It was another alternate Thursday for Joe to continue his training in the art of retirement from the indomitable Mervyn. Although we suffered through the traffic at the Nyon exit of the Autoroute, we made it to Samoëns just after 10 and were at the top of the Grand Massif Express by 10:30, ready for what would still be a full day’s skiing.
The promise of nice weather and good snow was accurate…especially at the higher elevations in Flaine. It was another beautiful day in the mountains, with close-up views of Mont Blanc demanding our attention, even for the occasional high-risk photo op.
As with our earlier outings, we explored most of the area and attacked pistes of all colors. One of us did so quite smoothly, while yours truly inelegantly navigated deep moguls on a steep black run below the 2561 meter peak of Tete des Lindars…but lived to tell the tale. Confidence was built as the day went on…
Surprisingly, the good weather seemed to have led many lift-pass-paying skiers to take a day off from school or work to join us in the mountains, resulting in the occasional queueing. But the crowds thinned out during lunch time while we continued till 2pm before taking a break for an outdoor lunch.
It continued to be all downhill after lunch, and we gradually made our way back from Flaine through parts of Les Carroz and finally back to where we started by 4pm, with the snow becoming a bit slushier as we descended. We stopped for a well-earned beer in the picturesque village of Samoëns.
The return home was very smooth, and we have more evidence that rush hour on the autoroute in Geneva is considerably easier than the crawl of Lausanne-Morges. It seems the only way we can solve our traffic struggles will be to combine heading east in the morning with heading west in the evening.
In any event, all routes so far this season have led to fantastic ski days…looking forward to more of these to encourage my transition to retirement.
