Skiing in the Rain AKA Ski Week 2010

I know, I know, I have been silent of late. As stated in my prior post, January and February are pretty quiet months for us without much worthy of mention. Add in my Olympics obsession, and it all adds up to little time to blog.

The Point Nyon, highest point at Les Gets looking down to the village of Morzine

We did just return from our annual ski week to Les Gets in the French Alps though. The past few years, we shared this holiday with our great friends, the Millers, however, they abandoned us to move stateside last year, sigh. Marc and Nat joined us for the first weekend, and we had a great time exploring Les Get's pretty village on Saturday while C2 and J hit the slopes. Les Gets is part of the larger Porte de Soleil group of 12 linked resorts in France and Switzerland. This year, we skiied both at Les Gets and at adjacent Morzine.

Point Nyon again, J's first time skiing the challenging Aigle Rouge run

J started ski school on Sunday morning and we had beautiful weather all the way until Monday - yep a whole 2 days! After that, we had a spectacular buffet of rain, freezing rain, sleet, snow, punctuated by the odd clear moment. But you know, in spite of the less than stellar weather, we had a wonderful time. We holed up in our cozy chalet by the fire, ate well, drank great wine, ventured out when we felt like it (the big advantage of a ski-in/ski-out chalet), read, played board games, and kept the TV permanently tuned to the Olympics.

J approaching a jump in Morzine's jump park

Our routine was for C2 and I to ski hard during the 2 hours of J's ski school, then pick him up and at his insistence, ski over to his favorite restaurant on the hill to indulge his passion for a crepe complete et chocolate chaud avec creme chantilly. To translate, a crepe stuffed with ham and cheese with a raw egg tossed in for good measure, and a hot chocolate piled high with whipped cream.

The ubiquitous chocolate chaud avec creme chantilly

After lunch, we would do our best to keep up with the little skiing dynamo, who would literally ski until the lifts closed every day when the weather permitted. It's a good thing C2 can keep up with him because the non-stop top to bottom skiing on the steep red runs was exhausting (for me, not him). Still, I cannot explain the joy it brought me to watch this joyful 6-year old skiing moguls singing the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" at the top of his lungs.

J earned his deuxieme etoile from the Ecole de Ski Francais

Every evening, following dinner, J, Murphy and I would bundle up, and walk down our little hill to explore the chair lift in the dark, then climb part way up the adjacent ski hill to admire the twinkling lights and pretty chalets of Les Gets. On our final evening, C2 joined us, and we climbed very high and then rocketed down the ski run on our toboggans, the quiet night cut by our peeling laughter.

J taking a jump at the Morzine jump park