Intermediate standard...maybe

After attempting to fit in with the locals with ten days of facial hair growth, my beard is patchy and scruffy and it’s time to shave (I’m beginning to look like an adolescent Mr Twit). Clean-shaven I head out for another lesson, this time in the intermediate class, instructed by Rachel.

We start with a warm up on a green run so Rachel can assess our standards (I’ve found that I’m rubbish until about the third run of the morning). Satisfied that I’m of intermediate ability she then takes us down some steeper blue runs, followed by a small mogul run. My somewhat unorthodox approach traversing the moguls leads Rachel to question her decision to qualify me to the intermediate class. But once clear of the bumps I alleviate Rachel's fears with some slightly more confident turns.

During the afternoon a ski instructor asks me to ride the chairlift with one of their 5 year old students, Martin (clearly she hadn't witnessed my ineptitude). Whilst on the chairlift Martin ignores my pearls of wisdom on the art of dismounting safely and instead entertains himself by scraping snow off the top of my snowboard. Until I notice that this is scratching up my new board, so I push Martin off the chairlift. (Just joking...With assistance from me, Martin dismounts the chairlift fine)

Now that the thanksgiving holidays have passed the mountain is far less congested, making riding a little less stressful. All we need now is a snow dump...