Ag nee, the last day skiing

Glorious sunshine greeted us for a change, still very cold but it was much nicer to be in the sunshine than the mist. We had decided to head up to Val Thorens to do some of the runs which I had really enjoyed previously.

Today has got to be the best skiing I think I have ever had, conditions were just perfect. Blue skies overhead, nice and cold but no so much that you are freezing, great pistes and perfect snow to ski on. Still scrunchy below one's feet. I can't think how the conditions could get any better.

We took the following route in the morning

• Up mont de la chambre lift and then down the mont de la chambre into Val Thorens
• Up the peclet lift and then down tete ronde
• Up moraine lift and down moraine
• Up moraine lift and then up the col lift, down the red col run and then down genepi.
• Up the portette lift and then down fond, plateau, altiport and lagopede and gentiane
• Up boismint lift and then down blanchot, tetras and bd cummin back to Les Menuires

The view from the col was awesome and we could look out over the glacier de chaviere and watch some people climbing up it. I'm not sure what they were actually doing because they had both climbing equipment and ski's; they looked like ants on the glacier.
The red run was very steep at the top but the snow was reasonable so it wasn't too much of a problem. After we negotiated the red we took a break at the restaurant half way down genepi with some pretty fair chocolat chaud and crepe nutella. The view from this restaurant out over Val Thorens is just awesome, definitely aided by the fact that we could actually see Val Thorens today.
Skiing down tetras gave a whole new meaning to ice, the entire run is north facing and is low enough to have been rained on. I think there was a conspiracy and we didn't get the memo because we were the only people on the run and not once on the whole run was there anything even vaguely powdery, even piles that looked nice and soft were just frozen solid. My knees by the time we finished were quite sore, the run was challenging after two weeks of skiing and if we had done this run when we had just arrived I think disaster would have ensued.

Had the usual for lunch before heading out for the last time to Grand Lac, pezolet and 3 marches which were all nice but a bit more icy than yesterday. We were on our very last run when Carl was mowed by a moron in a red bobble headed devil suite who was flying straight down the slope. I think he was racing his friends and I caught it on video, he didn't even try and swerve at all. My first thought was whether Carl had hurt his shoulder because he was lying very still in the middle of the piste. My second thought was to catch the perpetrator and rugby tackle him, see how he likes that, but by the time we had gathered our wits he was long gone - unfortunately.

Well, that's it. Skiing is over and we are all more or less intact. Kirsten and Carl were going out for an anniversary dinner so we took Megan and Alistair down to the market for some more nutella crepe's while I took some photographs. The proprietors were very co-operative and I think I my have a keeper of one of the store owners looking very proud of himself. It must be quite a life doing the market and moving the entire thing every day to a different town. It sounds like the move between Val Thorens, Les Menuires, Meribel and Coucheval every day of the week.
Once the kids had retired to bed I retired to the balcony with a big glass of red wine and my last cigar to see the holiday out in the peace and quit of the mountains at night.

Tomorrow is travelling day, ughh!