I take no credit for this one, I'm just passing it along.  Fun, entertaining work by Kalle and Aleck giving you a sense of the mood here in France!  We are working on providing more pictures; it has been difficult to upload pictures due to a limited bandwidth.

Live From Les Deux Alpes

It’s bonding season for the FIS men’s team as we have acquired some new blood from the younger ranks. These youngsters, along with the wise beyond their years Sheils brothers, have been braving some challenging weather conditions under their fearless leader Rolf, while Darrell has been reigning in the seasoned veterans. While returning to snow has been lovely, it is truly playing second fiddle to the dryland sessions organized by French teacher and mixed martial arts master Benjamin Clarke. Channeling his inner Jim Ryun, Benjamin dusted us all in the warm-up “jog” with a brisk 4-minute mile pace. Once the group reconvened, Benjamin guided us through many martial arts maneuvers. These included the infamous “palm-strike” flawlessly executed by Fredi Schneider and Cole Hunter Janco’s signature move, the “knife-hand.” These moves have proved incredibly effective in maiming the 10-year-old Italian children as they viciously launch a relentless offensive towards the front of the gondola line that would make Genghis Khan proud. A hard-fought game of ultimate Frisbee was next on the agenda. The game showcased a number of memorable moments: a nasty collision between Forest “Thick” Van Dine and Cole Hunter Janco, which saw Cole momentarily leave the game due to a minor cut to his pinky toe, Yale Flanagan’s athletic prowess in securing the game-winning touchdown, and a chemistry between two extremely handsome and athletic individuals who shall go unnamed for the time being.

Our second conditioning session consisted of an all French “chasse au trésor” or scavenger hunt around the Mont de Lans village, our home base. Tasks included locating numerous buildings around the village, obtaining maps of the village and mountain, and taking pictures with any and all attractive mademoiselles within a 2 km radius. As you can imagine, this challenge provided many laughs as our subpar French skills did not exactly charm these ladies like we are accustomed to back home. The powerhouse trio of Paul, Teo (French national), and Yale stormed their way to victory. This was in large part due to their charisma in seducing “la plus belle femme” in Mont de Lans, which incurred a 5 minute deduction on their overall time, thrusting them into “la première place” when all was said and done. In the next week we look forward to great skiing, good weather, martial arts by Benjamin, and a couple more chances to send the Italian children running to the hills.

Lots of love, snuggles, and hugs,

Monsieurs Kalle et Aleck

(P.S. Aleck and I are the extremely handsome and athletic unnamed individuals who dominated the ultimate Frisbee game)