Ticking Along

Hi everyone and welcome to the latest article from your favourite blogging Méribel ski instructor. The ski season is truly ticking along now, and I only realised earlier today that I've been skiing for two months already this winter! How time flies? Before I continue, I'd like to confirm that I've taken all of these photos the last couple of weeks. So how is it all going?

Really quite well. The Festive Period seems like a distant memory now. As does the period where it hadn't snowed for well over a month. That was quite challenging where most of the mountain felt like an enormous ice rink (with gradients). But a rather hefty snow storm a couple of weeks ago completely refreshed the mountain with lovely soft snow. And the last few days or so we've received a couple of little dustings which really puts a smile on your face. Plus next week looks as though further falls might arrive, however the confidence level of these forecasts indicate some uncertainty with the accuracy.

January is the month I love the best during the ski season. It still feels like deep winter, often there are loads of sunny days, and the snow tends to be in good condition without major temperature fluctuations. This has been the case again so far this year. I love it.

It's also a time when I get to ski with clients who regularly come to Méribel and the 3 Valleys. It's wonderful observing people's experiences and emotions. Often slight nervousness on their first ski of the winter, followed by relief, and then the excitement and joy boots in.

More than ever, I'm doing my best at really appreciating where I work. After well over 25 full winters of living and working in Méribel, the scenery and the sport could so easily become normalised. But I am determined for this to not happen. Being here is normal to me, but at the same it really isn't normal. Does that make sense? For example I recently had a rendezvous with clients one morning at the bottom of the Altiport chairlift. This meant that my commute to work was skiing down an empty, beautifully groomed, Altiport piste at 9.10 am. What a start to the day. Is that normal? I'll let you decide.

The last few of weeks have been nice and busy for me with clients. It was great to see Sally and Alida who I've skied with before. I couldn't quite work out when this was, just after the Covid affected winters? They had already worked it out, in fact it was 2022. This was also the last time that they had been on skis. Towards the end of their first day, they were absolutely buzzing, and said that they then realised how sad they felt at the thought of having missed four years of skiing. Don't worry Team Blizzard (we were all skiing on Blizzard skis at the time), keep ticking along, and look forward to your next trip.

In the last couple of weeks I've had a mixture of my own clients, and outside of this work, bookings come in direct from the ESF ski school. It's a wonderful blend of bookings, and often I haven't a clue what to expect. This was the case last week when the ski school gave me some sessions. The information given to me was a name (Bill), their level (debutant, which means beginner), and an age (which was quoted as 79 years old). This of course is unusual, but something that I was keen to approach with a positive manner.

A 79 year old beginner is not something that I come across very often, I'll be honest with you. However when I first met him and we got talking, it was an amazing experience. Bill lives in Chipping Camden in the Cotswolds, not a million miles from Leamington Spa where I'm based in the summer. He is a really keen cyclist, just like me, so we had loads in common. And the thing that really stood out was his positiveness, an infectious quality I can tell you.

In fact Bill did explain that he had skied briefly before in Austria about 35 years ago, but couldn't really remember much about it. With that in mind, we agreed to start right from the very beginning with learning to ski, which worked a treat. The ESF nursery slope at the top of the Rhodos bubble did us proud. And after two mornings, Bill was fine-tuning his snow plough turns on this steady slope. Well done Bill, it was brilliant meeting you.

I keep ticking along here in Méribel, chipping away at working the hours, skiing with so many amazing people and sharing their fun. Every day appreciating where I am, and loving the ski teaching. I'm heading back to Leamington Spa mid-week for a quick break, returning to Méribel this coming weekend. I'll sign off with my usual credo.... don't forget to Live With Passion. Martin.