bvark
27th January 2007, 19:52
So, another year, another MPUK ski-trip, this time to Les Menuires - "Cheapest of the Three Valleys", although I understand this is similar to "Smartest Daily Mail Reader".
Once again the gods have looked down on the poor huddled masses who have but a week a year to hurtle down mountains, and provided 30cm of new snow a couple of days ago, with blue skies forecast for the next few days. Snow conditions could certainly be better, but as someone pointed out to us today, it was a fu<k of a lot worse 7 days ago.
Those brave 10 who survived the UK Fan club in Lille station, the French sleep prevention officers, the 'trial by TGV' and the vagueries of Moutiers' bus system were unceremoniously dumped in a -9 Les Menuires train station at 07:45 this morning, where bvark's excellent forward planning of "We'll turn up and see what go on" was not appreciated by the sleep deprived masses.
We milled aimlessly before consuming enough croissants to motivate most of us to do a day's boarding, and sampled the many and varied delights of Les Menuires, before locating our chalet at 11am and gradually grinding to a boarding halt as CBA set in. The sensible folks relying on aerial transport trickled in and faffed, with an honourable mention for Lazyboy's quality map reading giving team Killing the wooden spoon.
The chalet this year most agreeable, with a fine location nestled between a bar and a restaurant just off one of the main pistes, and suitable amenities that aren't 15 minutes walk down a steep slope. Facilites are perhaps slightly more spartan than last year, but space is plentiful, and a Sauna was definitely what the doctor ordered today. The internet connection has been secured by a bloke with a Linux box and a 1997 O'Reilly firewall book (Blocked: RDP, PPTP, IRC, Allowed: WWW, Usenet, Gopher) but they are no match for our SSH leetism.
Look out for more postings, possibly including some pictures of your favourite out-of-practise MPUK ski and board leetors wiping out in patchy snow tomorrow.
Once again the gods have looked down on the poor huddled masses who have but a week a year to hurtle down mountains, and provided 30cm of new snow a couple of days ago, with blue skies forecast for the next few days. Snow conditions could certainly be better, but as someone pointed out to us today, it was a fu<k of a lot worse 7 days ago.
Those brave 10 who survived the UK Fan club in Lille station, the French sleep prevention officers, the 'trial by TGV' and the vagueries of Moutiers' bus system were unceremoniously dumped in a -9 Les Menuires train station at 07:45 this morning, where bvark's excellent forward planning of "We'll turn up and see what go on" was not appreciated by the sleep deprived masses.
We milled aimlessly before consuming enough croissants to motivate most of us to do a day's boarding, and sampled the many and varied delights of Les Menuires, before locating our chalet at 11am and gradually grinding to a boarding halt as CBA set in. The sensible folks relying on aerial transport trickled in and faffed, with an honourable mention for Lazyboy's quality map reading giving team Killing the wooden spoon.
The chalet this year most agreeable, with a fine location nestled between a bar and a restaurant just off one of the main pistes, and suitable amenities that aren't 15 minutes walk down a steep slope. Facilites are perhaps slightly more spartan than last year, but space is plentiful, and a Sauna was definitely what the doctor ordered today. The internet connection has been secured by a bloke with a Linux box and a 1997 O'Reilly firewall book (Blocked: RDP, PPTP, IRC, Allowed: WWW, Usenet, Gopher) but they are no match for our SSH leetism.
Look out for more postings, possibly including some pictures of your favourite out-of-practise MPUK ski and board leetors wiping out in patchy snow tomorrow.