SO, a lot’s happened since I last updated you on my season. We’ve had Curfews in snowstorms, powder days, bluebird days and I’ve done some BASI Courses.

I don’t feel like I’ve had a moment to breath.

The snow storm we had was pretty special, gale force winds over 200kph in resort! The Marie issues a curfew for everyone in Val d’Isere for 9pm. All the bars, pubs and clubs had to shut, we were to shut our avalanche shutters and stay indoors. That didn’t sound like fun though, and I was pretty sure most of the seasonaires were partying somewhere. The storm was no laughing matter though, the next morning we had to dig back into our apartment with over 50cm piled up at the door! The party we ended up at got pretty messy.  We started in the Fall Line bar, where we stayed until the Police moved us on at around half 9. No one wanted the party to stop though, so we headed next door into the foyer of one of the apartment buildings. This was when it really started to get messy.

The flat that we intended on ending up in was a little to small for our group, hence ending up in the foyer. There was a lot of alcohol, and a bottle of Fernet Menta that disappeared in about 5 minutes. The party had started. What followed was hazy at best, especially considering I don’t usually drink, at all. Strip spin-the-bottle ensued, and the Russian party that were also in the foyer came over to watch. One even joined in, it was pretty weird! We nicknamed him bad Ivan. The night ended as messily as it started, if you remembered where you were when you woke up you were lucky! That said, it was a great night!

All the lifts were closed the next morning, and the clean-up operation began, diggers clearing snow were everywhere! A few lifts managed to open late in the afternoon, but that was it!

New Year has also been and gone, another standard messy night for all involved. I was working as usual so missed the parties in favour of an early ride up the hill. It was worthwhile even if I only did a few runs due to the extreme wave of tiredness I was surfing.

In between then we’ve had a few more powder days, and I had the hardest week of my life on a BASI Level 3 Mountain Safety course. I felt like I was on the back foot from the start, being the only female, and the only snowboarder! I did get a DIY split board for the occasion which is pretty epic. So much better than snowshoes! The week was painful to say the least, but bloody good fun. And my group of boys were real legends, rescuing poles for me, and even giving me the odd pull across the flat bits. The routes we followed weren’t always snowboard friendly, I have never been so tired in my lift after boot-packing out of several bowles, and sliding down a frozen waterfall. Couldn’t have done it without you boys!

Since then I’ve been catching up on sleep. I have however ended up in the local mag, The Mountain Echo (www.themountainecho.co.uk) a couple of times in the last few weeks. I’ve been on the cover hiking up the Foglietta in St Foy, in the Kit Review, and most recently had an article written around cutting my split-board! I feel almost famous! The Mountain Echo is a great place to look for an insight on real seasonaire life. The gossip pages are, at times, almost unbelievable, and trust me, it has almost all happened!