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Published: January 31st 2009
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Mont-Sainte-Anne from outside the chalet
The piste on the far left of the mountain is "La Crete" and is used for the world cup womens downhill and Super G. This is starting to become one of my favourite runs now I don't fall every time we descend it So its been a busy skiing week here.
We were back with Pat again so Monday brought us back onto the mountain and running through various drills and trying to cover mileage. My new skis have definitely made a big difference. So far so good and I love my new "babies".
The week has been a full week of skiing with today (Friday) as our day off. Yesterday was a great day on the slopes as it snowed 26cm overnight. We met at ski school at 9am and thankfully Pat decided to postpone the classroom work till the afternoon so we were able to head straight onto the pistes and carve a few new tracks. It was great fun and bizarrely something clicked with me and I seemed able to find the centre of my skis and cope with the conditions. Surprisingly for awhile I actually seemed to be the one that had the least problems and it was everyone else that was falling over rather than me - Tom even managed to briefly knock himself out so we lost him for an hour whilst he chilled at the bottom in the canteen and recovered!
By late morning
the snow was cut up and it made for hardwork and I was fully aware of my knees and thighs by the time lunch came around (lunch was at 11.20!!). The afternoon involved a further few runs however by the time 2pm came around I was dead on my feet and thankful that we were due to do the classroom work.
After a night of grooming the pistes were in fantastic condition and therefore I was up and out of the chalet for 10am this morning and had a couple of hours on the mountain before heading home.
This afternoon involved a visit to the Montmorency falls that are famous within the Quebec region and are situated between the mountain and Quebec city. They claim to be 30m bigger than Niagra falls. They are impressive during the winter as a lot of the water freezes over in random shapes.
We drove to the area after lunch and started to walk down the path and we should have really taken note when the gate we climbed over, because it was locked shut, had a sign that stated "DANGER walking past this poster is forbidden" We proceeded around the
Is it Goat or Bell???
Don't ask why as its a very long story but my skis have been named Goat and Bell.... lake area towards the stairs that lead up to the observation platforms that are at different levels. It became mildly concerning when the snow was past our knees but it wasn't an issue and it was a relatively warm day at -9c.
We started to ascend the stairs which was easier said than done when the stairs in places were not visible and when you reached a platform you were having to haul yourself up using the banister and hoping your feet would say firmly planted as the snow had formed a bank. As I am the oldest of the group I have earned myself the nickname of OAP (i.e O.A.P however they insist on saying it as a word) and boy did I feel old at times trying to drag myself up the stairs wondering how we were going to get back down.
The view of the falls at the top was impressive however the fun began when we decided to start our descent. Marie-Eve started first and subsequently slid down the steps on her bum and ended up at the bottom of the first set of steps in a heap. Anyway this was determined as the
quickest, safest and funniest way to descend (see the videos). The descent was definitely a lot of fun and apart from Kate suffering from numb legs and bum as a result of wearing jeans and no thermals we all came away with no injuries!!! A stop at Tim Hortons for hot chocolate was required on the way home......
Tomorrow is another day of skiing with Sunday being a full day off, for me at least. On Sunday afternoon we are off to watch the Superbowl, play some pool, have a few beers and get some food at a local bar (although I think Marie-Eve and I are going to meet up with the group later on so that we can go and do some food shopping and have some "quiet time").
This week is our final week of full time ski school before taking our level 1 exam which will be a full days assessment. There are two parts to the exam - the first involves the assessment of your own skiing ability and the second is to assess your teaching ability!!! Am starting to worry and panic.....
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