A Day Above the Clouds

Today was my first time skiing in about 5 or 6 years. To say I was a little nervous would be an understatement. I met one of the guys from work at 8:30am near the cable car that takes us up the mountain in St. Gervais, about 10 minutes from my house. We went to the local ski store and rented my equipment. Then it was off to buy our ticket and hit the slopes. The ride up in the cable car was pretty cool. When I woke up that morning it had been very cloudy and foggy. But as we rode up and passed through the clouds, we were greeted with clear blue skies and the mountain tops. It was amazing.

After a few runs, we met up with another co-worker and his girlfriend and skiied for another hour plus. I only had one bad fall, on my second or third run. It hurt! Lost my ski, my hat and my sunglasses. Luckily I had my camelpak with water on my back to soften the slamming into the snow. But my head slammed back and today my neck kills. Mild whiplash maybe, but after that I did ok and did not fall anymore.

At midi, or noon, we met up with 3 of their friends and skiied for another short time before finding a quiet spot on the top of the slopes for our picnic lunch. We had great French bread, ham, cheese and of course, red wine. Followed by some great pastries, it was a very cool lunch.

We then skiied for a couple more hours before heading back down in the cable car at 4pm. I will maybe ski once or twice more during my stay here. It is not cheap, but the pass we bought gained us access to 7 or 8 resorts that are all linked in the Alps. Pretty cool day.

Check out the slide show for more pictures from my day.