Bizarre Bird Sighting!
It’s been another day of road works again… lots of traffic to and from the airport today. It’s also time to spruce up the chalet a bit, and do all the other stuff that needs doing. Between all of this, and on the walk with Tizzy, I came across the strangest bird I’ve ever seen … wondering if this was an unknown, or as yet undiscovered species, I was left with no option but to take a picture of it. Wonder if it’s been named yet… and if it’s indigenous to the mountains, and/or only appears in snowy landscapes? Perhaps it should be known as the ‘Lesser Spotted Snow Puffer or Black Beaked Wobbler’ and in Latin, the ‘Plasticius Raritium!’ – What?! 
can’t believe I’ve been walking past it for the past three days, and never noticed it before. Weather’s been lovely, nice bright, with some promising looking clouds forming. Still it’s winter…. so hopefully back on skis in a couple of days, more Transfers tomorrow.
Lesser Spotted Snow Puffer or Black Beaked Wobbler!
and in Latin; Plasticius Raritium
Péage & Paraglider
Well yes, the last couple of days have been spent mostly on the roads. Yesterday Dennis did the three countries transfers, Switzerland, France and Italy. Me?, I just did Switzerland and France, and the same again for me today, Dennis had a longer transfer much further South. We had one helluva lot of snow yesterday, for most of the day, and well into the evening, much more than forecast or expected. The snow would have been excellent on the slopes today, but I have to admit after our last Sardine Saturday experience, I didn’t mind doing the transfers all that much. It was blowing a hoolie at home, with tiny powder flakes swirling around like some lifeform reduced to it’s moleculer structure in the midst of a Star Trek transportation scene, it never really materialised into anything much though, and eventually calmed down, to a pleasant sunny afternoon.
The sky cleared towards Genève, but it was quite windy. On the drive to the airport, I always have my eyes peeled around Salève to see if anyone’s flying, and there was today, amazingly enough, (I thought it looked a bit windy from the car). One sole glider, on his way to landing. You’ll have to click on the thumbnail to see the glider! Not many pics of gliders/flying this time of the year, but I’m sure they’ll start coming in thick and fast as soon as the thermals start waking up. It looks like they may well be gently starting to arouse from their slumber, by the look of the clouds today. I took a couple of pics, from the inside of the car, and gave the windscreen a good clean on arrival at the airport! and there’s a shot of the Swiss Border, I threw in, as we see it often enough, just thought you might like to see it too?! maybe not?….
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- Peage & Streaming Clouds
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- Sole Paraglidier through Mucky Windscreen!
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- Swiss Border
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- Sunday Afternoon, Swiss Border!
Snow on Snow, & Snowpark in St Gervais
Section of Snowpark, with Barrier & Jumps
It’s been snowing again this morning, the sun fleetingly appeared, and decided to withdraw back behind the clouds, then the snow returned.
Therefore, it’s been looking a bit grey but the fresh fall was just too good to miss, and anyway, when it snows, the goggles are great, can’t believe I never bothered with them before, always liked the idea of sunglasses, but have since discovered that sunglasses work well on sunny days!! ’who’d have thought it?!’ On the mountain the light was actually ok, in fact visibility was surprisingly good, and we didn’t have the flat light problem, that we somtimes get. There was an unfortunte accident in the ‘snow park’ area, the helicopter arrived with the medics, covering everyone with blizzardy snow! It seemed like someone may have got their landing a bit wrong… They’ve been working on the ‘snow park’ for a while now, and it does look impressive, if you are into your jumps and whatnot! I wouldn’t be surprised if they are planning to host some boarding and skiing events, as it’s looking really professional now.
We managed to ski-draw our own tracks again, a little bit on and off piste today. It was colder though, without much sun. Very scrapey in some places, but excellent in others, we found the snow was better on the St Gervais side today, rather than Megeve, so we stayed mainly on this side. It was a fabulous afternoons skiing, and I have got to say, my new skis are the bees knees! they are just excellent. They are really ‘sensitive’ compared to my old ones, I know exactly where my balance is on them, I never thought they could ‘talk’ as much as they do, but they do. Just marvellous! It wasn’t very busy today, so we simply have to make the most of the quiet days when we get them. The téléca’bin’es, were empty going up the second time, but it began to get busy on the way down. A few more pics in the gallery. It’s still snowing, but the weekend looms and so do the transfers… we did have early transfers this morning though, but it’s a full day tomorrow…
Calligraphy in Les Contamines
Lone Ski Calligraphy Track...
please click on picture for larger image.
We were engulfed in high pressure cloud in the lower valley, but above us the webcams were showing brilliant sunshine! which is a normal occurance in these parts. We decided to go to Les Contamines today. The skiing is fantastic there… everywhere you look it’s skiable, on piste, off piste, everywhere! The only thing is, Les Contamines can get very, very cold as it’s North, North East facing, so when it’s cold, and there’s a Northerly blowing, it’s perishing! There aren’t too many bins/cable car lifts about, they are mainly chairlifts, so it can be extremly exposed in an icy cold wind. On a cold day, you really need to wrap up warm, or go somewhere else?! But on a warmish day, it’s just brilliant! Today, was one of those days! – We had a great time skiing, all over the place, drinking in the awesome views (even living here, we never tire of the views, they just get better!) We have a bit of a Les Contamines ritual, that whenever we ski here, we always make our way to the ‘Restaurant at the End of the Universe’ ok, ok, I jest! but I can’t remember the name of the place, only that they do the best French Onion Soup in the whole of Christendom! you get my (snow) drift?! The snow is really well preserved on this side of the mountain, purely because of the altitude, and North Easterly position, it keeps it in great condition. There are snow dunes, and corniches, it’s a very dramatic landscape, not easy trying to capture it on camera, it doesn’t do it justice. I just loved this shot of the Lone Ski track, (I thought it was a Board track, until on closer inspection you can see the pole plants, and a section of division between two skis.) Years ago I used to do calligraphy, and it reminded me so much of the strokes the paint brush, or pen nibs I used to use made, almost identical!
Again, we had a lovely time of it, making our own tracks…. Towards the afternoon, and heading back, down the mountain, as the sun was lowering, and shadows lengthening, we were joined by ‘rent-a-crowd!’ don’t know where they all came from, one minute we were on our own the next we were in the midst of a merry ski-a-throng! quite funny really. On the way we passed a mini ski-jump, for the babies, it was a joy watching the tiny tots, ski jumping! The instructor was demonstrating, by ’assuming the position’ and they did it so well. I tried to get some shots, but sadly didn’t quite catch them in the air! Some more pics in the gallery. If you’d like to see where exactly Les Contamines is, please take a look at the Piste Map.
Cortella wins in Columbia!
Podium
Photo; by kind permission from Nicky Moss
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Denis Cortella, has his Design Centre/Workshop down the road here in Sallanches, where he and his great team work on ever innovative harnesses and come up with the most fantastic creations. He is the maestro in the art of harness design, and second to none! Take a look at his website Kortel Design. We do have access to any of the Kortel Design harnesses if you are interested. Please take a look at our website for further information.
Photo is of Denis Cortella, in a familiar position! 2nd was Edinson Alvarez Saurez, and 3rd Hector Hugo Vasquez Cano.
Final Results Open Class
Final Results Serial Class
Full Results
Sardine Saturday!
Quiet Saturday Morning!
Thought we’d go early this morning, as it’s Saturday, but we didn’t go early enough! We’d got more Transfers this afternoon, so a couple of few hours on the slopes first thing seemed like a good idea. After the ordeal of scrambling to get on the cable car at Bettex, and then again at the mid-station was a ‘remind me not to go skiing on Saturday morning again’ feeling. I can’t believe I was wondering ‘where all the people where’ a couple of weeks ago!
It hasn’t snowed for a couple of days, but surprisingly a loose layer of snow was deep enough to make the skiing pleasurable, before scraping the next layer of frozen snow. We stayed on Piste today, as off piste, was very lumpy in places, not very nice. The lumpy bits were solid and frozen so you couldn’t get a smooth run on the stuff. Otherwise, really nice few hours of skiing. We decided to avoid the Mt. Joly side, as the queue for the chairlift was pretty busy, so we decided to stay on the Megeve, and Princesse side of the Mountain, it was much less crowded on that side. In fact, we were the only two people skiing in some areas. It was lovely skiing together today, nice long sweeping turns, in unision, making perfect figures of eight tracks between us, very sweet…. !
A few more pics in the gallery.
First Flight…
…of the New Year, At last! we finally managed to get out and have a fly. Phew! Just, didn’t realise how long it’s been…
Good to be Back on Launch...
It was a glorious day… a couple of few blips, but that was about all. We had early morning Transfers, but that was ok, because it left the rest of the day free. Was such a relief to get back in the air, and feet finally off the ground. It’s been a while…. It was great to re-familiarise ourselves with the new wings! We’re really liking them….. nice to see a couple of familiar faces up at Plaine Joux too. The weather doesn’t seem too promising for flying for the next few days so it looks like we’ll be back on skis.
Just a couple more pics in the gallery.
Stream and Steam
On our walk, I decided to take a couple of photos of a grumpy old dog, that’s always moaning, and his sidekick, they both look miserable. Every time, we walk past, he puts on this attacking aggressive stance, with curling lip and flashing gnashers, putting on his most ferocious face. He then makes a charge at you! and suddenly calms down. He’s a big softie really. Amongst the Transfers, and walking the dog, doing the meals etc. It was a lovely day, the snow has completely hardened. Impossible to leave a print in it, (well not without making an effort) concrete, crusty surface. Don’t know what it’s like on the slopes, as we had all day Transfers, so no playing. It was flyable, and I saw a couple of gliders floating down from Plaine Joux. The snow line is receding, and steam was visibly rising with the thaw. We managed to get more work done on the Glider Podcast, this evening. It’s taking a longer time than anticipated this one.
Click on thumbnails for larger images.
The old dogs, didn’t come out that good, maybe another time.
Local Heroes!
Grey and gloomy here today. Not worth posting any pictures of ’round this end at the moment! But it’s been great to hear that our Local Paragliding Hero, Denis Cortella has come out on top at the Pre-worlds PWC in Roldanillo Columbia! Excellent well done, Numero Uno!! ‘Encore!’ – and another fabulous outcome was our friend Mathieu Vermeil got 9th!! That’s just brilliant… we’re going to have to pick his brains when he gets back! Mathieu is always flying here, every single day!! Don’t people have jobs?!! An all round, fantabulous result!
Pictures blatantly borrowed from the pre PWC website! 
Click on thumbnails for larger images:
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- Going Up?!
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- On Glide
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- Heavy Cloud, No Rain!
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- Chasing Your Tail!
Transfers, in Reality, and Virtual…
Transfers, of people and files today!
There was a Ski/Vol competition up at St. Gervais, unfortunately we were wrapped up with Transfers and Computers so couldn’t go… weather wasn’t brilliant, but it’s still an interesting venue…
Not much to report, but the unexpected ‘Additional Podcast’ is up and running on the Podcast page…
Hope it’s useful….
