tessawatson.com

During this summer I spent two weeks in France. I was there visiting one of my best friends. During my trip I was very lucky to have been able to venture into the Alps for one days summer skiing. I had never been summer skiing so was very keen to see what the slopes would be like then.

The Glacier at Les Deux Alpes sits at a height of 3600. During the day you can only ski between 0730 and 1330 (the slopes become too slushy in the afternoon). It took around about half an hour to get to the summit in the cable car. During the first couple of hours the slopes were very hard. Although the slope had been pisted, it was shear ice. This was a bit of a shock to the system! I didn’t expect that but it is a glacier after all! From around about 10am on wards the runs became much more manageable as the sun began to soften them up. One downside was that all the tows on the Glacier are T-bars (those of you who are fellow skiers will know how unbalanced they can be though I didn’t tumble once!). I would class myself as an intermediate skier, a bit of a ‘Blues-Cruiser’- all about the speed not the style. During the early morning the glacier was quite quiet. There were no queues just hardcore ‘James Bond’ styles training on the slalom courses putting me to shame. During the late morning the slopes began to get quite busy mainly with ski schools though this is nothing compared Scotland.

Other than a bit of altitude sickness it was a great day and I am very glad to have done it. However, if I was to do so again it would have to be for longer. I had considered offering to run a summer trip for kids but in comparison to winter skiing it is no where near as suitable. Rock on winter!