Ski Season Arrives!

Our local hill, La Mongie/Grand Tourmalet opened for business on Saturday 5th December and we headed out yesterday (Monday) for our annual tentative first ski of the year. 

And what a beautiful bluesky day is was.












Given that the first proper snowfall was on the last weekend in November and we've had mixed rain and snow plus warm weather since then, the team have done a fantastic job on the pistes. 

You can clearly see the snow level is still looking pretty high around Bareges in the valley.


Alright, so not everything is open and there are some patches of heather and rock showing through, but we spent a happy five hours or so and only repeated a few runs. 






Monday was a national holiday in Spain and most of the skiers we heard were Spanish, but it was still pretty quiet. This is normally a busy piste!






It is always a relief to discover that the muscle memory hasn't vanished over the course of the summer and for me, that my joints can still take the punishment. Yes, my knees, and ankles in particular was painful by the end of the day, but not intolerably so. And not to the degree that I think I might be doing any damage. Having said that, I'd rather have ten years more on the slopes and then ten difficult years than twenty years of taking it easy. Ask me again in twenty years and I may have regret this decision!!