14/04/09 (Jamie) So while Pally was swanning off around the European Alps, working on his tan and witnessing some sick freestyle from Europe’s finest, I decided to head over to France to catch up with a few old friends, Mike Nixon (Osteopath to the stars, and soon to be health adviser on skiunion), and Doug Outram (Geography teacher, annoyingly good poker player, and psycho skier). On our first day, and after losing considerable amounts of cash at cards the night before, I happened to cruise past the Meribel Moon park, and was greeted with the site of some of the sickest kickers I’ve seen all season. Having had words with the shaper, it became apparent that these were for a magazine photoshoot only, and we would not be getting a chance to ride them until later in the week. I quickly rang up french rider Pg Conrady, and his partner in crime Benj, and put them on standby for a kicker session. As it turned out we never did get a chance to ride these behemoths as the weather and wind turned against us, but I got some shots, and it isn’t hard to imagine me spinning a switch misty 10 over the tables (or at least it isn’t hard for me).

So over the next couple of days, we cruised around in the slush looking for something to inspire us. Eventually we decided we needed to get off the beaten track and hit one last proper run before heading back to the UK. So Mike eyed up the biggest mountain he could find without a ski lift on it, and chose a line down the middle of it. The fact that we were going to have to climb up the chosen chute before riding down, didn’t seem to bother Mike, and it looked like we were going to die, or die trying!

As it turned out the hike up the Aiguille du Fruit wasn’t actually as bad as it looked, and the fact that the snow was sun baked, meant it was pretty much like walking up a piste. Of course this also meant that coming down it was pretty much like skiing down a piste. We had at least made the most of our last week, in spite of the conditions.

So now I’m back in England, waiting for my next snowfix. Pally has told me Nine Knights is looking pretty sick, so keep an eye out for his update.