Today was the last day of skiing so back to Avoriaz to take it easy. Sjek has taken to the sport like a duck to water, and suddenly went tearing down Combe des Crêtes with me on the monoski barely able to catch up. I could see the adrenaline flush on her face when she stopped: terrified but clearly loving it!

Over the ten days or so that I’ve used the monoski I feel that I’ve really taken to it. My original reasons for buying one and trying it were:

Skiers and snowboarders alike seem to have a hate-hate relationship with button lifts. I understand why. Compared to the chair lift — in my mind the most sophisticated and comfortable way to get oneself up a mountainside, and certainly the most convenient as one doesn’t have to remove skis/boards and walk around like a stormtrooper or cyberman — the button lift is something of a brute.

As we headed up the chair lift to the top of Super-Morzine we began to feel a gentle breeze. Nothing particularly strong, and not continuous but more like breathing. Foehn! True to yesterday’s “joke” I took Sjek off-piste. Just a short way off Seraussaix which we could have walked, but it’s much easier to move in deep powder on skis than in shoes. A short distance from the Alpage de Seraussaix we planted our skis and Sjek prepared her kite.

Next year we'll do snow kiting for real!

Lo and behold the muscle fatigue has caught up with Sjek. We’re going to take it easy today on Super-Morzine, where “taking it easy” involves a power kite!

We started at the top of Pleney with the “travelator” ski lift. I’m never confident of my ability to teach, not least because the last time I was in Morzine my travel companion found skiing to be a terrifying experience. However, Sjek was a fast learner and outgrew going up and down the beginner’s stretch quite quickly. It was time for more challenging stuff: Piste B (skipping the steep bits via Piste D).