Chamonix training session 1 - the pinnacle
02/03/06 day 6
Reaching the pinnacle of my trip. I was to go to the top of Le Tour.
I was so excited as there was going to be no poma lift. I took a cabin lift followed by a 4-man chairlift which got me to the top of the mountain and the highest I had been so far.
However all the way up I was slightly concerned for 2 reasons:
1) It was very cold and it was a whiteout which meant the visibility was bad.
2) The night before the other people staying in the chalet on hearing my anticipated ride up the cabin and chair lifts decided to share some of the misfortunes of others on similar forms of transportation, which included some guy unfortunately getting killed by catching his head in the automated doors of the cabin.
Nevertheless I made it to the top with my head in tact.
Keith decided that he would hold my hands and take me down the first stretch as it would give me a good feel of the type of slope we were on. I can still remember the first thing he said soon after we began the dissent "Adi I feel a bit like you at this moment as I can't see shit myself" this was due to the white out we were in!
It was important I get experience of snowboarding on powder as this would be the type of snow I would face when I do the helidrop. So we ventured off the main slope time to time and I had my first taste of amazingly soft powder snow which made falling a pleasure however getting up was the antonym, as any attempt of pushing off the snow to stand resulted in digging down to my elbows in soft snow. Once we left the powder things got bad. I hit a section of slope which felt like solid ice. I Unfortunately fell while on this section and slid on my bottom uncontrollably. It felt like being on the world’s biggest slide. I thought I was going to slide all the way down the mountain into the car park. However I manage to cut into the ice with the edge of my snowboard, which slowed me down and the ice patch wasn't in fact very long however as I wasn't able to see how long it was made it quite a scary experience, especially as it was quite steep.
The Crowne Plaza in Leeds had provided me free access to their gym, however it was evident that I hadn't really frequented it, as every 3 minutes I was asking Keith if I could sit down. He finally had lost it with me and said that I should go to the gym more often. As it happened my back was turned towards Keith at the point so I took the opportunity to facetiously say that I couldn't hear him. This was a bad move as Keith responded by shouting at the top of his Scottish lungs "Adi you have legs like a woman!" (obviously he was joking as most snowboarding females have very strong legs).
Reaching the pinnacle of my trip. I was to go to the top of Le Tour.
I was so excited as there was going to be no poma lift. I took a cabin lift followed by a 4-man chairlift which got me to the top of the mountain and the highest I had been so far.
However all the way up I was slightly concerned for 2 reasons:
1) It was very cold and it was a whiteout which meant the visibility was bad.
2) The night before the other people staying in the chalet on hearing my anticipated ride up the cabin and chair lifts decided to share some of the misfortunes of others on similar forms of transportation, which included some guy unfortunately getting killed by catching his head in the automated doors of the cabin.
Nevertheless I made it to the top with my head in tact.
Keith decided that he would hold my hands and take me down the first stretch as it would give me a good feel of the type of slope we were on. I can still remember the first thing he said soon after we began the dissent "Adi I feel a bit like you at this moment as I can't see shit myself" this was due to the white out we were in!
It was important I get experience of snowboarding on powder as this would be the type of snow I would face when I do the helidrop. So we ventured off the main slope time to time and I had my first taste of amazingly soft powder snow which made falling a pleasure however getting up was the antonym, as any attempt of pushing off the snow to stand resulted in digging down to my elbows in soft snow. Once we left the powder things got bad. I hit a section of slope which felt like solid ice. I Unfortunately fell while on this section and slid on my bottom uncontrollably. It felt like being on the world’s biggest slide. I thought I was going to slide all the way down the mountain into the car park. However I manage to cut into the ice with the edge of my snowboard, which slowed me down and the ice patch wasn't in fact very long however as I wasn't able to see how long it was made it quite a scary experience, especially as it was quite steep.
The Crowne Plaza in Leeds had provided me free access to their gym, however it was evident that I hadn't really frequented it, as every 3 minutes I was asking Keith if I could sit down. He finally had lost it with me and said that I should go to the gym more often. As it happened my back was turned towards Keith at the point so I took the opportunity to facetiously say that I couldn't hear him. This was a bad move as Keith responded by shouting at the top of his Scottish lungs "Adi you have legs like a woman!" (obviously he was joking as most snowboarding females have very strong legs).
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