Misty Mountains
They were detonating on the mountain this morning. We can hear the distant ‘booms’ down here, there’s most definately, high avalanche risks if they’re using the explosives. It all adds to the excitment of living in the mountains. There’s been a lot of snow up high and a lot of rain down here, so the fractionally warmer temperature is enough to alert the authorities to prepare for the possibility of major slab movements. It’s pretty grim down here though, well miserable. Still it keeps the earth fertile for the Alpine meadows, come the springtime! We’ve been working on the chalet today, as we’ve got guests arriving. Ironing, cleaning etc. etc. glad the weather’s miserable from that point of view though, at least we’re not in a hurry to go out! Hope it improves for our guests though!
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- Misty Mountains
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- Still Misty..
Ski (groundhog) Sunday!
Chairlift towards Mont d'Arbois
It’s been a whole week to the day since we went skiing, but today was lovely. It was a glorious morning, and we decided to get up and out early, before the hoarding marauders arrived…. which they did in droves. We knew the weather was forecast to change around midday, so we wanted to get the best of it. The slopes weren’t that busy, and we had some good skiing. The snow level was down only to around 1000mtrs, so it started to get a bit ropey as we got lower. Quite a bit scratchy in places, but that was all. Up high the quality was good, nice off piste, and nicely groomed pistes. It was lovely really, and I tried out my new Rossignol Ski Poles, lovely and feminine! They felt a better height for me when planting, I think my old ones may have been a bit long. Dennis had a chance to try out his new Helly Hanson base layer, and heated gloves, we was snuggly and toasty warm all morning! It started to get quite busy later in the morning and the chairlifts were getting longer queues, so we took the poma. They are generally ok, except for the one on the Blue Run, it’s like a Mechanical Bull! although I’ve never been on one of those things, it certainly yanks you up darn swiftly! It was great to get out, after the festivities, and all the rain, in fact we had an exceedingly green Christmas compared to the usual white ones?! We had an enjoyable quiet time of it…. and an unexpected delivery of some mincemeat to make some mince pies! We just can’t get mincemeat here. Hope you all enjoyed much merriment, and are preparing for more to come! More pics in the gallery.
We’ve put Session II up on the Podcast page today.
Our first Ski Sunday!
Because of the Eurostar services braking down and flights being cancelled we didn’t have to do any Airport Transfers, so managed to get out on the slopes for the first time today!
- Freddy Start Point
It was, p-p-perishing though, first thing, so we went a bit later in the morning, after the sun had been up an hour or so. We had a few hours on the slopes. It was glorious, sunshine, snow and mountains, looking quite brilliant. The cloud was on it’s way, and later on visibility started to diminish slightly. It was strange being back on skis, on the first run, but excellent on the second, and just got better after that. Snow quality was good, some nice bits of off piste, as you’ll see in the gallery, but still a bit scrapey and hard in a few places. No complaints though. Maybe tomorrow morning will be good too, although the forecast is for it to warm up a bit, with more snowfall. That’s a good forecast though, as the ground could do wth softening a touch so the next layer, of snow will get a better grip.
Garden Fence Landing!
Clear skies beckoned this morning. Snow level down to 1000 mtrs, looking much more like winter now. The high pressure system, did keep the valley filled with a vaporous inversion, from late morning though, which is quite common this time of year. The snow is settled on Plaine Joux at 1380 mtrs, now so take off has a light snow covering. There was a nice light thermic breeze on launch. Dennis was straight in there, preparing to fly, whereas I wimped out, saying I didn’t want to get my nice new glider damp! I chose to drive down, and let Dennis enjoy his flight. It was probably ok, but I was in no hurry. It is very cold at the moment though, and the forecast is looking quite promising, for flying for the next couple of days. Michel arrived flying his Niviuk Peak, so both him and Dennis, had a play around in the very light thermic air, scraping a half hours flight, landing more or less at the same time. A nice bright, clear, cold winters day. It’s incredible how chaps can natter given the chance, the pair of them were gassing for ages, the only thing missing was a washing line and garden fence!
Click thumbnail for larger image.
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- Dennis’ Winter Prep
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- Nice Wall!
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- On Route into a Stephen King Novel!
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- Dennis & Michel
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- …they landed..
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- …and then started nattering!
A Real Pea Soupçon!
Well, it’s been a bit of a pea souper down in the lower valley the last couple of mornings. We had a dominant NE wind, submitting the lower cloud to the valley floor for most of the day. Yesterday, it cleared later in the afternoon, and a few were getting above launch, but it was a bit late in the day for us. There was a perfect cloud street formed from launch across to Varan, and directly to our house! we had our own ‘highway!’ for a few hours!! shame we didn’t use it! We did have a pleasant Christmas delivery though, a nice mini Harrods Hamper, from Dennis’ sister…. lovely! Today, low level Stratus, came down and stayed for a longer visit, never really leaving, which mid-morning developed into a day of rain, which isn’t bad as that means, snow up high. People were skiing at Les Contamines today though, didn’t look like excellent conditions, but ok. The snow should be a bit more established after today’s flurries. Stop the press! It’s snowing above 1000 mtrs apparently!
Click on thumbnails for larger image.
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- A Real Pea Soupcon!
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- mini Harrod’s Hamper
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- Street Cloud from Launch…
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- …to Varan…to our house (Flyers Lodge)
Wings (of) Change
The forecasters were pretty close today, high clouded white sky this morning, with moderate to strong NE winds up high, light to moderate mid mountain, and light lower down. The high sky cleared, and left us with a big blue area, there was a bit of an inversion, but that was all we needed. We managed to get another ‘plouf!’ in but hey when you’ve got new gliders to fly, anything is just great! We were alone at first, later joined by Xavier, with a new student on his premier vol, and I might add, he had a spot on landing… Matthieu again, this time flying a Gradient (he’s got such a stable of gliders!) Eduard, on his Little Cloud, and that was about it today. A small but varied group. Can’t complain it was a flyable day non the less. Mind you, Dennis is in love! and by the look of his wing who can blame him!! …. and we had Mt Blanc, non? Mt Rosè late this evening! More pictures in the gallery.
Dennis in love!
Sweet M&M’s and Little Clouds
The sky was clear this morning… Lovely. We hoped we’d be able to get a flight in, on our new gliders… We did, it was lovely. Can’t expect much this time of year, in the way of thermic activity, but it’s nice to get acquanited with a new wing, in these gentle conditions. It wasn’t flat, there were bits and pieces, so it was fun trying to maintain. It was the first time, I’d ever had a brand new glider, untouched!, what a treat, Santa’s a couple of weeks early! Managed to scrape just half an hour, but it was sweet, very sweet. We were joined by Mathieu (not flying his Arctik today), and Eduard, on their Little Cloud, mini-vols whooping about! 70% sun was forecast today, but it seemed more like 90%, they’ve forecast 60% tomorrow so hopefully another flyable day.
Click on the tumbnails for larger image.
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- New Glider!
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- Mt Blanc from the Office!
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- Mt Jolie
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- Dennis Landing
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- Mathieu & Little Cloud
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- Eduard & his Little Cloud
Re-pack and Package
Quite strong winds last night, with some precipitation early this morning. Ski pistes are empty, but should see some action this weekend!
It’s forecast to improve, although maybe getting milder towards the end of the week. Fingers crossed, we’ll get on the slopes soon.
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- New Toys!
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- Dennis and Threads
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- Laid Out
It’s been a good day today though, re-packing reserves, always nice to know your reserve is ready to go…… And, we took charge of our brand spanking new steeds today! All the way from Vietnam! – His and hers, Ozone gliders…. can’t wait to fly them. This time we decided to go for different colours, to avoid the confusion of who’s who…. although we’ve still got the same coloured jackets!
Airing the Reserves
Well, the weather hasn’t got any better, it’s like a wet weekend in Wales at the moment, down here, but snowing up high…. Still, it certainly cures any homesickness symptoms that occassionally arise. No flying, no skiing, in fact the skis have remained in the cupboard, not having been out the house yet. Apparently, there’s been a bit of shredded skiing going on at Les Grand Montets and Les Contamines, so we’re hopeful for the weekend.
There’s always stuff to do in the house, so we decided it was time to give the reserves, an airing….
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- First there was one…
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- …then there were a whole lot more!
