powder powder powder

So Day 3 of the Kaos experiment got off to a late start but a start nonetheless.

Family Knipe had put everyone else to shame and were up and out by 8.30 leaving the rest of us snoozing gently.

Opening the curtains revealed a foot of fresh had fallen overnight and the big snowflakes were still falling as Zinnia and I headed out leaving the boys in bed. Alas, the price to pay for the new snow was the minimal visibility so the orange lenses were in full force.

Bimbling along in the gloom past the ‘piste ferme’ sign, Zin and I discovered that the piste bashers had groomed the slope leaving the fresh powder on perfectly smooth piste. With no one around we did a few laps getting first tracks until we met the boys at the lift.

Deciding that the trees were the best place to be, we spent the next few hours lapping the lift line of a drag lift with a few cat tracks and hips to bust out the freestyling skills. or not as the case may be. The Suit is still convinced that he is the freestyling demon however his attempt at ‘sending it’ off a cat track lead to him going ass first as his legs couldn’t deal with the compression on the run in which lead brilliantly into a natural hip where the suit buried the nose of his board on landing leaving him looking like the (giant?) abominable snowman.

Dusting off the snow, team KAOS pulled up at the Rond Point for an overpriced panini. It being Wednesday (seasonaires day off) the place was packed with excitable young English kids all bright eyed at the sight of fresh powder and the thought of the liver abuse they are all bound to endure tonight. Ah, the life of a seasonaire…
One overly keen young lad was telling me how amazing the freestyle skiing (can I call it that?) was down by the lift, y’know the one in the Olympics where they bounce down the moguls and do a twister spread eagle thing? Yep the one that your dad gets confused with snowboarding. Anyway, I digress…the place also had free wifi meaning the Blackberrys and iphones were brought out so the office could check email in one hand and eat lunch with the other. You gotta love technology sometimes! As it turned out the world wasn’t going to end unless they were all replied to so they could wait until after riding.

After lunch we headed over to Meribel Mottaret picking up the boss and Team KAOS minishredder (Griffin) and all piled into the gondola that leads all the way to edge of the Meribel ski area. The doors opened revealing the conditions that hadn’t changed much since the morning…hmmm. The snow was much lighter up here but the flat light still played havoc with judging with the terrain, deciding that it was time for tea and cake we came down through Mottaret into Meribel village.

Arriving back into the village the day had taken it’s toll with team KAOS feeling the burn somewhat. However the mood soon changed on the sight of a band of 4 Frenchie’s (complete with drummer) dressed in purple spandex and matching wigs playing bad Tom Jones covers to a crowd of bemused 'rosbifs'.

Frenchies are a league unto themselves sometimes

Bring on the sunshine…

James

PS - In case you wondered how it should be done, check out the clip below from Nike ACG's Sweetspots film