Goulaszes On Tour: February 2007

The Thursday night prior, while having Long Beach Iced Teas after an epic day skiing on the other side of Les Brevieres, our cocky young Suisse mate Alex (who was raised on a pair of skis), in his strong Germanic accent declared that I was the ‘Old Man in the Powder’! Although initially my ego took a bit of a hit (I tend to rate my own ski ability :)) Alex tried to placate me by saying he’d never skied with an Australian who was as good as me in fresh powder. Ego restored, although I am now officially referred to as “Old Man” :) I think Nic managed to have a pretty good time too, despite being a bit reluctant to venture off the Piste at first!

He took the following shots from the day…

The Eye - a rock formation in Tignes.

“The Old Man” dropping in ...

Putting in a few turns – not bad for an old guy like myself

"The Old Lady” having a go at her first fresh tracks!

Anyway, as it turns out the last week we found that there exists a European tradition of dressing up in order to ward off the winter and bring on the spring. Now given that we’ve only had a handful of the preceding powder days and want plenty more you would think that we wouldn’t be so keen on ending our season, but as our French mates invited us to ‘make a party’ with them, we figured this was the right thing to do. As soon as we arrived at their place we were clothed with whatever sort of old junk that we could find in the basement of the hotel and were off to cause some sort of havoc in a multitude of English pubs!! We took our camera out on this occasion and here’s the result! Enjoy ….

I’m sporting a very trendy teddy bear outfit.

Thibaut, Guillaime and David are in some crazy attire.

The ‘atypical Spaniard’ Xavier getting into the spirit.

Thibaut, the Pirate and me sharing a laugh.

Magalie, with the professional table tennis outfit sporting ‘le bit’ (dick en Francais) of David by Michael Angelo, and me playing pool at Bar l’Alexandra.

Nic in a crazy safari hat and Mr Loiseax the monkey on her back with Guillaime in his Saturday Night Fever get up.

Nic and I after a couple too many bevies.

Nic and the gang motoring to the sounds of a British cover band.

You need to get stuck into the Grand Marnier crepes....

....and the Chevallot patisserie to get over the hangover after a party like that.

Ali, in the Wallabies jersey and Phil rocking out on Australia Day at Bar Alex.

It’s been a while since the last blogsite update, but no excuses really, aside from doing too much skiing :) Today, the weather has closed in (hallelujah) and it’s looking really uninviting outside so I thought I’d take some time out to give you an insight into “A Day in the Life of a Goulasz”

As the weeks pass by I find we generally do about 28 hours of work, 28 hours of skiing and about 28 hours of socialising. Perfect life balance really and one we are very content with! :))Weekends involve working most of those 28 hours, so here’s a rundown of midweek life for the Goulaszes.

8am:

Alarm goes off in studio and the first thing we do is open the curtains to have a look at the weather, study the clouds, read the temperature guage – all facts important for the days skiing!

8:30am

A day in the life of a Goulasz could not begin without the all important cup of Lavazza!! Followed by a nice hearty breakfast –it’s cold outside and we seem to be expending a lot of energy.

9:30am

Run downstairs to work. It’s literally a ride in the lift to both of our shops so we usually leave it right up until the last moment!

11am

Konrad’s boss often declares (if it’s a nice day, as the locals really are fair weather skiiers) that they ought to go skiing! So the lucky bastard puts his skis on and heads off for an hour or so with Daniel or Dimas. The type of ski they are in for depends entirely on the weather and snow conditions. It could be a beer run - which involves 3 runs and 3 beers at 3 mountain establishments - or a serious search of fresh tracks in the powder.

12:30pm

Nic closes up the shop for lunch (the French do it the right way here and shut for 2.5 hours over lunch). Konrad whizzes home with Daniel and we rush upstairs to eat a quick sandwich before heading out again to put in an afternoon of turns.

1.00pm

Board the Funicular or the Gondola located about 150m from our building and head up the mountain for an afternoon of skiing.

4.00pm

Decide it’s time for a bit of Apres and head to one of the mountain bars to catch the last rays of sun for the afternoon and a quick beverage (vin chaud or liqueur hot chocolate) before tackling the most challenging run of the day back into Val (it’s always a bit of a shocker, heavy traffic, chopped up snow, narrow, steep etc)

5:00pm

A good afternoon on the mountain must end with a ski straight to the Grand Marnier Bar for the best crepes you have ever tasted, doused in Grand Marnier and the best value Vin Chaud in town, of course topped up with a generous shot of Grand Marnier. Just what you need after an afternoon of skiing!

6.00pm

Filled with Grand Marnier goodness, we stumble back home for some dinner. Hey this town is expensive and we really can’t afford to eat out very often, plus its time to refuel the body with some of my home cooking!

8.00pm

Head to our favourite spot at Bar Alexandre for one or two quiet ones and a chat with whoever may be there that evening. If all else fails we can chat with our favourite barman, Kiwi Phil.

11.00pm

Make our way back to La Daille and go to bed – it’s been a long, hard day and we need our nine hours sleep! But we’re ready to do it all over again tomorrow!! :))

The above of course refers to the afternoon of skiing. The other day involves, waking up, going for a ski and then coming to work the afternoon shift from 3.00 – 7:30pm. Just as good but without the après! And then of course, there are the days off, which just involve waking up, going skiing all day and then doing Apres – even better!!

Looking down "Le Face De Bellevard" - the steepest run in Val d'Isere!