Pass The Suncream

It's April, and I'm skiing the end of season weeks in incredibly hot weather. I suppose the term hot is relative, but for skiing, it felt way too warm. I had arrived by train and then Postbus, and Sierre was baking hot. I was beginning to understand why vineyards are big business in Valais.

My skiing experience was that of very hard surfaces in the mornings, followed by soft slushy snow after lunch. The resort was pretty busy over Easter, and I worked hard to avoid the queues for the lifts.

Andy arrived for a short break and we had a great time off piste over by the Lona black slope. We saw that there had been an avalanche which had damaged the pylons of the drag lift, and we watched a new pylon being helicoptered into place.


In the photo, you can see the extent of the avalanche, and the helicopter with the pylon underneath. The helicopter had a twin set of blades, which I've never seen before.

The lift company fixed the left very quickly, and cleared the track between the debris, so we could use the lift. Seeing the debris up close was quite scary.


We did manage to get away from the Easter crowds though, taking a picnic and enjoying the spring sunshine.

An unusual sunset brought with it the promise of a change in the weather, but unfortunately Andy had to go home.

As the morning after the snowfall dawned, I received a txt from friend Brian. Who says there are no friends on a powder day.


As he's a good skier, he leads me off piste to places, I wouldn't normally go by myself. As usual I'm playing catch up!

Some of these tracks are mine, and for me that's good!

I did drop my camera on the tarmac at the gondola station, so right now I'm wondering if I did some damage to the inside, apart from the dents on the body, as normally my photos are a bit sharper.
I started with a cold on the night after I took these photos, so I was feeling a bit low for the last few days. Of course, this cleared up, in time for my journey home.

The Swiss Calendar

I have recently travelled on Swiss Trains. Not an exceptional activity by itself, though I did use a Swiss Transfer Ticket, available only to foreigners, and valid for two journeys in one month.

As my first journey was the 6th of April, I filled in the travel document on the day. The form is arranged vertically, so:
Day 6
Month 4

When my ticket was inspected, I usually get a stamp, but not this time. The inspector gets out her pen. She carefully inks a 0 (zero) in front of the 6. This I can understand, perhaps I might feel I wanted another outward journey on the 16th, or maybe the 26th of the month, thereby potentially cheating Swiss Rail of some income.

She does the same on the Month line in front of the 4 (April). How many other months can you name utilising 4 in the calendar? Take your time.......

Answers on a postcard :D

Big Snow

An amazing two weeks, skiing more fresh snow than I have ever encountered before. Day after day the snow was topped up, and I hope I might just have improved my skiing!


As usual, I'm playing catch up, but I did get a good opportunity to try out my new Scott Punisher skis.

Another superb powder day saw us meeting up with friend JT from Snowheads and along with a group of his friends we found some very dry, light and wonderfully fluffy slopeside powder.
JT was using his new Movement Gladiators and says he likes them, though I did catch him digging a snow pit with his head!

In his defence, he says, that it's a nice straight line (as far as it goes).
Andy, who only likes skiing on groomed pistes, has discovered that it's fun to ski the fluffy stuff.


Of course, all this fresh snow has it's downside when you want to use the car to visit another village.

The digging took a while, but afterwards, we managed to get over to St Luc to meet and ski with another of the Anniviers Facebook group members, Rodney and his wife Pam. Rodney likes to ski quite fast, and is discussing with Andy how to get to the bottom of the Prilet piste in St Luc in sub 4 minutes. I let them go ahead, it's probably a man thing.


We made a couple of visits to Zinal during our stay, and the resort was quite busy with a Parapente competition. Here is one of the sponsors with a little airship.


The slopeside powder in Zinal was well worn, but I still enjoyed myself anyway!


Back over in Grimentz,I tried this shortcut on the run down to the village,  I made good use of it, and so did lots of other folks.

We discovered a little chute after picnicking nearby, it was just waiting to be skied. Well actually others got there before me, and identified the rocks!

I did manage to lure Andy into Abondance, and we had a close up view of some avalanche debris. It was very close to the route, and it's easy to see why this Itinerary gets closed for days on end.


We made a day trip over to Vercorin, which was very quiet, and quite cold. There was a fog in the Rhone valley which looked quite spooky.


Zinal in the sunshine, provides a good counterpoint....

It's not often that powder is the predominant type of snow for a holiday. We feel very fortunate to have had a whole 2 weeks of the fluffy stuff.

What Goes Up.......

A pre Christmas getaway to Grimentz saw me arriving by rail at Sierre to be met by the Postbus which was on chains. This was the first time I had seen a bus in the valley on chains, and on arrival in Grimentz it was easy to see why they were needed.

Of course, the path to the apartment had not been cleared, so I was soon knee deep in snow. Next day the snow continued, and once I had dealt with some admin matters, I decided that I would try snow shoes for the afternoon. Visibility was quite poor at times, but I was very pleased with my 1st attempt. I did realise whilst walking down the Bendolla piste, that it is quite steep.

The next day saw slightly improved visibility, and as the lifts were still closed I decided to try my skins on the same ascent to Bendolla.

I was very pleased with my climb times, which were double last years' attempts. Of course, as the lifts were closed, I got to make some lovely turns in untracked powder.

The next day was Bluebird skiing conditions!


I had wonderfully fluffy powder which lasted all day, although I really only got into turning properly mid afternoon, which was a shame, as the powder turned to overdone meringue overnight, robbing me of the chance to perfect my turns!

That evening saw the Grimentz Christmas Fair in full swing. This creation from the local bakers' really grabbed my interest.

The next day I skied Grimentz again, and tried the off piste, but it had frozen hard overnight and was just awful. I stayed on the piste, as the visibility was a bit poor as well.

Grimentz closed it's lift system again on the Monday, so I headed for Zinal. It was quite a long journey as there is no skiers bus linking Grimentz and Zinal until the 22nd December, so I had to travel via Vissoie, 2 buses each way. With delays at the cable car, it was really a 2 hour journey to the slopes, and it was a shame that the visibility was not so good, since the snow was quite nice.

The next day I made the same journey and was rewarded with better weather, though the off piste was as crusty as the Grimentz stuff, which is not too surprising really.


The snow began again next day, and I needed to pack, so I spent my time walking in and around Grimentz, which looks very pretty in it's winter coat.

It was lovely to get away from the overly commercial and tacky aspects of the run up to Christmas in the UK, and chance to get some great skiing done.

Weekend Warriors

Making a late decision to head out to Zermatt and test some skis, I stopped off in Grimentz to collect my kit en-route and was on my skis for 11am on Friday morning. A beautiful sunny day, and perfect to settle down on my Stockli's, before testing some skis over the next two days. The ski area was quite busy, and the cable car up to Furi was quite a squeeze. I had left behind my Transceiver to ensure that I stayed away from the early season off-piste. That resolution lasted a whole one run before I headed under the rope and into the fresh powder.

After skiing I settled into my hotel, and took a walk around the resort, and thought my hotel room had a pretty good view.

The view was excellent, however the bathroom was not. The sign on the door was a bit of an omen.

No matter how I tried to fold my legs into the bath, there was no way in which I could soak my tired knees, and I'm only 164cm tall.

I made sure that I was up and ready for Saturday breakfast starting at 7.30, though I had not really considered that I would be late. On reaching the breakfast room it seemed that the breakfast buffet had been hit by a plague of locusts, and the room was pretty full. I settled down for some protein free left overs, and made a mental note to be earlier on Sunday.

Of course, I was now at the rear of the weekend warriors mass ascent of the Klein Matterhorn, and by the time I reached Trockner Steg, I had discovered that most of the crowd seemed to be participating in the Swiss Ski Test since the test centre seemed to be rather full of people and empty of skis. I briefly considered giving up and going down to get my Stockli's, then joined the scrum.

I was asked what sort of skis I wanted, and what type of skiing I like to do, and I offered up a list of likely models having done some research. So, I'd said I had wanted mid fat skis, 50% off piste profile, and what I was offered were narrow waisted carvers, suitable for piste use only and generally in cute colours. I decided to go for self selection!

Binding setting was quite funny, the ski tech yells what sounds like "sowlalanga" at me which I took to mean boot sole length, and then complains when I'm unable to step the heel piece down on a binding which is still set to the last user who weighed 100 kilos (so I'm told). I'm not 100kg BTW.



The first ski I tried was the Scott Neo. 166cm 122/82/111
I thought this was a really good piste ski, and it's pretty good in soft snow, though it got chucked around in crud. Quite easy to live with.


Next up I tried the Scott Crusade 169cm 139/90/118
This was a really surprising ski on groomed slopes. It turns really easily and is quite fun. Off piste, it seemed to need quite a bit of speed before starting to turn. It has a split personality and turns into a big mountain charger away from the groomed slopes.


I returned the Scotts to the rack and picked up a pair of Dynastar Legend 8000
165, 120/79/103, took a warm up run and headed for lunch. I had wanted to try some 8000's as Andy has some and is really fond of his, so straight after lunch headed up the Klein Matterhorn cable car for a decent blast down to Trockner Steg. So, I walk down the access tunnel and down to the start of the piste, pop the skis down on the snow, and one ski starts to slide rapidly, heading under the safety rope and off onto the crevassed area of the glacier.

I could not understand how the ski could do this, the snow was powdery and the brake should have stopped it sliding. There was no way I could have gone after it, and it was now out of sight, so I stood the other ski in the side of the slope, so that a searcher would know where to start looking and headed back down the cable car to the test centre. The test centre sent me back up to collect the single ski, and with amazing luck, the escaped ski had been spotted and was now beside it's mate in the snow.

On examining the ski, it was obvious what had happened, the binding heel piece was open, and the brake was up, not down. A faulty ski binding with no functional brake to stop the ski. I returned both skis to the test centre, and whilst I was there another skier returned his test pair, but carrying a detached ski brake. I wonder if I should use my own skis on Sunday.

Saturday night, saw the weekend drunks out in force, kicking the E-bus shelter outside at 10pm, shouting in the street at 3am and in my hotel corridor at 4am, so I had hopes that breakfast might be a little less popular, no such luck, even though I was a few minutes early.


I had decided to give the test centre another chance, so braved the scrum for the cable cars and then picked up the Movement Black Rose 175, 121/88/110. This is a women's specific ski and the top of the range for Movement women's skis, the target user group is expert. I took my Leatherman tool and did my own checks on the bindings, before I used the skis.

I enjoyed using these so much, I hung onto them all day. They are a wonderful ski, well balanced, great on piste, light and springy. Off piste they inspire confidence. I really wish that there had been a length suitable for me to really test properly. I'm not convinced that testing a ski 11cm over head height is all that accurate, but I did my best!

There is no way that I could be described as an expert skier, and I'm left wondering that Movement could sell lots more stock if they re-worded their target group in the catalogue.

Of course, as this was Sunday, all of the crowds were heading off the hill and I got a decent nights sleep! So, as I was skiing on Monday, naturally I headed down to breakfast just a few minutes early, to be told by my hotelier that breakfast started at 7.30. So I made do with yesterdays' bread, and grabbed some meat from the buffet. It was good to see what was supposed to be laid out.


I was back on my Stockli's and it was good to be on my own kit! A little windy though!

Wellies and an Umbrella

I headed out to Spain for a week or so. I knew about the weather forecast before I set off, and it is Gota Fria season after all. Most folks understand the need to stay home when the rain comes, though, some of the locals decided to take their chances on local roads as the rainwater makes it's way to the sea. I turned on the local TV station to see some of the results.



This is on a local road, and it's between me and the supermarket, good job I had plenty of food in the fridge. Of course, when the road sign says, "Inundable" chances are that it will flood when the rains come.

The next day the rain stopped and the fire crews arrived in town to pump out homes and restaurants.
Some areas of the town were completely washed out, and I was surprised to see that this car had ended up as a part of a local water feature. Many hotels were flooded and coaches were unable to reach hotels as the roads were too deep in water.

If you have ever wondered what happens to all this rainwater when it reaches the beach, it does this.