I awoke to feel the onset of a pretty bad cold, for which it seems I have Chris Douglas to thank. I have considered the many many ways to murder or maim him for this but I am open to suggestions. I will endeavour to ensure everyone else catches it, I am not one to suffer alone.
We met up with every one at 0930 in our ski locker room, except Lord Russell Chandler who would meet us at the lifts from the 5* Palace he was staying at. Of course a 0930 meet actually means 1030 give or take, and we didn't find Stubby and Jane until the late afternoon. 500 meters from our apartment Phil announced he had made a mistake not accepting poles from the rental store and headed off to get them, (almost) never to be seen again.
We had agreed to stay together and assess everyones abilitys on the first day, and although we were already missing several we did keep to it, sort of. Kate quickly found herself unable to maintain a steady pace and Bluntly opted to stay with her to help. We had only managed a couple of runs and not too many stacks (falls) before Russell, Vicky and Gaz opted to head for the lifts ahead of everyone else as they were slower and wanted the headstart and Russell wanted to meet Stacy prior to her embarking on her ski school.
We had not covered much distance before we came across a broken Gaz sitting in the middle of the slope with Vicky (Russell was a little lower and couldn't get back up to them). Gaz had taken a slow but hard tumble and was convinced he had broken his collar bone, with much coaxing and only a limited amount of cruelty he pronounced himself fit enough to ski down without the need to get airlifted or carried down the mountain. Vicky volenteered to take him to the hospital and we continued on. It appears (see below X-ray) that Gaz is indeed severely broken, he has managed to break his collar bone in two places and due to one piece 'floating' it cannot be set and will need to be operated upon in the UK. He is in reasonablly high spirits still, but mostly attributing that to the morphine they gave him. They have said the operation is not urgent but he is now wearing a sling that holds the bones apart to prevent them rubbing (excruciatingly painful he assures me) and to prevent them incorrectly healing.
For those of us that continued the day was quite uneventful, we stopped at a very ordinary overpriced mountainside cafe for lunch.
Not long after lunch Bridie and Scott opted to go in due to tiredness and loss of pace - they feared they were holding us up. We did a few more runs, aquired a Bluntly and Stubby (their respective girlfriends had thrown in the towel for the day) and stopped for a social Crepe at the same cafe. I had completely lost track of the time and was surprised to find the lifts closing, its not often I am still able to stand by the end of a ski day as I am normaly the first to quit.
A nice dinner in our apartment later and the others (including Gaz) have opted to go out for a few drinks. I am far to antisocial to keep up with them so I have opted for bed.
On another note however, it is now readily apparent that both bathroom extractor fans are at best not working, at worst making a bad situation worse. When you have a shower the steam is such you cant find your towels and everything is dripping wet (including the electric heater and plug socket handily located in the bathroom. When you do a "big job" in the loo the aura pretty much never dissipates unless you leave the door open... in a small apartment.
On the plus side I have fixed the shower:
On the down side it sometimes spays the other side of the curtain, making the small bathroom very wet.
We met up with every one at 0930 in our ski locker room, except Lord Russell Chandler who would meet us at the lifts from the 5* Palace he was staying at. Of course a 0930 meet actually means 1030 give or take, and we didn't find Stubby and Jane until the late afternoon. 500 meters from our apartment Phil announced he had made a mistake not accepting poles from the rental store and headed off to get them, (almost) never to be seen again.
We had agreed to stay together and assess everyones abilitys on the first day, and although we were already missing several we did keep to it, sort of. Kate quickly found herself unable to maintain a steady pace and Bluntly opted to stay with her to help. We had only managed a couple of runs and not too many stacks (falls) before Russell, Vicky and Gaz opted to head for the lifts ahead of everyone else as they were slower and wanted the headstart and Russell wanted to meet Stacy prior to her embarking on her ski school.
We had not covered much distance before we came across a broken Gaz sitting in the middle of the slope with Vicky (Russell was a little lower and couldn't get back up to them). Gaz had taken a slow but hard tumble and was convinced he had broken his collar bone, with much coaxing and only a limited amount of cruelty he pronounced himself fit enough to ski down without the need to get airlifted or carried down the mountain. Vicky volenteered to take him to the hospital and we continued on. It appears (see below X-ray) that Gaz is indeed severely broken, he has managed to break his collar bone in two places and due to one piece 'floating' it cannot be set and will need to be operated upon in the UK. He is in reasonablly high spirits still, but mostly attributing that to the morphine they gave him. They have said the operation is not urgent but he is now wearing a sling that holds the bones apart to prevent them rubbing (excruciatingly painful he assures me) and to prevent them incorrectly healing.
For those of us that continued the day was quite uneventful, we stopped at a very ordinary overpriced mountainside cafe for lunch.
A nice dinner in our apartment later and the others (including Gaz) have opted to go out for a few drinks. I am far to antisocial to keep up with them so I have opted for bed.
On another note however, it is now readily apparent that both bathroom extractor fans are at best not working, at worst making a bad situation worse. When you have a shower the steam is such you cant find your towels and everything is dripping wet (including the electric heater and plug socket handily located in the bathroom. When you do a "big job" in the loo the aura pretty much never dissipates unless you leave the door open... in a small apartment.
On the plus side I have fixed the shower:
On the down side it sometimes spays the other side of the curtain, making the small bathroom very wet.
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