Work, Walk and Wonder..
Busy day today. Went into Chamonix for the monthly accountants visit! There was a ‘whiteout’ of a sky, and I saw two gliders flying. Both were up for as short a time as possible, (maybe praciticing some Acro moves?) wingovers, and spirals to get down, it didn’t look like leisurely flying. We had Transfers for most of the day, but I managed to take Tizzy on her usual walk. On the way, the postman, handed me the post, a copy of Skywings and a couple of letters, we’d rather not receive, but there you go. As I was already quite a way from the house, I did the walk with Skywings stuffed up my coat! Not the most comfortable place to keep it, I can tell you! It was a bright day today, not the brightest, but bright! Not many pics, just a few of the local familiar dog walk route.
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- Looking across to the Aravis
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- Tizzy, putting in an offer for a Kennel!
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- Rural Lane
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- ‘Candy’ Chalet, You Ought to see it in the Spring!
Black & White
Not much colour today. As you look at it, it’s all a bit black & white. We went skiing as the Transfer work starts again tomorrow. It didn’t look very promising at all, but, the snow quality was absolutely gorgeous! - It was a bit flat light in places, but no way did it detract from the quality skiing. We were up to our knees in places! what fun! It was amazingly soft and feathery, considering it’s warmed up a bit, with more of an atmospheric dampness about, we were expecting the snow to be a bit heavy, not so! It was an amazingly pleasurable afternoons skiing again, much, much more than we anticipated.
Click on thumbnails to enlarge image.
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- Rochebrune with Heavy Grey Sky
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- Looking towards Rochebrune
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- En Route to Megeve
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- Nice shot of Megeve Valley, and Cable Cars
Birthday Girl!
Yep! today is my Birthday, the 13th Day, of the New Year, every New Year that is?! I can’t afford to be superstitous, and learnt that one at a very young age! My 21st was on a Friday, so there you go living proof that superstition is a load of bunkum! (put politely). Although, some may dispute it… It’s been O’ K a a y, (thumbs up!) for me!!
Anyway, a lovely day was had. I took Tizzy for a walk, it was quite a clear morning then deteriorated. We went skiing, but it was really bleak up the mountain, the snow condition was great, even though it was snowing whilst we were up there. Visibility was poor, but the goggles worked well, showing up the difference between shadow and light. The wind was cold too, especially skiing fast straight lines. Didn’t see the skis much, as they were beneath the snow, most of the time, we didn’t stay out too long today.
We really can’t believe just how quiet the slopes are and have been this whole season so far! – Where are all the people?! We’ve heard, Easyjet are having disputes and trouble with “plane parking!” something to do with ‘Landing Fees’, or something. All the flights that are arriving are generally on time, but all the Easyjet ones, are either delayed for hours, and sometimes eventually cancelled. Apparently, there are loads of packed skis, stacked up at the airports, what is going on?!
Anyways, back to my/our day. An early morning cluster of presents, followed by some time on the slopes. A lovely chocolate, birthday cake, and an evening meal at the local Italian Restaurant, was the order of the day. We went to Le Cesar, an Italian in Sallanches that’s always open! Anyway, we wanted to stick with the ‘tried and ‘tasted’ option, as well as go for a Pizza, so we plunged for the Lasagne, always a great choice, and a Pizza Boursin. A delicious herb based, Italian Pizza, with a French twist, absolutely scrumptious! I could go as far to say, that it was the best Pizza I’d ever tasted! (if you ever visit, a highly recommended choice!) O, and a couple of green salads, we didn’t want to overdo it, you understand! and all fragrantly washed down with a fruity Italian Red, couldn’t want for more! Try as we might, we just couldn’t manage the Pizza between us, so the rest of it is in the fridge! Not for much longer though?!
It really was a lovely, lovely birthday!
Click on thumbnails for mouth watering images!
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- Taking Tizzy for a Walk, and trying to Catch Diamonds on the Snow
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- My Cake!
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- Pizza Boursin!
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- Le Cesar Lasagne!
Corrupt Computer files, and Other Animals!
Apologies for not being able to update the posts, recently. Problem being, big trouble with small computer!
It started playing up, a couple of few days ago and wasn’t getting any better. So after a lot of reconfiguring, limited daylight hours, paling skin, growing nails, greasy unwashed unkempt hair, and squaring out, bloodshot eyes later, it appears to have recovered…. We however were beginning to consider auditioning for the role of goths, or vampires!! Except they’re a lot younger and better looking these days!
Now to feed and walk the dog!
Afternoon Tea, oops Ski
Half Way Up;
The Long Chairlift to Mont Joly
Well it was looking possibly flyable today, but after much deliberation, and the fact that there was not a breath of air on launch, that the snow was here, and in good condition, we had to go skiing again. After all, the snow isn’t here for all that long, and once it’s gone, no skiing at all! – Flying will start soon enough. We left a bit later today, after lunch, and had an unexpectedly long afternoons skiing. We decided to take the long run down to St Nicolas de Veroce, from Mt Joly, to L’Epaule, and onwards. It was a long run, too and quite icy in places, I had to concentrate and pace myself at times. We were in shadow for part of it, but it was an interesting route. We hadn’t skied this route for a year or so, so it was good to try it again. It was great to find that there was a chairlift, to bring us back up, instead of that arduous poma, that just keeps going on and on and on, so that was a pleasant surprise. I can’t remember if the chairlift was there before though??! – Anyway, back up, we skied down to Croix du Christ, where we found the most luxurious chairlift, I’d ever been on! A six seater, leather bound, lounge sofa no less! So comfortable, we could have stretched out and ate grapes on the thing! We saw one glider flying, from Mont d’Arbois, as he flew above us, we could see his skis. Unfortunately, my camera is struggling just now, it seems a new one is on the cards, so sadly no photos of that. There are some others in the gallery. If you’re interested, the routes are displayed on the Piste Map. It was an exhilierating afternoons skiing!
Ski Funday!
We woke up to fresh snow, so just had to get on the slopes again this morning. We thought we’d go early, as it’s Sunday, and it would probably get busy later on. I saw a woodpecker on the telegraph pole outside the house this morning, shame my camera didn’t quite capture it… still, I’ve displayed it anyway, because I like it! Monsieur Françoise, our neighbour, was out snow blowing his drive, as we went off to ski. Skiing was great today! – Just getting into the swing of these new skis, wow they’re fast! Really going great guns. We skied down a recently machined piste, with a new layer of fresh snow on top, what smooth turns, being the first to ski it, absolutely beautiful! – They were setting up the slalom poles for training, and were just about to close that particular piste off, but we’d already gone, we did keep to the opposite side so as not to cut the fresh machined snow though. The rest of the morning/afternoon, was just as excellent everywhere. I said to myself, that I was just going to stay ‘on piste’ today, but what happened, ended up ‘off’ again, in the deep stuff. It was fab though! The new snow was the best it’s been, I could go as far to say it was probably the best day’s skiing we’ve done so far this season. The day started off quite grey but it progressed into a breathtakingly beautiful one… All of the pistes, we’re in such great condition, and ‘off piste’ was so fluffy, it really was wonderful.
We’ve got Transfers again this evening, but that did leave us the whole day free, so that worked out really well. We heared that a lot of the young ‘uns in the UK are taking off the wheels on their skateboards, and having a great time boarding! That’s just brilliant!!
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- Winter Woodpecker
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- Mnsr. Francoise & Snow Blower
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- Ski Run
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- Setting Up Slalom Race Poles
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- Off Piste, (again)
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- Beautiful Day!
why the… Pilfering Poacher!
The weekends arrived, and so have the Airport Transfers, which is great to be honest. Transfers for most of the day today. Weather, isn’t brilliant so we’re not missing much. I have to say though, am begininng to feel withdrawal symptoms from flying creeping in, and really hoping for some flyable conditions to arrive, it looks like there may be a possibility on the way though.
Changing the subject… I thought my phone was ringing this morning, and went hurtling up the stairs to answer it, when I discovered much to my annoyance that, that Chirs Evans, has just gone and poached my ringtone, to promote his Radio 2, morning breakfast show! Why the pilfering poacher!!! The fact that he didn’t know it was my ringtone, (or that I exist for that matter!), and that the song is a timeless Stones 60′s track, has absolutely nothing to do with it!! 
Other than that, I’m a bit miffed, as the Computer’s decided to catch some mild cold symptons or something, so I’ve got some reconfiguring to do. Still, it looks like a good day ahead, inbetween the Transfers, we’re managing to do a bit more work on Podcast III, so hopefully, that’ll be up and running soon.
Early, on the Piste…
We’ve got Transfers to do this afternoon, we weren’t sure if many flights were going to be cancelled departing from the UK today, but it appears that the ones we have to collect from Geneva are flying in from Bournemouth, they’ve only got a one hour delay, so we’ve still got some work. We managed to get out early this morning and did a few runs on a very light dusting of new snow. It was really good in places, but a bit scrapy in others. We had a SSE wind blowing over the back at Mont Joux, flattening all the moguls, with mini-drifts everywhere. Very cold, but it seems to be cold everywhere just now.
Click on thumbnails for larger image.
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- Dramatic Sky & Cold Wind at Mont Joux
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- Future Champions!
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- Bettex a la Baskerville!
New Skis!
New Skis, Not Tasted Snow Yet!
Well I’ve got a birthday coming up this month and we received a mysterious tall slim package yesterday! – and guess what?! New skis!! Dennis had a birthday back in November but decided to share my birthday too, as there were two pairs of skis in there. He’s got himself a swish pair of Salomon X-Wing Tornados, and I got a a pair of womens Rossingnol, Attraxion VI’s, both great for on and off piste. Regardless of the weather, we were both itching to try them out. What a great pair of skis they are, felt completely balanced, with a great carve action. Really looking forward to getting used to them. They feel completely different to my old Atomics, a more dynamic feel and a great springback, was off straight away! Dennis really enjoyed his Tornados, we both hired a pair of these type of skis last season, the wider area ones, and they were great, we knew then, that we were missing something! Not any more. Dennis was so relaxed, and sweeping along the pistes effortlessly. More snow is expected this evening, so hopefully we’ll get a chance to try them out on some fresh powder in the morning. There was a lot of Telemark skiing going on today, snow is so welcome here, it’s keeps the economic wheels turning, whereas it sounds sadly, like a contrary experience for the UK. Hope things improve for you guys. Mind you the kids seem to make the most of it, with no school! There was one pilot braving the elements in St. Gervais, but was trying to get down in a bit of a hurry, I think maybe it was already snowing up high. More pics in the gallery.
Cruising the Pistes!
A different view of a Familiar Mountain
Early morning Transfers, and early evening ones to do today.. but that did leave the main bulk of the day free! – We were considering going flying, but the visibility never quite cleared in the lower valley, so we went skiing again. This time the piste bashers had been out, so some of the runs were a lot less demanding. Other’s still had a fresh snow covering, but the temperature kept the snow in excellent condition. It was a gentler days skiing today, just cruising the pistes, instead of the more aggressive, deep snow, and off piste stuff. We enjoyed the ease of piste skiing today, and decided to ski over towards St. Nicolas De Veroce, but didn’t get that far, (there’s one helluva long poma to get back up, and I didn’t fancy that!) we went to Croix which was a really pleasant cruise down the blue and red. A nice relaxing chairlift ride up, and a really great momentous green towards Freddy. That long green run, just keeps gathering pace the whole way down, you don’t realise how suddenly you find yourself zooming along that exceptional green. Check out the Piste Map! We decided to head for La Princesse again, it’s such a nice gondola back up to Igloo, and every time we arrived we walked straight in, a whole gondola to ourselves every time! We did that run from three aspects, blue, red and black, and each one was really good quality and a lot of fun. Just cruising the whole time, lovely! The views were spectacular this morning, but the cloud cover arrived early afternoon. That was ok, we had a great 3 hours good skiing, no complaints here! There are a lot more pics in the gallery today. Also, because the conditions have been so good, we’ve got a bit of a delay on the glider podcast but hopefully we’ll have that completed soon! Apologies!!
