Medics Ski Trip 2009!!!

On the second or third day of my trip while chilling out in my apartment with my friends I suddenly had an overwhelming sense of deja-vu, which must had been a dream I had a few years back. It was a weird dream of living together with 7 other crazy second year medics whom I’ve not known before up on the mountains in France. How impossible is that? - I never thought it would ever happen in this real life. But this was what exactly happened during the 9 days ski trip.

Start from the beginning.

Day 0

Had Paeds, Obs+Gynae OSCEs for the last two days, still trying to normalize my life. Went to hire a ski jacket and sallopette, and bought socks, gloves and food supply for the week.

Day 1

Good Friday. I packed light, and turned up at the meeting point. Got our trip hoodies, T-shirt and hat – I loved them! Coach was late and we were left soaking in the rain. I did not booked the holiday with anyone in particular but knew a few people. They were with their gangs of friends. I started introducing myself to new people and chatted away.

Started the 24 hours coach journey. Sat beside me was a fourth year medic from Preston. Made our way to Dover, across the English Channel then to Calais.

Day 2

Stopped by a few service stations and a supermarche in France. Gauged my proficiency in French = beginner level at best. In the order from best to worst: Reading > Writing > Speaking > Listening.

Finally reached Tignes, part of the French Alps. Stayed in an apartment of 8 people (4 girls and 4 boys), all of the others being second year medics. They are really nice people. They drank a lot and made lots of mess, but would always clean up at some point. The boys especially were quite domesticated.

Got my skis, ski boots and poles; lift pass, insurance card. The night ended with a pajamas socials in a pub.

Day 3

First ski lesson. I was rubbish. Can’t even manage to stand on a slope, let alone walk or ski. The group was quite big, with about 25 people. We had to take turn to ski down a baby slope. The instructors were funny. But I genuinely thought I was so bad at it and was half contemplating not to attend lesson the next day.

In the afternoon, I went to La Rosset with some intermediate skiers. I didn’t want to go up the slope at first because it looked scary. I practiced snowplough at the bottom of the slope instead. After about an hour I was really bored and went on the chairlift. Looking down the slope, I so scared that my legs were shivering and I was hyperventilating. I started skiing down, lost control and fell. I didn’t mind falling; falling on the snow was actually quite nice. It was the awkward position of my landing, having to stand up steadily on a slope and sometimes reaching for my poles which has flung several meters away which frustrated me. So I skied, fell and got up about 5 times on that slope, and at the end of the slope I was able to sort of control my ski. I was rather pleased with myself but I wasn’t going up that slope again, not today at least.

Only after I went back home that I discovered that it was a blue slope!
(nb: Green slope = beginner, Blue = Moderate, Red = Difficult, Black = Very difficult)

One of my flatmate Stuart injured his left shoulder badly and had to go back to England for surgery. What a shame… I felt that I must be more cautious not to let accident happen especially since I was a beginner.

Day 4

Got a new instructor, her name is Nadine I think. We went back to the baby slope were we learned to snowplough yesterday. I was still falling over, but began to get the hang of it by the end of the lesson.

Did not ski this afternoon as my face was burning. It was hot, painful and there were even blisters coming out of my cheeks. I just took the free bus and roam around the resort.

Day 5

The morning did not start well for me. I kept on falling even on flat surface as it was so icy. The snowplough I learnt on the previous days didn’t work. I fell getting off the chairlift and couldn’t get up. I must have fallen about 10 times in the first hour of the lesson. However, once we have started on the new beginner slope Le Lavachet, skiing started to become enjoyable and fun. We followed Nadine in a trail spiraling around the slope. After about three runs, Nadine brought us to another run Bollin. I overheard her saying something like ‘I think we can do it…’. Didn’t think much about it and just trailed behind her down the slope. A few girls proclaimed excitedly ‘Can’t believe we just skied down a blue slope without falling!’ – REALLY? I shared their excitement.

In the afternoon, I just practiced on Lavachet a couple more times with Karlie, my flatmate who is also a beginner, before going to try Bollin again. I think due to the fact that I now realized that it is actually a blue run and also because it was the end of the day and the slope was getting really bumpy, I fell down twice (whereas I did not fall at all the previous time). While sat on the slope, one of the passing ski instructors in her red suit asked ‘Ca va?’ to which I replied ‘Ca va bien merci’. I know this is stupid but I was really thrilled that I had this very brief conversation in French… (I’m so stupid I know…)

Tonight’s social theme is neon rave. I wore a bright pink-red top. I witnessed a lethal drinking games created by the second year medics called the ‘Ring of Tignes’. The game basically involves each player drawing a poker card in turn. Every card is attached to a ‘rule’. For example Queen = everyone goes out of the room, 3 = Bitch card, King = Make a new rule etc; with players having to ‘consume’ his or her drinks every time a rule is broken. So glad I was given a choice to opt out. It was indeed rather funny to watch. Several people had to shout ‘YOU MAY TAKE OUR LAND, BUT YOU WILL NEVER TAKE OUR FREEDOM!’ at the balcony in various accents, Mikey had to lick Owen’s nipple each time a player swears (Yucks), and Helen who was ‘the bitch’ for most of the night had to sniff some boys’ underpants (Super-yucks).

Day 6

We warmed up by doing three runs on the green part of Bollin. Nadine made us to tricks like skiing on one leg, jumping and touching our toes while going down the slope, which was really fun. Then when the ground was not too icy, we did a couple of runs on the blue parts of Bollin. I did not fall at all!

In the afternoon, I revisited La Rosset with Karlie. We both loved the slope. I saw the slope so differently compared my first day on the skis – it was now wide, not-congested and easy. We tackled the slope easily and practiced on it numerous times.

After that Karlie had to go back. It was only 3:30 pm and I was tempted to venture on a new slope called Freese. I misread the map and thought it was a green slope. It was a long ride on the chair lift and when I glimpsed at the slope, I was nearly shitting my pants that I wanted to U-turn and go back on the chairlift. I had never been on such a long way off the starting point before, it was bringing me across to another mountain and where it was much more deserted and temperature was much cooler; it was even snowing a little. I finally braced myself to start skiing. I was constantly concentrating to ‘Take it slow – Snowplough – BIG SNOWPLOUGH – Bend your knees’. It turned out to be blue run all the way, some tricky steep parts and with it being at the evening most parts were quite bumpy. It was at least 5 times longer than any of the runs I had ever done by then. My legs were so tired after every stretch of slope and I was sweating so much out of fear I had to stop and rest. Finally, I managed the whole run in 45 minutes and only fell twice. I was quite proud of myself. However I was not longing to return to the same slope in a hurry.

Day 7

Nadine must have read my mind, she decided that we will do Fresse for today’s lesson. On the chair lift, I was thinking back on yesterday and how much I will dread this run, then I began to realize that today will be much worse. It was snowing much more heavily than yesterday, wind was stronger and temperature was much lower. We were initially moaning on the chairlift but after a point the wind and snow was hitting us so hard and painfully on our faces that we went completely silent. Visibility was poor. I only had a pair of sunglasses on, no goggles – honestly when we started skiing I could only see Nadine’s Ecole du Ski Francais red suit and jackets in other colours trailing behind her. A few people fell at the beginning. But once we got into the rhythm, we just carry on skiing and before we know it, we have finished and went up the same chairlift again to repeat the similar run. This time people were saying that this was an easy run. I’m glad that she insisted that we do it even in this extreme weather.

My other housemates and I came back for lunch early today because the weather was getting worse. Even the best skiers in the house said no one should be skiing in this weather and most chairlifts were closed, we stayed in and amused ourselves by laughing at the stupid birds caught in the blizzards. But I really wanted to ski today. So when the storm settled a little, I went out to ski again. With the uncertain weather, I just skied on the slopes I was comfortable with.

Tonight’s social theme is Scrubs, and I saw another round of the ‘Ring of Tignes’ game. The game escalated. They drank much more. Two boys had one of their eye brows completely shaved. One girl flashed her breast and two boys flashed their penis at the balcony.

Day 8

Today has to be the climax of the week skiing wise. Only 3 out of the 14 people turned up for lesson, mainly due to excessive consumption of alcohol on the night before. I was with Laura, a 15 year old girl and Tom, a father of two. Nadine brought us to some amazing slopes that we have not been before. We took 6 different chairlifts (and hence made full use of the expensive lift pass included in the package which I paid for), skied on 7 slopes across 3 mountains. All the conditions were ideal. It was snowing just a little with some gentle sunshine, snow was slightly powdery but without the bumps. We were able to ski quietly with not many people on the slopes zooming pass us. The views were breathtaking and we could sometimes see clouds beneath us. We also learnt to parallel turn today, which is a more advance ski skill to snowploughing. Due to the fact that they are blue slopes and that we were only starting to parallel turn, it was slightly challenging as we needed to concentrate, but still did not stop us from totally enjoying ourselves. I also picked up lots of speed today. Because there were only three of us we get personal feedback, and didn’t have to wait for other people too often. It was a perfect day. Not realizing that it was my last day, at the end of the lesson Nadine said ‘I’ll see you tomorrow?’, and reluctantly I answered ‘I’m going home today’. She’s been amazing, I’m not sure if I would have enjoyed this trip as much without her as my ski teacher. We bid farewell to each other.

I spent the rest of the day doing more blue slopes before returning my ski equipments in the evening. After that I went back to pack and tidy up the apartment.

Coach was late again and this time we waited in the snow. Started the 24 hour return journey. Didn’t sleep well at all during the journey eventhough I was occupying two seats. My seat partner injured her knee during the week and had to fly home early.

Day 9

Watched DVD Troy on the way and learnt about Achilles. Arrived at Manchester safe and sound, feeling wanting to carry on skiing for another week.


PS One take home message for me: Falling down, learning to get up and getting out of my comfort zone is essential to progressing to the next level.


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