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:

• I’ve been skiing for fifteen years, and wanted to try something new
• I didn’t fancy snowboarding for a number of reasons
• I wanted to try something different and a little bit original
• whenever I’ve seen a monoskier I’ve looked at them in awe and thought, “How on earth is that possible?!”

The first few days on the monoski were hard work. I had many, many falls and the re-bruised bruises on my hips persisted for many days and were quite painful. I felt as though I was consciously trying to maintain my balance all the time. I had to remind myself how to turn all the time. I couldn’t maintain my edge strong enough or long enough to do long traverses because the muscles involved were slightly different to normal skiing and so weren’t up to the task.

Around day five or so it all began to click in place. Various neurons must have started to cross-connect and gradually the act of balancing on two feet side by side became second nature. Rather than a short, hard stop being a cause for concern I began to remain upright having controlled my centre of gravity to remain above the edge of the monoski throughout the manoeuvre.

The last three days of using the monoski have been amazing. The feeling of monoskiing, for me, is quite different to that of skiing. It’s less about the placement of the feet and more about the angle of the body, the balance of the edge, the slope of the piste. The sensation is quite difficult to describe. It’s not quite like flying; it’s more like swimming. I start to think where I want to go, and how I want to get there, and my weight shifts from edge to edge and I find myself moving that way gracefully, almost as if in a slow dance. As my legs have become more muscular over the holiday opportunities to try more ambitious techniques became practical: the classic technique for bouncing turns down moguls began to feel less exhausting and more like fun. As my balance became more instinctive I found myself using my poles less as “crutches” and more like balance aids. The pole-planting technique does feel a little different in its timing and position. It’s a great feeling to have nothing touching the snow but that one edge you’re carefully balanced on as you go around a corner.