Chamrousse and Chill-Day 23-January 31st, 2018

Today marks a few things: three weeks in France, my friend Ivy’s birthday (happy birthday!), and my second skiing trip. I was going to Chamrousse in the French alps today. I woke up at 6:40 AM today thinking, “damn, I paid money to wake up this early”. Though if you want a full day at the slopes, the earlier the better. I was feeling much more optimistic after my cereal and bowl of coffee. This morning was rare because for once, I was not rushing. I usually bolt out the door after breakfast, but today I had an extra fifteen minutes of nothing before I left for the 8:15 bus to the resort. I will definitely try to wake up earlier in the future because it’s nice to take my time for a change.

I took the C4 and C1 bus and arrived at the Grenoble bus station twenty minutes later. I got my lift ticket from a stand near the buses. The past two times I’ve gone skiing, I’ve done a deal where you pay for your bus trip to the resort and lift ticket at the same time. It is cheap and effective. Soon my friends, Hawaii Nick (I’m calling him this to differentiate from my other friend Nick), Aleks, and Sydney arrived at the bus. Also surprisingly two people in my BU program are from Hawaii.

The ride took about an hour as we winded up curvy roads into the mountain. I watched the rest of Ratatouille while on the bus. I had to occasionally pause to admire the views out the window though.

View from the bus window. Our bus was literally above the clouds.

We arrived at the resort, and I was feeling a little nauseated from staring at my laptop on the curvy roads. The fresh mountain air fixed this quickly. We then went to rent out skis and equipment. It was 5 euros more than last time, but I didn’t have to carry my skis and boots for two days, so the price was easily worth it.

I hadn’t skied for a week and a half, so I was interested to see if I had forgotten everything. We started out first run of the day on the bunny hill to get back into it. I was slightly concerned in the beginning because I struggled a little. Two runs later, it all came back to me and I had not fallen once.

After these two runs, we decided to all ditch a layer of clothing in our lockers because it was warmer than expected. It was time to head to the top of the mountain.

The Chamrousse resort is nice because they have some gondolas instead of chair lifts in some spots. They are like tiny, red, square bubbles and can fit about four people inside. We took off our skis and sat inside the gondola, ready for out first real trail of the day.

Here’s a picture from inside the gondola to give you an impression of it.

We reached the top and were immediately greeted with spectacular views and a ten degree temperature drop. The last time I went skiing it was cloudy, so the views weren’t nearly as good.

Absolutely Breathtaking.

We took green level trail down the mountain and I already felt much better at skiing than my first trip last week. We enjoyed a nice, long and scenic trail down to the second base camp at Chamreusse. I hadn’t fallen at all and was feeling fantastic. This trail took a while, so we stopped for lunch at one of the restaurants at the second base camp.

I treated myself to lasagna with salad, an ice tea, and a beer. It was delectable and exactly what I needed for a long day of skiing. The whole thing cost me about 14 euros.

My Lunch.

We headed to the chair lift afterwards to take some blue (intermediate) trails.

A Selfie from the Chairlift with my friends

The blue trail was very fun, but a bit more challenging. I fell twice in the beginning and was annoyed about this. Otherwise, I was finally starting to get comfortable with speed and sharp turns. We came back up a few more times and tried various blue trails and a few more difficult red ones. I was having a blast.

I did get in a slight slump at one point. I was taking the t-bar up a slope, and accidentally sat on it the wrong way. The whole lift took about five minutes, but halfway up I hit an ice patch, lost my balance and fell. This was mainly because I was sitting on it backwards, but it still killed my growing confidence in my skiing abilities. I just went down the side to another trail and went on again.

The Seats looked different on mine, but here’s what a stereotypical t-bar looks like.

This fall put killed definitely lowered my confidence and led to me have a crappy run where I fell a few times. Right before this run, I saw someone’s unconscious body getting dragged by a snowmobile, which definitely did not help me either.

By the last couple runs of the day, I was feeling myself again and was back to normal. I went down the same trail that had given me trouble earlier with no problems. It was nice to end on a high note.

We returned our skis, and went to a cafe at the resort to kill some time. I got a hot chocolate and nutella crepe that was very tasty. This was actually my first crepe in France believe it or not. I forgot to take a picture of it unfortunately.

The bus ride home felt quick and we were back in Grenoble before we knew it. I said goodbye to my friends and headed home. I haven’t spent too much time with this group before, but I really enjoyed spending the day with them and can definitely see more ski trips happening in the future.

On the way home, I stopped at the Petit Casino to pick up a premade salad for my dinner. After my crepe, I wanted something easy and healthy.

On the way home, I took this picture of the super moon. I thought it was interesting because it lined up with the streetlights on my street.

When I got back, I changed and showered. Afterwards I ate my salad, which was the same brand I had the other day. This meant it came with dressing in the test tube, bread sticks, and a cookie. The salad was pretty good.

My Salad and the confusing test tube of dressing.