Wow – Val d’Isere is beautiful…surrounded by Alps. We are actually skiing on one of the *most famous* mountain climbs of the Tour de France (the Col de l’Iseran), even on the road they ride on (see it on the right?)! Hard to know what photos to even highlight here, and we have been skiing here only one day of 6.

It was a difficult day for me – such an occasional skier…the snow is beautiful, a little heavy, and about 12″ deep. It has been years since I have skied this type of snow, and my mates here took me down a Red, which is like our advanced Blue, on our second run! Heavy snow, steep for me, and *lots* of moguls. **NOTE**: Jim, who has been getting ski coaching from Irena for FOUR years (or more), and even just skiing a LOT more than me, told me after we were done this afternoon that two years ago, he probably wouldn’t have done it!! And this my first run, after skiing only WV GREENS two weeks ago, and NO SKIING for two years prior to that!! Irena’s skiing is beautiful, as always (here she is on the left in the powder), and Jim’s is great now too – I have a great short movie of him in the powder.

Anyway :), I still had a great day, but boyoboyoboy am I beat. On the drive up here yesterday we passed resort after resort after resort, and may actually go to the one just south of us, included in our passes, tomorrow. It snowed all night last night, and a good part of today in between patches of beautiful blue sky, and has been snowing steadily since about 4:30 (now 9pm)…so we are in for LOTS of snow tomorrow. My legs will be in great shape for cycling.

More news and great photos here later this week!