Bring It On

Santa came to Grimentz a little early and brought some snow with him. I made full use of this early and very welcome gift. One of the village hotels looked really pretty in the snowfall.

A nice fresh fall of snow meant that the Snowpark kickers could be built.

New snow of course, meant new risks, so some places were unsafe to ski. As not every day was sunny, the flat light also caused problems.

As it's so dull, it's not possible to see the how this slope falls fairly steeply towards the skidoo. It's a red graded run and the bottom is often icy at the junction. I don't know if the helicopter was called out to a fall or a collision. This was someone's ruined Christmas.

My New Years' Resolution should be : I must set my alarm clock earlier and make the best of the new snow more often. On the day I did make the lift opening, it broke down, and did not start up for 35 minutes!

There were a few really stormy nights while I was there. I heard none of it, but could see the snow had drifted at the top of the Orzival lift.

All that wind was bad news for the new snow, which turned to breakable crust!

In between skiing days, I managed to order a new mattress for our bed, which arrived just as I was leaving for the UK. I became aware of the delivery with the sound of a revving engine and skidding tyre noises as the van tried to get up the footpath behind the apartment. The car park and entrance path would have been so much easier.

When I left for the airport, my flight was listed as on time. On my arrival it was listed as at least 2 hours late, so I headed for the information desk to try for an earlier departure. To my surprise I was successful, and my rearranged flight (now late also) left at the time my later flight was originally supposed to leave. I have my suspicions!

The check in hall was overflowing with passengers trying to check in and looking at all those unhappy faces really saps my willpower. I had needed to ask where the information desk was, I could not see it, there were so many people in the check in hall plus a long queue for "something" snaking back into the main part of the airport. Flying with budget airlines seems to bring with it a whole new level of travel misery.