Ski Mont Blanc/ Tremblant!

Just down the road from the afore mentioned Chalet, was Mont Blanc. I reasonable sized ski hill (not Mountain, the Swiss would surely not like the use of such a word when they are used to the Alps) with about 35 runs ranging from beginner to Double Black Diamond. On the first day all 22 of us, (Christoph and Vanessa joined later) travelled to Mont Blanc where we hired a set of skiies each, (or snowboards) and went up the mountain. For the half of us that had never skiied before, Paul was kind enough to show us the ropes. Although he later admitted that even though he was a ski instructor last Winter, he had only taught 5 and 6 year olds...

After spending the morning on the baby beginner hill, I decided to brave it and head up on the ski lift. Well, after one of the slowest decents in history, looking down each hill and wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into, I reached the bottom with only 2-3 falls. Contrary to popular belief, if you fall over on a hill, you generally don't hurt yourself to much as it takes you a fair while to stop. (as I discovered later and to whom William will attest.)

Anyway, after two days, I was still feeling less than 100% confident on my skies, they really seemed to be a little too big for me, I found on a couple of occaisions, that they went where they wanted to rather then where I wanted them, and went back to the ski hire, to get shorter ones... (less than the 190cm skies that I had) The end result, they only had some that would suit people with smaller feet than mine, but they suggested the Snow Blades (shown above) and I went for them. They are good fun, terrible on the flat due to no poles but I felt much more confident and was able to take on some black diamonds by the end of it with Williams encouragement.

Above: Nice action shot of me. Left:William and I coming up on a chair lift.



Above: Through a ski Rack, overlooking Mont Blanc. Right: Amy, Allison and Me, in our Ski attire.



Above: Jessica and Craig. Right: Allison on the Ski lift.

After spending many days getting used to skiing on the more budget Hill of Mont Blanc. We decided to brave it and head to the major tourist destination of the area, Mont Tremblant. Well, first of all, it was MUCH more busy than that which we were used to at Blanc. Secondly, it was about 2-3 times as high. The first gondola up the hill is even enclosed it's that far!

Some of the Mob at the base of Mont Tremblant.
(The carpark to be more precise)



The bottom of one side of the mountain.



Above: Some of the Mont Tremblant Runs, and the Magnificent views from the top!



Like I mentioned earlier, before the rain, the snow covered all of the trees, it was beautiful. Reminded me of white coral.