Ski, work, climb, eat, sleep, REPEAT!

Check out the sweet new banner picture above! "La joie de la vie est autour de nous" simply translates to The joy of life is around us. This specific day, it was snowing all day in the valley, and most of the mountain was socked it. I had to stay in town for a job interview, but my roommates Jon and Tracey went up Aiguille Rouge (highest point in Les Arcs) and punched through the clouds and got this shot, simply amazing!

Since my last post, it has just been alot of riding and searching for work. We have had a couple good storms and done quite a bit of exploring the mountains. There are so many amazing routes surrounding us it is hard to imagine traveling to other resorts to 'look for other stuff'. Check out these couple of pics:

Enjoying the vastness

Me with a hand-drag turn

La face nord du Bellecote, un jour magique!

Jarrad pow turn, nearly a week after the storm

These farming huts in the backcountry are truly amazing

Respecting nature

Me dropping in a few days after the storm

Skinning for the goods (note how perfectly Mont Blanc snuck in the upper left corner of the pic...)

Les temps est toujours beau sous le soleil

Roommate Sarah stoked on her first proper deep pow day!

Me, Sarah, and Paula under Mont Pourri

Bourg St Maurice

This is where I try to end up everynight... some pics of the town.

Main Street Bourg after a snowfall

Me and Jarrad waxing ski's in the abondance of space in my flat

Looking east from Bourg, notice the snow covered ridge on the left, that is La Roseire ski area, the other side of the mountain is Italy, to give you an idea how close I am to the land of pizza and pasta...

Its cool living in the alps, but not getting raped on everyday things. Bourg has all bigger city amenities which keeps food costs down among other things.

Looking west, that is the ski area of La Plagne. On my pass, I can ski beyond the mountains you see here, to give you a size of how huge the domain is, add another mountain to the left out of picture is where Les Arcs is, the two are connected.

WORK

Searching for work has been a roller coaster ride, and I have some amusing and frustrating stories ranging from dead end leads, to Portuguese illegals thinking I was going to hire THEM, instead of vice-a-versa. But all the waiting has paid off: I have a child care type job(nanny is the term!), but for example my first job next week is to pic 4 kids up from their parents in the morning, take them to ski school and drop them off, pick them up at lunch and get food, and then meet their parents. I am free to ski in between and after which is rad, and am getting paid happily well and all in COLD HARD CASH. I am officially an illegally working immigrant en FRANCE, and it feels great!

Free time

I could write too much here, but I will try to keep it simple. Having no school, no job, no obligations, and no plans is definitely amazing, but I have a new respect of being bored. It is a downright difficult task to find things to do and to keep yourself happy. Yes of course, I have been skiing everyday, working on my snowboarding, and now taking on TELEMARKING (freeheel alpine skiing, not to be confused with TelemarkETING). But these snow activities last until around 3pm latest, then comes the evenings...

For these evenings, my climbing wall mission has been accomplished, and the wall is amazing. We can climb Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights, as well as Sat-Sun from 2pm-9pm. This has been a great nighttime occupier for me and my Australian friend Jarrad. Some of you may wonder, why not hit the pub at night? Well as beers are still ~$6, going out has only occurred ONCE.

This week reality hit though, as the gym is closed for 10 days and I almost went into shock at how I would spend my time. Luckily enough for me, my roommate Sarah's family came into town and I have been ski instructing to make some extra $.

Anyways, my point of this rant, is that I am soooo thankful I found work. Even though it could potentially be horrible and long, it will give me something to do, and make me appreciate my free time when I have it. Oh, and the money will be nice as well...!

Bouldering room, awesome!

The climbing walls, looking down to the bouldering wall.

In the near future

Glacier du gaey via Col des Roches

More on this later, but it is going to be a blast!

La Route

Practicing crevase rescue techniques at the wall...Jarrad teaching me how to climb vertically up a rope, using rope.

I am as high as a kite, on life

Watching ski movies growing up 100s of times, and falling in love with skiing, it is humbling to be standing on top of lines that push adrenaline through my blood in a matter of seconds. It sounds cliche, but sometimes I do feel like I have cheated death, even when minimal risk is involved. These mountains are intense, and I do feel as though I am a guest in this environment. I try to read what the mountains are saying when I am in them, because if you don't give them the respect they deserve, they have more than enough power to play their wrath on you...

It blows my mind: waking up here in the valley, drinking a cup of tea, and then in a matter of less than an hour and 4 lift rides, I am on the top of an 11,000ft mountain getting off the tram. Exit said tram, turn right, walk 10 FEET, read a sign in french that basically says you have high chances at death by crossing the rope, pass by said rope, traverse another 20 FEET, and you are at your entrance into Valdez Couloir with 2500ft of crisp pow below your ski tips. You might as well have been dropped off by a heli. Check your gear, check your line, check your partners, and voila, it has been less than an hour from that cup of tea and you are etching your signature into the mountain, reaffirming your love/pure obsession at the art of sliding down a sweet velvetly canvas of fresh snow, layed down by gods hands himself.

Standing at the top, nervous, maybe?

Valdez couloir, spot the other tracks?

The only reason I put this pic in is because this is a Les Arcs Ski Patroler at the top of the tram. To give you an idea of France's lax ski area border policy: We walked up, blabbed in French for a few minutes and he took note of us turning on our beacons and gearing up. More words were exchanged for route selection, and the end of the conversation was basically him telling us how bumbed he was that he couldn't come with. We proceeded out of the resort into national park land without any guides or permits. Gotta love the french and their free exploration standpoints. Albeit does cost the lives of the less informed, it is nice to be expected to take responsibility for your own actions and not expect to be able to sue someone if all goes bad.

Absolutely indescribable

Pow day drop

The skin out








Does it get more Alpes Postcard than this?

I feel like more people are thinking I am crazy at what I am choosing to do, whether it is moving to a foreign country, skiing in these big mountains, skydiving, climbing, mountaineering, para-gliding, or hitch-hiking... but I couldn't feel more normal with all these things. I feel like I minimize all of my risks, and during the times I am doing these things, I (for the most part) feel completely safe, and as if any normal person could do these things.

It is a funny thought to think I am a bit crazy, but I am coming to terms with it... Why wouldn't 90% of my friends want to pack up, move across the world, ski on avalanche prone slopes, jump out of planes, float thousands of feet in the air, and dangle on the cliffs of the alps via a 10.1mm rope?

Aspire to do something you have always wanted to do. So many people dream up dreams, but never really open themselves up for success or failure. In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.

A beer tastes AMAZING after a long day on the mountain~

CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRSSSSSSSS DE FRANCE!

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