Chilling

As it was my Birthday, and I'd managed to sprain my ankle on the Schwarzhorn, we decided to have an easy day, as it was a Sunday after all. So we drive up to the Dam and have a good look round, It's pretty spectacular, and the view of the right side of the bank here, is skiable, well sort of. I have been down it, but a bit further across, and mostly on my back with my legs in the air as I recall.

This has to be the biggest overflow, I have ever seen!

It's hard to get a feel for the size of the structure, but there is a car down on the foreshore in the image. Yes, I know it's the wrong way up, but I've not managed to find out why this is happening, sorry!

It was a bit chilly for June, so we grabbed out coats and headed off for a long lunch in Zinal. When the sun came out, it was a whole lot warmer.

Interesting restaurant, with live entertainment!

Some Parapente guys gave us a free show while we had a coffee, and then we set off for a slow walk around the Naviscence for me to try and get my ankle freed up.

Hiking the Rostigraben

Starting from Chandolin we took the Tsape chairlift up, which was not without a little drama, as the lift operator could not work the ticket machine. The chair only runs for 30 minutes every couple of hours and time was getting on, but he finally managed to issue a ticket.

We walked over to see the Illsee barrage, which is quite spectacular then passed Lac Noir, then carried on up the Schwarzhorn. The path is marked as difficult on the route, though the new Swiss Hiking grades only mark it a T2 Mountain Hike. It's certainly a hands on walk at times, with good eyesight needed to spot the marker paint.



After a walk around on the top, we had lunch at 2790m with our feet dangling into German speaking Switzerland and looking down on the lakes of Oberer and Unterer Meretschisee.
Andy had a little vertigo, and felt drawn to the edge, which was not good.

On the way back, we stopped at the Tsape restaurant, which has recently been demolished and rehoused in a tent behind the chairlift station.

"Have you ever visited a Harvester"...

We hiked down the piste back to the car park, as it was the most direct route. It's surprising how steep ski pistes are! The day 's height gain after the chair lift was 315m. Descent was 860 metres. It felt like more!

Cabane d'illhorn

We had set off from Chandolin village aiming to get up high. The old village is very pretty and on sunny days gets great views of the valley.
The weather had other ideas, so we hiked through the woods to the Cabane d'illhorn for coffee and cake.

The weather set in for the day, and after hiking through the woods for a while, we decided to quit in favour of a long lunch at a local restaurant.It was good to visit the Cabane, as we have skied past it many times, and never called in. It's a charming place with a good menu and friendly staff. Next winter we will be back.

All New and Very Shiny

Today is the official inauguration of the new Zinal Cable Car cabins. They will carry more people, offering a better view up to the existing destination Sorebois. The old cabins are looking elderly and a little forlorn in the car park.

Weapon Of Choice

I have a listing on Facebook. I guess, that like a lot of Facebook users, my Friends list is made up of folks I associate with with face to face, folks I've met elsewhere on the internet who have similar interests and affiliations, and genuine long time friends.

Who knows what makes other folks tick, but I'd hoped I knew a bit about my long time friends. As it turns out I didn't know one of them very well at all.

Facebook has a large number of selectable restrictions with which a profile owner can modify who sees their profile, and what those folks can view. These are in addition to the Public Profile choices. I'd never used them as it made me feel a bit uncomfortable, if I didn't want some folks to read what I had written, why write it?

Logging on around the time of my Birthday, I was very surprised when clicking onto a long time friends profile, to see it looking very bare, with a minimal page of Wall information. So I emailed him to ask if he'd had a clear out, and he told me he'd been messing with the settings and the way blog posts appear, and he also said he'd look at it again sometime.

Now as he's a bit of an IT expert, I did wonder how this could have happened, but hey, maybe all of his listed friends were in the same puzzled situation as me, maybe it's Facebook at fault.

So, I contacted a couple of mutual friends at random, from very diverse backgrounds, and to my dismay, was told that they could see the full profile. So I'm starting to think that this was personal, and using the Facebook help section I now understand the fairly slow and painstaking process of blocking Profile access through entering an individual friends name, against different sections of your Profile. It was also a bit shocking to read in the dedicated chat areas that this particular tool is most often used by women to deter sex pests on Facebook.

You really could not do this by accident.

Never mind, I was sure he'd put it right soon, he's a good friend after all.

Except that didn't happen, because by the next day, a click on his profile, produced a 1 line entry only, for his Wall. So, he'd definitely looked at it again, and it would seem, reduced my access further.

Why do that, what's the point?

Enquiring of mutual friends has failed to identify my crime. They are at a loss to offer a reason or justification for his actions.

The next day I used a dummy registration to view his Public Profile and it looked pretty complete, so clicked on "Remove as Friend" to watch his Public Profile fill up, now the restrictions he'd placed against my name no longer held. At least I could read his Blog entries now. I emailed him to ask him to restore my Friend Status and remove the restrictions - no reply. So I sent a "Friend Request" - which he rejected, by clicking the ignore button. He then placed restrictions on his Public Profile, cutting my view of it to the minimum.

So, I waited a month, and then phoned him. It was Voicemail, so I rang off. My phone rings straightaway, and it's him, and he sounds upbeat and cheerful, but then I'm on a new number and once I tell him it's me, his voice tone changes, and despite phoning me, now he can't talk as he's in the car. In fact, that's all he said, over and over. I gave up.

As for me, I'm still pretty upset by this, but I'm determined to get out there and enjoy my life, as this will fade with time. Perhaps he will make the time to contact me one day and explain why he took the actions he did, but I'm not waiting in for his call.

I failed to see this coming, it seems things are never what we expect them to be. It appears that I was friends with him, but he saw me differently, disposable perhaps?

Thames Stroll

We took a very pleasant 5 mile stroll along the Thames Path. There is always plenty of activity both on and off the river, and the town of Abingdon was equally busy. Of course, the sunshine brings the crowds, and many tourists want to either walk beside the river, or rent a boat, and get afloat. Either way, solitude is not something they will be experiencing.

There are some very large boats moored near Abingdon, and we wondered just how they manage to get underneath the bridges.

Chufi

I should really start this entry with an apology, because I have no idea why some of my photos are on their sides, or how to fix it! Perhaps a quick fix of Chufi is needed in the system. It's my weak spot, I can't resist chilled Chufi and I was a lost cause when I spotted a large chilled display just full of Chufi in the supermarket.

Of course I need the full-on version, the low calorie one just does not taste right. So there I am swigging enough calories to keep me fed for a week in one glass (or so my waistline tells me).

I did make the effort to get some exercise, and we played tourist one afternoon and climbed the Peniscola castle ramparts, and visited the little exhibition in one dungeon. This was hanging from the ceiling BTW.


This is a view we have never seen before, from the castle roof, over the old town and we were left wondering why the port decided to paint the town name on the roof of the dock!

If you have ever been to Switzerland, you may have memories of a well ordered, polite society. Well, here's an example of how the Swiss park when they are abroad. It's probably a case of "when in Rome, do as the Romans". This is a Swiss registered Subaru Tribeca parked outside a local supermarket in Peniscola.

The weather was a little dull, but we escaped being rained upon, until we were heading for the airport, so that was fine by us. We managed to do a little DIY and gardening and most importantly relax, which is what a holiday is all about.

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.