Day 13 - Last Day

Another sunny day, blue skies. All of this good visibility makes a nice change from some of the heavy snow and white-outs we had in the first week, but after being spoiled with fresh snow, it feels like this place could do with a top up. Ice is starting to creep in.

Actually, it's the occasional areas of ice that have highlighted a possible difference attributed to one of the two, standout design features of my new board - the Lib Tech T.Rice. My board has Lib Tech's Magne-Traction edges and Banana Technology base. To be honest, I haven't really noticed a difference.

Until now.

Of course it's difficult to provide an accurate comparison given that I've been riding this board on all conditions for around two weeks, and I don't have a regular board to strap onto and ride the same conditions. That said, the lib tech does seem to have better edge control on icy conditions as compared with conventional side-cut boards. That's interesting...

So, the day started with Ciara and I heading up to Avoriaz to leave a copy of the world snowboard guide with Jean Noel and the Tourist Office. We then went to check out the Arare Park; Avoriaz's largest park. On the way there, we stopped to take a look at the half pipe too.

Man, where does the time go? Two weeks here and I haven't taken a single run through the half-pipe!

So the Arare park isn't quite finished, but there's still a lot there, and what is there is pretty good, and pretty big. We got plenty of photos for potential use with the online guide...

After that we spent most of the day in the stash. It's pretty addictive. Lots of hits, lots of fun, and something that Ciara and I have been happy to lap again and again, just the two of us. And being serviced by a fast, 6 man chair helps too. There's a pretty long, natural log right at the entrance to Main Street, and on our last run through I just about hit the end. It's round and knobbly, so not particularly easy. I was stoked. Also, Ciara got a couple of indy grabs, the first I've seen her do. Sweet.

Those final runs through the stash, and the rather excellent home run from Avoriaz down to Prodains, Crot, made for an excellent end to our trip. I just wish we didn't have to go home. More snowboarding would be good, and I need to sort myself out hitting kickers.

The whole group was assembled at the bottom, ten of us, drinking beers in what has become our regular, La Kinkerne. The hospitality there is exceptional. We sat around talking about what we'd done that day, and over the two weeks in general. Those ice cold beers go down so well. What a great trip...