Bloody Snowboarders!!

Monday morning and once again we are greeted by blue skies and sunshine, so without hanging about it was down to breakfast for an awful cup of tea and then backup to the room to get ready for another days skiing. Les popped in to ask if I could carry her sack of oranges as she didn’t have room in her tiny rucksack, which is shaped like a zebra and called ‘Ziggy’! Hmmm, very practical then.

By 9.30 we were all set again and decided to head straight up the Pied Moutet as we now realised you could get to it by the Super Venosc chair which was in fact the nearest lift to the hotel. So, with myself ladened down by green grocery we set off. Today our group had grown in size as we had been joined by Lisa, on her blades, the two Andys on their snowboards, I don’t know who let them into our gang but it wasn’t me!!! And finally Malcolm, who for some reason we thought was called Bob?

From the top we skied straight down to the bottom, again the slopes were virtually empty and the snow was excellent. Our decent was a bit slow as we had to keep waiting for those people not using conventional methods for sliding down mountains, i.e. snowboards and blades. They really want to start using proper skis again, and then they might not fall over so much and go a bit faster.

Once we eventually reached the bottom we headed back to the main part of the resort and made our way to the Panoramic restaurant where it was time again for elevenses. So, after a hot chocolate with a splash of Drambue (God! Skiing holidays are such hard work!) we made our way up to the Glacier. At the top of the double T bar we carried on to the far T bar, which is a flat walk and a bit of a pain in the ass. This takes you right to the very top where we took in the stunning scenery, if you like views of snowy mountains this is a good place to come.

After a couple of runs on the top piste, which was a bit hard and icy, we decided to head back down via the red run Dome which joins up with the blue Signal. Absolutely awesome skiing here with flat out big carving super G turns. So we did Signal again. As we had planned to head back to the Panoramic for lunch we had to take the red run Envers du Signal which starts off very steep, narrow and icy. A really good test for your edging technique. This joins up with the red Breche which runs down to La Toura and the restaurant, and this is another excellent piste. All in all Monday morning was a fine morning’s skiing. What a shame it was to be spoiled by an idiot on a snowboard.

After lunch, Les, Karen, Gary and myself headed back up to the Glacier on the 8 man chair. We were sat on the left of the chair and to our right were 2 Brit snowboarders with obviously the i.q. of a pair of primates as the only word they seemed to know that had more than one syllable started with ‘F’ and ending ‘King’. Now I’m not being prudish here I am just trying to demonstrate the mentality of these morons.

When we got to the top of the chair we all skied off in a straight line to clear the lift, however the cretin on our right decided to go immediately left crossing our path and taking all 4 of us out, we all ended up in a heap on the ground and he went on his merry way. What a tosser!! Les and myself were unhurt, but Karen and Gary both twisted knees as going over at such slow speeds meant their skis did not come off. Now the dickhead on the board had in fact not gone very far and was stood talking, or more than likely grunting to his mate, and after Les and I had got the others back on their feet we were all set to confront this knob. Unfortunately I think he had realised this and swiftly slid off down the piste.

Now with the afternoon somewhat ruined Karen, decided to call it a day and made her way back to the hotel. Gary decided to soldier on bravely but after a couple of runs on the glacier it was obvious that he was in great discomfort so we thought it best to head for home too. We managed to get him back to the top of the Jandri bubble so he could get back down to the resort without have to ski the black and now very icy Valatin.

Les and I carried on down, but as this was now the only run open back to the resort it was very busy. However, I was able to negotiate about three quarters of the way down before I heard that all to familiar scraping sound of an out of control snowboarder. Fortunately for me I had just made a pole plant to turn and the boarder bounced off my fist and ended up in a crumpled heap. I must admit I had a rather satisfying smirk on my face. This guy was also another Brit but at least he had the decency to apologies for his carelessness. I got down without further incident and arrived back at the hotel in one piece. And I still had a full bag of oranges in my rucksack!

Now some of you may be thinking that I am being extremely negative about snowboarders. But I would just like to say that I do recognise that snowboarding is now a mainstream activity and not the fringe fad despised by most skiers it once was, and I also know that not all of us skiers are perfect. However, there is still, in my opinion, a small minority of snowboarders who are mindless ‘F’ ‘King’ ‘W’ ‘Kers’ who show no consideration for anybody else on the slopes. But as long as they stay out of mine and everyone else’s way, we will all be happy!

Right then ‘nuff said, the next post will be in a lot more positive and lighter vein!