Hybrid Skibiking Day 2 - Pegging Away
Posted: Thursday 7 April 2011 by Mark Kinnon in Labels: Firem VS, France, SkiBike
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I managed to find a couple of independant hire shops in Tignes le Lac keen to see the Firem VS. So with appointments arranged for 10am it gave me the added incentive to drag myself out of bed and get showered, shaved, breakfasted and into the gondola by 9am.
The shops were interested but decidedly non-commital, skibikes have never been big in France since they were banned in the 70's after a bad accident and there just isn't the perception that it is possible. SnowScoots seem to be leading the way, even then you see many more outside hire shops looking forelorn than on or off the pistes.
The one upside is that people think I am amazing skillful to be able to ride my skibike, not knowing how easy it really is.
Appointments over, I decided to head high and find the best snow, this took a while and only around 2 did I find the best snow above Val Claret on the excellent "double M" run. I was really getting into the swing of it until I realised that it was long gone 3pm and just how many interconnections there were to get back before the lifts closed.
I am really feeling much more at home on my ride. I have adopted the linked turns approach which makes progress very slow but feels great and must look good. Perhaps tomorrow I can work out how to get the rear ski to skid sideways. Meanwhile I have been shamelessly putting in my moves under the chairlift whenever possible. I feel I am going very slowly though, probably no more than 10-15 mph as there are monster piles of mashed potato to plough through from lunchtime onwards. This is much slower than I would on my own machine, but I have seen too many people hurting themselves in the porridge like spring snow and get no pleasure from being out of control.
Oddly, I currently can't feel the tip of my little finger on my left hand (trapped nerve?) and the muscles on the underside of my right forearm about an inch up from the wrist ache quite badly (no jokes about....er....writers cramp!).
The shops were interested but decidedly non-commital, skibikes have never been big in France since they were banned in the 70's after a bad accident and there just isn't the perception that it is possible. SnowScoots seem to be leading the way, even then you see many more outside hire shops looking forelorn than on or off the pistes.
The one upside is that people think I am amazing skillful to be able to ride my skibike, not knowing how easy it really is.
Appointments over, I decided to head high and find the best snow, this took a while and only around 2 did I find the best snow above Val Claret on the excellent "double M" run. I was really getting into the swing of it until I realised that it was long gone 3pm and just how many interconnections there were to get back before the lifts closed.
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| Tignes......Um, is this a God dam? |
I am really feeling much more at home on my ride. I have adopted the linked turns approach which makes progress very slow but feels great and must look good. Perhaps tomorrow I can work out how to get the rear ski to skid sideways. Meanwhile I have been shamelessly putting in my moves under the chairlift whenever possible. I feel I am going very slowly though, probably no more than 10-15 mph as there are monster piles of mashed potato to plough through from lunchtime onwards. This is much slower than I would on my own machine, but I have seen too many people hurting themselves in the porridge like spring snow and get no pleasure from being out of control.
Oddly, I currently can't feel the tip of my little finger on my left hand (trapped nerve?) and the muscles on the underside of my right forearm about an inch up from the wrist ache quite badly (no jokes about....er....writers cramp!).