Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Aosta, Italy, La Thuile, skiing, Snickers, snow
I have a love-hate relationship with skiing.
On a good day, I find it exhilarating to zoom downhill, can’t wait to get on back on a lift to go again, then stop off for a hot chocolate, or get some much needed winter sun on my face while lolloping in a deckchair with a Snickers bar.
On bad days – when I don’t feel I’m making any progress, old knee injuries are aggravated, my quads are burning, I can’t see where I’m going and it’s freezing cold – I f***ing hate it. As I was heard to exclaim on one particularly chilly day in La Thuile, Italy. I think it was this one (below); it might look pretty, but it was -15°C and blowing a hoolie.
"What the hell am I doing here?"
Fortunately, despite the ankle injury, I had more good days than bad. Even dosed up on Ibuprofen, getting an instrument of torture a ski boot onto my bruised and swollen foot every morning was excruciating. But, once in, the boot braced my ankle fairly effectively and I was able to skid around ok, albeit fairly gracelessly. It wasn’t until day five, when the swelling went down a bit and I could do my boot up properly that I made any hint of progress. It helped that that was the warmest day, and we were over in Courmayeur. Red 13 marked a turning point, I leaned into the wind and sped down squealing with delight. I just wished that had happened on day one!
"Wooooooooo! This is more like it..."
It was a really good trip on the whole. I went with eight others, and loved the group atmosphere. I also discovered the Bombardino – a warming concoction comprising coffee, brandy, advocaat (or something similar) and cream. Our hotel – the Piccolo San Bernardo – was basic but clean and comfortable, with friendly staff and good food.
I have to say, it was incredibly cold for the first week in March and La Thuile was quite exposed. But, the excellent snow conditions did make up for it – absolutely beautiful to ski on.
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[...] professional advice: I didn’t want someone to tell me I shouldn’t ski before I went to La Thuile, and haven’t got around to it since I got back. The other BMFer who sprained her ankle the [...]
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