Scene 2: Steven at 47.6 km/hr.
Scene 3 &4: Completing last descent of the day – narrow gully with poor light.
The morning light was poor so we just went for a very long warm up run – top of the Funiplagne non stop until down in the Bellecote sector. Following that there was a descent on the FunRun from the top of the Arpette – but it was necessary to keep the brakes on as the corners were clearly unsafe with ruts and people standing around. We then went back up the Arpette and began an enjoyable long descent down to Montchavin/Les Coches and the impressive Vanoise Express. We took the Vanoise Express across the valley to Peisey Vallandry and did one run in Les Arcs – a red run that was nothing but ice all the way so we promptly returned to La Plagne and another FunRun (where Sophie crashed again) then lunch at Steven’s favourite pizza place. We even had the same table as last year!
I discussed technique with Sophie – adding an exercise for her to feel the extension of the uphill leg pushing from the uphill edge (ski) down the hill – the ski being free to pivot as the inside edge is not immediately used. It had become clear that her falls were all when going too fast and then leaning back in her boots and trying to brake. Accordingly I showed how by securing her “push off” to initiate the next turn she had to be sure to move the body across the fronts of the skis to keep pressure on the fronts – to have secure control of the skis and their ability to deflect you across the slope under control. In other words – to never let the skis just run away with you – because it’s much harder to correct that than it is to prevent it. Scene 1 in the video and scene 4 show her exercising disciplined control.
We ended up the day on our favourite runs (the gullies in the video) and before that a descent and chairlift to Montalbert and the “Grenouille” (French for frog) red run that’s steeper than any black run and classed as”Very Difficult” – Sophie was worried by it then surprised to manage it with no problems at all – and she earned her first “Frog points” agreed by the Frog committee consisting of me and Steven.
We continued down to 1500 (La Roche) on another “sheet ice” slope that was actually fun to ski – and this was all after skiing to Champagny and I think I’ve lost count of all the runs we did – so the two star pupils certainly got to ski today.