Words Failed Me

Settled down to watch some UK television last night. Channel 4's "A Place in the Sun...Home or Away" programme is featuring the resort where our Spanish home is situated. Naturally we recognised all of the locations shown to the prospective buyers. The couple decided that the Costa Del Azahar was not what they wanted, even though they were shown a place with a view much like our's.

Personally we like opening our shutters each day to see the Med lapping a 4 kilometre sandy beach.

Weird Times

Some of my recently uploaded photos, did not get the code uploaded with them, so when you click on them, you get....nothing. I have hunted through the help pages, and ..gave up...here they are again .

Val D'Anniviers Season Finale

After heading back to Geneva Airport with my partner Andy, we parted company, as he caught a flight back to the UK, and I caught a train to Sierre, with the intention of getting the Postbus to Grimentz. Plans do sometimes go wrong, and faced with a three hour wait for a bus , another stranded traveller did a deal with a taxi driver and we shared a taxi to up Val D' Anniviers. The view next morning makes up for any travel related stress.








Met up with ise and his friends and family for a great sunshine day both on and off piste. Grimentz was surprisingly crowded and we encountered queues for the lifts ise found a nice little gulley to ski in, even I managed to cope on my "girly Stormriders" (to quote ise) !















13/4 Grimentz and Zinal

Started the day cruising empty pistes in Grimentz, then caught the bus to Zinal to meet up with ise and ski the Chamois piste back to Grimentz. an excellent run, though the snow cover on the itinerary back to Grimentz was rather patchy. I'm so glad I have a rucksack with a ski carrier! After a substantial lunch, it was straight onto the Bendolla telecabine to meet up with brian who managed to spot me from the description I had sent by text....short, fat, old, black kit, girly Stormriders We took a few off-piste runs in the slushy afternoon snow, where ise decided to check out the snow depth by lying down and resting his legs.





Because I'm a nice person I did not get out my camera . He claimed it was my fault, as I wanted to ski in the "nice" gully we were in yesterday, only the snow was a little less pleasant!

Grimentz 14/4

Skied around in lovely warm sunny weather. Met up with Brian and his family for lunch. Sent a message to ise, but he was not feeling well, perhaps I skied him too hard yesterday . Spent the afternoon on the black Lona piste, top section, which was in excellent condition and very quiet.


























Grimentz 15/4

Hot and sunny day. Met up with ise, who had been indulging in some retail therapy, and wanted to try out his Stockli Stormrider Pit Lights, and Garmont Megaride boots. He had some new skins to match as well, and just had to try them out.

The pisteurs were busy taking down the marker poles (perhaps they had heard about me), and safety netting, so the piste skiing was a little more interesting. A live band was playing in the Bendolla restaurant at lunchtime, where we met up with Brian and his family. The conditions held up pretty well through the day, I fell over three times, and ise liked his new skis and boots, so all in all a pretty good season finale.

A Quick Visit to the Tarentaise

After leaving Chamonix, we drove through the Gorge D' Arly and across to Seez, to spend several nights in a Logis de France.



Sunday 8th, Les Arcs. Took the funicular up from Bourg St Maurice for an Easter Sunday ski around the Les Arcs system. We met up with Rob at the Arpette restaurant, and took a trip over to the Grand Col area, then back to the Arpette for lunch. Beautiful sunny weather, and the pistes were holding up well, though it did turn slushy off-piste by mid afternoon. Despite it being a Sunday and a holiday period, the slopes were not very busy.


Easter Monday, Tignes and Val d' Isere The sun was out (again), and so were the piste ants.
We drove over to Tignes Breviere and caught the Sache gondola up to the Aguille Percee. Saw so many sights today, mono skis, tons of vintage dayglo clothing, antique rear entry boots. We decided to avoid the crowds and head off piste a little, so skied over into Le Spot, stopping to pick up a sandwich and some drinks, to enjoy a picnic. We were fortunate to have some entertainment whilst we ate, as two english guys had found themselves out of options and were climbing out of their chosen route in Le Spot. It took them the time for a two course lunch plus drinks to reach a skiable slope. One of them subsequently fell over, and shed lots of gear over the whole hill, which resulted in lots more climbing for him.

We had passed by their route earlier, it took us just a couple of minutes, mind you, we did have a look at the terrain from the lift.

Tuesday 10/4 Spent the morning skiing around Les Arcs, and met up with Pete Garwood, Emily, Rob and Jane at the Chalets de l' Arcs restaurant above Arc 2000 for lunch. Very warm skiing conditions, boiler plate up high, soupy at 1600. I killed a piste marker on the black Refuge piste at Grand Col, and I still have a bruise...well it was in my way Here's Andy discovering the true meaning of "piste non damee" on his way to Arc 1600.

Chamonix Valley

A quick late season trip to Chamonix, and hopefully to ski the Vallee Blanche, before heading into Switzerland. We started our stay with a warm up day in Vallorcine/Le Tour. Lovely conditions, weather warm and sunny. Skied down to Le Tour village and enjoyed lunch off-piste. The car park at Vallorcine was able to cope with the volume of customers, though the lift queue at Le Tour was quite awful.










4/4. We were booked to ski the Vallee Blanche today, the guide phoned at 8am and said it was not possible due to the weather, so we spent the day in Les Houches.
We had fresh snow to play in, though the visibility was a little poor. The top section of the Kandahar piste was most enjoyable, with uncut snow down to mid station. The evening saw us revisiting the Guides Office AIGMB, to be told that we would not be doing the Vallee Blanche the next day either. Apparently we don't have enough off-piste powder experience.















4/4 Argentiere. The sun was out and so were the crowds. Good snow up high on the Chamois piste and underneath the Herse chair and GM cable car. Pistes had been refreshed with a little fresh snow, but underneath is rock hard. Skied down to Argentiere, which was rather like water skiing. Walk out through the mud to a very large Orangina.









Vallee Blanche...or not.. A couple of weeks before heading out to Chamonix, I booked a private guide for Wednesday 4th April. On the morning the guide phoned and said no go, bad weather. We were told to call at the Bureau that same evening, where we were told that we could not ski well enough in powder and we should go back the next day. We went back yet again, to be told..."conditions are great and we have no guide available for you" So we asked for a refund. To be honest, the prospect of undertaking the run by now was much less appealing on a public holiday. Think of any Theme Park in any country on a Bank Holiday! The bureau kept talking about us doing the Classic Run as well, something which we had specifically advised them that we did not wish to do. I'm not sure I would go back to Chamonix to do the Vallee Blanche. This was to be an early Birthday present, so I'm either €260 better off, or I've missed out on the trip of a lifetime.

A very sunny Good Friday, takes us back to Vallorcine and Le Tour again to try to avoid the crowds.
It was quieter than earlier in the week, and as the sun was very hot, the off-piste had softened up nicely. We spent around 50% of our time away from the pistes, on some very pleasant slopes. Just in case you are wondering, yes, I did jump off the edge, and land it Our next destination is Seez near Bourg St Maurice.