Skiing in the French Alps

Today I got to go skiing in the French Alps! Olivier picked me up and we met up with Liliane (another coworker) and her boyfriend and brother, so there was a good group of us. We went to Flaine, which is part of le Grand Massif. We only skied Flaine - it was only one day and a cheaper ticket, but I am going to come back for a week of vacation and ski the whole Grand Massif sometime!

I wound up renting performance skis, Safine Infinitys. I'm not familiar with that brand, and Googling only seems to bring up foreign language websites, so I'm guessing it's a European brand? Anyway, the skis were FAST, much faster than I am used to skiing with, but I was able to control them pretty well. There were times my brain just gave in to going fast, and it was awesome, and other times when I tried to control the speed too much, and I definitely fought with them...which all leads me to think it's time for new skis of my own to practice with! My friend L would get along well with the group I skied with - they are all fast and I was definitely the poorest skier out of the group. The slopes over here are green-blue-red-black. I did not ski any blacks (I don't think....) but the reds are nice and steep - long stretches of steep, not just 50 m. They have "mile markers" at the edges of the slopes so you know how far it is to the bottom!

At the top of Flaine

Looking across the top

Stuck on a chairlift, time to pull out the camera!

Tracks!