19 Feb 2014; Savoliere to les Beuloz
| Walk descriptor | France cross country | Day | 00 | ||
| Date | Wed 19 Feb 2014 | Start to end time | 04h 20m | ||
| Start point | Savoliere | End point | les Beuloz | ||
| Miles today | 08.53 | Cu miles | 8.53 | ||
| Ft today | 1,151 | Cu ft | 1,151 | ||
| Route miles left | .00 | Route ft left | |||
| Today’s weather | Cloudy with occasional mist in the morning. Light snow shower around lunchtime, then cleared up in the afternoon with sun. Occasional light wind. Quite mild – around zero to plus 1 C | ||||
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| Today’s location (the red cross in a circle shows where I am at the moment) |
GPX based track of today’s walk (click here to access to access downloadable file from the morningclick here to access to access downloadable file from the afternoon) |
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Commentary
This definitely felt (to me at least) like “the day after the day before”. After yesterday’s exertions, we returned to the Praz de Lys area and spent the day perfecting technique rather than clocking up the miles. Learned about “diagonal stride” “double poling” and “diagonal stride with double poling”. Tania also showed us how to marshall explosive bursts of power. At least that was the theory but in my case that mainly seemed to summon up explosive bursts of lactic acid. Val was learning fast, and by the end of the day was (literally) miles ahead of me.
We avoided the Farto cafe for lunch (though the farto-burger did sound appealing) and then after lunch did a short run to practice downhill techniques. I definitely need to work on this as at the moment most of my descents blur into a red mist of pain and fear. I’m sure it’s something as simple as bending my knees but somehow the theory doesn’t easily translate into the practice in the heat of a complicated life-saving manoeuvre. Practice will make perfect, as they say!
The weather wasn’t quite as nice as previous mornings – a bit dull and overcast – but after a light snowshower at lunchtime (a fall of diet-snow apparently) it cleared up and warm sunshine came out. Becoming quite cold by the end of skiing.
Today’s photos (click to enlarge)
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| Proper snow-moving equipment in Savoliere – could do with this in the UK! | Perfecting the technique. There is even a art to holding the ski-poles |
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| More forest-skiing. Possibly the most enjoyable aspect of XC ski | Val ready to go. AKA a great excuse for me to stop for a rest under the guise of taking a photo |
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| Yes this café really was serving farto-burgers | Ice rink on return to les Carroz |
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| Looking down the morning’s training piste. A grey start to the day but brightened up after lunch | |
