Day 3 (I think)

Monday. Blue skies again. This is tough. Met Sylv at Rendl, just after ten. Rendl’s on the other side of the valley to St. Anton proper, and this is the first time I’ve actually seen it properly – all the other times have been in ‘Use the force, Nick. Let go…’ zero visibility conditions. Since all the stuff off the side of the pistes was tracked out and churned, we decided on a ‘switch’ day, so spent most of the morning practicing riding backwards. This was a bit of a… well, I had to get my head around it, since to the inexpert observer, when you’re riding backwards, it looks for all the world like you’re riding forwards, only very badly. Resisting the urge to shout at everyone I passed, ‘Look, I’m practicing riding backwards; I’m NOT a beginner!’, I actually made a lot of progress, and I’m fairly comfortable now. At one point, I stacked it, and as I spun round on my back, I was just in time to see Sylv stacking it at exactly the same time. Sylv took a couple of nasty tumbles over the course of the day, including one whilst getting off a chairlift. She thinks her board’s the problem. Having said that, she hadn’t really stacked it until I arrived, whereupon she’s been doing it regularly. I have a theory that it’s to do with my hat: that wearing it means that Sylv takes all the crashes that are intended for me. Anyway, she quit after lunch to head off to work. She’s been working at ‘Snow Control’, learning to service boards, since she walked in there and offered her services free of charge. Apparently, all the staff are young and ‘super hot’…

Sylv: ‘Yeah, they have that line down to the side, between the abs and groin…’
Me: ‘Oh, um, a love-handle?’
Sylv: ‘Noooo.’
Me: (sheepishly pulling my t-shirt down) ‘Oh, right.’

We’re just working out the legal ramifications before she gets busy (apparently, the term for an older woman who preys on younger boys in a ski resort is a ‘Snow Cougar’). Poor kids…

So, I’m now sat at Sylv’s, typing away, while she cooks some chicken-‘egg-plant’-chilli thing. She has wireless broadband here, too (or somebody in the building does), which is why I’m shoving these up where folk can see ‘em. We’re also discussing doing some snow-shoeing and boarding between huts at some point.