march-2011

FEATURES | GENEVA | MORZINE
THE SNOW LAY crisp and fresh, and there
wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Only a weird,
high-pitched yelling marred a perfect
winter’s day in the Alps as I swooshed along
a path lined with fi r trees. For a few blurry,
disconnected seconds I couldn’t tell where
this terrible sound was coming from. Then
I realised the noise was me.
Some may have called it the pathetic
scream of a big girl’s blouse who, having hit
a patch of ice, was actually speeding up
rather than slowing down or stopping.
I prefer to think of it as a manly whoop,
designed to alert the elderly French
60 | TRAVELLER | MARCH 11
gentleman in front of me that his pleasant
stroll was about to be rudely interrupted.
And so it was that I found myself fl at on
my backside calling out, “Je suis desolé,
monsieur!” while said French gent, having
dived into a bank of snow, picked himself
up and dusted off the crust of powder that
covered him from head to foot.
We were in Morzine-Avoriaz, close to the
point where France meets Switzerland near
Geneva, to go cross-country skiing. If you
imagine that this is a sport that’s all about
effortless gliding along snowy trails, think
again – there hadn’t been very much “cross”
YOU CAN
BE ALONE
ON A TRAIL
WHILE THE
DOWNHILL
PISTES ARE
CROWDED
to our day, and instead we’d covered lots of
ups and downs. They don’t mention that in
the brochures, but I was determined that the
hills (and the ice patches) wouldn’t put me off.
Cross-country skiing is a great way of
shaking off that tired, lethargic feeling we all
get after surviving the depressing greyness
of January and February. And it makes for
a fantastic workout too – would you rather be
down your local gym at lunchtime watching
sweaty Brian from accounts on the cross
trainer, or out in the mountains under rich
blue skies getting some proper exercise? It’s
also a good way of cleaning out the mental
cobwebs. There’s something clarifying about
being in the mountains, like being able to
breathe again after a heavy cold, and I fi nd it
a great time to plan ahead and set fresh goals.
On a more practical level, cross-country
skiing beats downhill because the skis and
boots you wear are much lighter than the
clodhoppers you need if you want to be
the next Bode Miller. But be warned – crosscountry
skis are much narrower (just 5cm