondola, chair and button) before descending all the way back to the town. This is the biggest single descent in the resort so it was a great blast to finish the day. We took to black run from the very top to mid-mountain and the red run from there to town so these runs were quieter than the blue runs down.

We have not seen a queue all day and we have been able to walk up to any lift we chose and get on. This means we have skied for miles without much of a break apart from those we chose to make. We have all had grins on our faces at various times as we have enjoyed the skiing; each of us has found challenges and thrills in different places. A great day.

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