the Hughes': 2011

Adam and I are decent skiers. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being someone who could be dropped from a helicopter, land, and continue skiing down an 89 degree incline), I would say we're both about a 5. Maybe even a 4. Or a 2. Adam might say he's a 9.7 though.

Keepin' it real: We're nowhere near helicopter status.

Our skills to date are:

knowing how to put our skis on
knowing how to adjust the bindings (and what the numbers mean). Thanks Youtube.
standing up in our skis (some people find this challenging)
carving (going from side to side to prevent death speeds)
coming to an immediate stop and spraying snow
knowing when falling down is the best option
knowing how to approach a variety of ski lifts without being injured. I never knew there were so many different types.
green, blue, and maybe some red slopes (The rating system seems to be different here because I remember going down 'blacks' at home. Mmmmm... blacks here are a little different.)

Alps slope rating system (according to us):

Green: easy
Blue: difficult in some areas
Red: Intensive Care Unit and possible medical rescue (wearing a diaper is mandatory)
Black: you die

If Adam were writing this post, he would say that I have a tendency to get out of control (or Evil Kenevilish) out there. He's not writing this though. A couple years ago, in Flagstaff, I was going too fast, fell, and came close to a tree. That's what he's basing his opinion off of. Nothing crazy. I knew I wasn't going to hit it.

When we moved in March, we kind of missed ski season entirely. Apparently it was a really short season because the snow started melting sooner than usual. So, we've had to wait 9 months for the Alps. We bought our own ski gear because we anticipate several trips this Winter and next. It was totally worth it. Now we don't have to rent crappy skis and wait in line. We can just go.

Since we will be gone for a couple of weeks during Christmas (going home), we decided to try and get at least one trip in. The majority of big ski resorts/slopes don't open until the 17th, but we heard a few were. Avoriaz, France was one of them. We did some research and found out it was opening day, most of their lifts were open, it was only an hour and a half away, and it was cheap! Woohoo!

Here's our day in pictures:

On the way!

Almost there! The little blue Wildcat mobile made it!!!

Here's where we were. Just inside France, next to the Swiss border. Our ski passes worked for the purple part (Avoriaz: "ah-voor-hack-ee-ay"). You can get one that allows you to go all over, but we didn't expect to be doing 650 km of skiing (that's how much there is).

A little bit more zoomed in. As you can see, there are several blue slopes (Easy according to Swiss/French ski standards) and some red and black. Red means ICU. Black means you die. We stayed away since we hadn't been in a couple years.

Yellow dots are the lifts we took. Orange dots are the slopes we went down (went on most of them twice).

The little personal lift. Put the pole between your legs and ski uphill. Harder than it seems.

Little cloudy.

Teasing us. Get outta the way clouds!!! We can't wait for our first ski trip with the full panoramic view of the Alps.

Going up. And up. And up.

The little town of Avoriaz.

We have helmets on for good reason. Cliffs, rocks, and crazy snowboarders/skiers flying down the hill... and because of our own skiing ability.

This picture looks fake to me... it's not.

Taking a break at the little cabin on the mountain. Vin chaud (hot wine) and a Nutella crepe. Yum.

Finally, some blue skies!

Adam getting artistic with the camera.

Whoa. So pretty.

Seeing signs like this were encouraging:

And now. A video.

He did actually do a 360 in that last part. I thought I got it. Nope.

The sheer talent that we have in filming is just amazing. This has got to be the highest quality and most exciting ski video on the market. You're welcome. I hope you didn't get motion sickness watching it.