I’m standing on the slope, with my cheek against an icy wall. “So this is black”, I say to myself, while I do my utmost to tilt the skies to prevent me going down with a horrible scream and my lifeless body will be found somewhere in the mountains of Ls Deux Alpes. Even though I have the same body as Italian skigod Alberto Tomba la Bomba, I’m not a hero, and also no speed demon. For me skiing is something new and I find it especially fun to go in full control as possible downhill through a snowy landscape with beautiful views of the French Alps surrounded by a wonderful silence. My Sweetheart Jo is already below uttering a joyful cry; she skied down with a smile. I’m not the only one who hangs cramped against a mountain; our daughter Juul is three meters below me, also against the wall and frozen with terror. “It is quite steep here, Mom!” she screams. “Oh, just make a quick turn and than hiphip, chinchin, come down’, Jo shouts cheerfully back from the valley.
My thighs quiver and I slip a little bit way. I look down and see that Juul has rotated and descents without problems. Now it’s my turn. If you stood two minutes still with stiff upperleg muscles, it is quite difficult to smoothly turn. But we have to, so there we go! My upper body leans dangerously towards the valley as my skis make a curve and I zip down three meters further. Quickly another curve to the right and another four meters down. So I finally make a cool stop: “Ahem, that was not easy” I say exhausted. Jo laughs and says: “No, that slope was actually dark black, but now we have earned a beer.”
Such logix makes sense, so we speed over the red piste, which suddenly appears to be blue. In five minutes we sit with a cold beer in the sun. Mwaaah, that feeling, that discharge, the muscle pain and the fact that you beaten yourself and the mountain is that feeling why you go skiing. For those who live on the Côte d’Azur, you can experience this every day until the end of April. Auron, Valberg and Isola 2000 are 1.5 hours drive from the French Riviera and less expensive and less crowded than the slopes in Austria. Have fun up there!
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