Just another great ski vacation

First, let me wish everyone a happy 2012.  Here's wishing you another year of fun and adventures ... however status quo such a life may have become for you.

Yes, a new year and yet my tongue (Richard) remains firmly in my cheek.  You see, when we got back from Chamonix on Monday night I was eager and anxious to get a blog post up about our trip.  I had thought that after her rededication to blogging the days of our advent calendar, Jennie would agree, and yet when I brought up the topic that evening she responded to my suggestion of immediately getting down to blogging about our trip with: "How are we going to write this up differently than last year's trip to Cham?  We did the same things; we had a great time ..."

lunch on the slopes - first, perfect, day

... and yeah, I guess she has a point.  We went to UCPA in Chamonix - again.  We met some interesting and fun people - again.  And the skiing was amazing (again)  and we both very happy with how we skiied - again.  

Sigh.  How horribly, horribly repetitive and predictable we've become!

 So I decided to approach this post, about our trip, from the perspective of the merest taste of my observations regarding real-life human behaviour resulting from varying degrees of dissatisfaction upon being placed into performance-based cohorts ... in other words, I speak of the "how good a skier are you" Sorting Hat process that accompanies off-piste skiing at UCPA.

the original Sorting Hat - as worn by some dorky-looking kid

Yes, the sorting process.  It makes perfect sense; at UCPA there are usually two or more off-piste skiing groups: confirmed (aka, intermediate), advanced/expert, and then further extensions like beginners or the more extreme chutes and couloir-specific group (who, for my own mma-themed amusement, I call the "Chute Boxers").

the view from the advanced group, about to drop into Vallorcine, Switzerland

Of course, just because you might think you're an expert skier doesn't necessarily mean that you are (last week I had several discussions regarding the topic of being a "British-good" skier vs. a "Good-good" skier, for instance), which is why the morning of day one is all about a sorting process.  The instructors find some interesting pitches and conditions, evaluate skiers as they come down one at a time, and divide you up into the groups.

As you can imagine, sometimes people are not pleased with the results.  

Jennie - if she's free to roam the slopes, she's pleased with the results

It was my friend Vokey who said to me once, as we were talking about the way people behave: "Really, do most people act all that differently than they did when they were sixteen?"  It is times like the UCPA skiing Sorting Hat that I think he is the most correct.

In the interest of trying not to behave entirely like a sixteen-year-old, as I have only one week left before I am (for the most part happily) plunged back into that world, let me focus on my own feeling and reactions, even though they might not be as salacious as observations I have made regarding others through the two sessions that I have now had a chance to watch other people react.  

This year when I was (initially) sorted into the intermediate group - Jennie, as you no doubt guessed, went straight to the front of the line of the advanced skiers - I was (and am) comfortable and confident enough with myself as a person that yes, my feeling was mostly one of relief.  Mostly.  My skiing has improved a lot over the past year, I have a better grasp of the fundamentals and what I need to do to improve, and I was generally excited to know that I would be able to focus more on my skiing in the intermediate group.  This as opposed to the possibility of being pushed to keep up and be on the edge of my comfort level has I ended up in the advanced group.  

I thougth of it in terms of running training; last year was a big build year for me.  Everything was huge, and steep, and the snow conditions were a whole different ballgame (or bunch of ballgames) than the corduroy groom of on-piste.  Yes, I loved it - off-piste is the mountain biking of skiing.  But I still had (and have) a lot of improving to do before I reach the upper echelon of all things ski.

So it was going to be nice to have another 'cycle' at that level before moving up another building step.  Mostly.  At the end of the sorting process, when the instructors pointed out that I was in a different group from Jennie, and publically asked if we want to be together, I was a little embarassed, but I knew I was making the right call for me at that point when I shook my head and said that I was content to stay in my intermediate group ... and that Jennie should stay with the advanced skiers. Sometimes marriage doesn't have to be about individual compromise - and yes, it can even work out better for your collective happiness in the greater scheme of things.

everybody pitching in when our bus got stuck in the freshie

I came home comfortable and happy; Jennie came home fulfilled and happy.  We could be happy together. 

Jennie after a long day tearing it up in the pow

I was pretty darn excited when my instructor - as it fortunately turned out, both Jennie and I had the same awesome guys we had last year - suggested that it would be all right for me to join Jennie's group and give it a try.  Yes, it would be nice to ski with Jennie and have the chance to watch my lady do her thing.  Also yes, it felt good to know that an instructor that I knew and trusted observed that I was improving.  I was similarly delighted at the end of the week assessments to hear that I could probably ski with the advanced group next time ... and I shall preserve Jennie's modesty by telling you on her behalf that she all she heard at the end of the week from her guide, again, is what a top-notch skier she is.  Having spent a day watching her in the context of the most challenging group at UCPA - off-piste advanced - I can assure you that even relatively speaking, she is an awesome skier.

floating lanterns at new years!

The half-day I ended up spending with Jennie's group was pretty ideal for me; it was deep and light powder, which besides being my favourite conditions also plays nicely to being a big and strong person whose skiing weakness are finesse and incremental changes to body position and timing ... deep slow powder can cover a multitude of technique-related ills, I openly confess.  I had great fun, and I did very well within the group all morning.

In the afternoon I was a little tired and distracted and, after struggling to clear the snow from one of my boots and snap into my ski, found that the advanced group had only started away but had in fact vanished from my view completely; I had lost focus, and I had been dropped.  It was my own fault ... and it was why I was a-okay to call up Jennie and let her know that the group should continue on without me, and that I would ski back with my intermediate group the following day (which also happened to be the last day). 

above the cloud cover over the valley

Everybody wants to be in the advanced group of ... well, probably everything that people do.  And that's good; ambition and goals are good.  But patience and critical self-reflection are also good.  So are recognizing that improvement might be required to meet your goals.  So is realizing that there are a lot of factors that go into being in the advanced group, like how much certain terrain fatigues you, or how quickly you can get yourself strapped in and going, and that the people who ski and guide for a living probably have a better grasp of who is at which level than most of us might individually have.

sandwich face

sun trying to beat the bruillard at Grand Montet

We both had a great time.  Jennie skiied brilliantly, and I did very well.  Plus we met a bunch of cool folks which always makes for a good time.  We are headed back at the end of February to Argentiere and there, a new UCPA base with a couple different off-piste options for us both to try our hands at.  I will have the chance to move up a group.  I feel ready for the challenge of moving up another group.  But if I don't, I hope I have the humility to recognize that the misjudgments in the situation are probably mine own - as is the agency to improve my lot - and not a fault of the guides.

moon and the Aiguille de Midi ... apres midi

Happy trails in 2012, everybody!  We are both rocking pretty ambitious sports schedules this year, and I'm looking forward to sharing those predictable, repetitive adventures with my lady.  And this blog.  So until next time, then.