WeekEnd of SKI !!! - Les Deux Alpes

12th December '08 5:00 pm
I'm supposed to be in college by now but instead I'm halfway there with 4 huge bags stumbling to make it to college somehow. Luckily, not too far from home I run into Barkha who took her bags from me. So we reach college running to find NO ONE! And we're thinking that MAYBE they left without us :P. Long story short, we do manage to get to the bus somehow and manage to avoid the dirty looks coz apparently we weren't the only people to get that late...phew!!
The bus journey was fun as usual. Spent with some great music and 'The Alchemist' (which I'm starting to find a little irritating). And then there was Troy which was pretty cool!! Brad Pitt can do wonders (can't imagine it was the same guy in Fight Club). Annd so we reach the place and its frikkin' cold(as expected). However, after a while didn't seem all that bad.

13th December '08
So the D-Day arrives when I have to put my non-existent ski skills to test. Genius that I am, I left my wallet at home but with some help from Barkha I managed to rent the equipment. Fact: Ski boots are insanely heavy. And funnily but not surprisingly I was given a pair of skis for kids :P. And so we march our way over the ski slopes and it takes me some time just to be able to stand in one place with the skis on. Once that's accomplished I realized there is this setup that helps you get to the top of the slopes. Its this pole with a disc at the end hanging from a line that goes till the top of the slope. You're supposed to put the disc between your legs and hang onto that till you get to the top. Now I see people ahead of me in the line falling left, right and center and so I was really proud of myself when I managed to do it in one go and was feeling, all hopeful that maybe I won't be that bad afterall. FALSE! I reach the top and I can't stop for some reason and I fall. And with Barkha's bad luck, she was right behind me and she falls as well coz there's this big lump(namely me) lying in her way. Fact: getting up after you fall down while skiing is NOT easy.
ROUND 1: So I somehow stand up and I'm moving around and before I know it I'm sliding down the slope and I CAN'T stop. And I decide to enjoy it initially coz it felt nice that I was sliding down the slope. The amusement doesn't last too long though coz as I approach the bottom of the slope I remember that I can't stop. So I try all the techniques that I had been 'briefed' about like trying to stop with your poles, spreading the skis apart and alot of other funny stuff but I gave up pretty soon and then started searching for a comfortable place to crash :P. And just there, like it was a blessing from God, there was a pile of snow right in front of me so I crashed there in style!!! For round 1 that felt great! A very nice lady next to me decided to help me back up and after spending 5 mins to find one of my ski poles buried in the snow I head back to the top of the slope.
ROUND 2: I make it back up to the top without falling and doing it a little more non-chalantly this time, again feeling really good about myself. Not to last for too long. I did manage to stop this time without falling but yet again I feel myself rolling down the slope. And soon I have reached a speed where I wouldn't want to fall to stop myself. So I decide to be all brave and make this one work! And I did pretty well this time. Reached the bottom and the stopping technique only helped to slow down my speed but that was good enough. Now I feel I've gotten a hang of this and that I have control of where I'm going. FALSE!! I try to bring myself to a dead stop from the little speed that I was in and the next thing I know I've fallen face down into the snow right next to a bunch of kids. :P. I stand. I shall try again!!
ROUND 3: I reach up again, fully determined this time NOT to slide down as soon as I reach up. And I manage to do it for a good 3 mins. I'm just skiing around on the top WITHOUT slipping. But one bad turn later, I'm again on that uncontrollable journey back down. This time I don't want to go all the way down so I try real hard to stop halfway through by spreading out my skis which results in me falling on my face again :D

I stand up and ski down the remaining part of the slope pretty well. And I stopped too!! This time we head back up so we can go to a more advanced slope! Going to the advanced slope was a task in itself but I'll spare you guys the details coz I think the falling and standing is getting a little monotonous now. So we are now at the top of the advanced slope. Which seemed pretty scary from the top. So I waited for the slope to be empty so I can go down and it took quite some time for that to happen as people were littered at the beginning of the slope. Everyone brave enough to head down wouldn't make it too far :P. When its finally my turn, I am told to take it slow on the relatively flat part of the slope and then stop. Didn't quite happen that way obviously. I head down as usual, and after a while I'm too scared of the speed I'm in and I SIT down :P. And this is the story of how the new style of skiing was invented. To stop I fall in an awkward position and bend almost 270 degrees to take off my skis. THAT's the story of how I hurt my back. And the reason my flourishing skiing career came to a halt after the very first day. I am however, still, determined to give it a shot again. Its pretty cool!

The most interesting part was to see these little kids ski and they were soo much better than us and all we would do is stop and watch them, feel stupid about ourselves, and then continue with the cycles of climbing and falling and standing and climbing.

We then all decide to go upto the top of the mountain just for the experience and it is by far THE COLDEST place I have ever been to. You can expect that at 3000 m above. There was a time when I was too scared to move bcoz the winds were so strong that I was being pushed by them and I felt that if I would move I would go straight down. It was a very crippling 5 mins. And after a few lame attempts at photos we came back. I couldn't feel my hands and my face anymore and I felt that if I would have stayed any longer I would have frozen!

Dinner after that was nice. I tasted the Raclette for the first time and even though it was delicious it was too heavy! I was done with the eating business within 20 mins and after that just sat and watched people around me eat for the next 1 hour after that. Boy, these people can eat!! Also, the chartreuse before dinner was pretty good. Its a traditional french drink in the mountains and even though I didn't think it was too alcoholic and thought it almost tasted like hot chocolate, people seemed to think otherwise. So either my tastebuds have gotten too accustomed to alcohol or I was too tired to notice it. I'm hoping its the latter.

14th Decemeber '08
Quite an uneventful day compared to the previous one. Since I couldn't go skiing we went walking around the town. Interesting, but I really wished I was up in the slopes. However, I was told later that the weather wasn't too good for skiing the second day. So that was that. We headed back to Sophia in the bus and it was fucking raining all the way through. This time we watched Seven(Brad Pitt doing a great job again!) and Jungle Book(brought back childhood memories). Basically, the trip was great fun save for the spoilsport rain. Can't wait to work on my ski skills again! A bientot ski station!