Five Months of Skiing

Well, not 5 months in total, but last winter I managed to ski in 5 different months. Some months were definitely better than others. March and April were rather warm for skiing, but I did my best!I'd like to think that my skiing has improved a little, but it's difficult to judge. Perhaps I'm now on the right equipment for my needs. I did fall over a few times, the most memorable falls were when I had no skis on! Ski boots are not made for walking on ice!

I did try the high traverse on this slope, so some of these tracks are mine. I found it quite steep though.


There was plenty of spring powder to be had, close to the pistes. Once the resort had closed for the season, I headed for Zermatt, staying in a little B&B, and walking up to the Klein Matterhorn lift.

This was a bit of luxury. The new gondola was operating between the base station, all the way to Trockner Steg. A seat all the way!
Last time I was in Zermatt the lift company were building a restaurant at the top of the Klein Matterhorn. It's now complete, and to reach the cafe or toilets, it's necessary to walk through the gift shop, just in case I should feel the need to buy a T shirt or mug! Coffee is good, and the view is wonderful. Much more comfortable than the Portacabin that was here on my last visit.



The glacier slopes were in great condition, but I'd never seen so much of the glacier exposed on earlier visits.


I was summarily fleeced at Trockner Steg. I'd forgotten to put my water bottle in my sack, so paid 6Sfr for a small bottle which was priced up at 80 cents in the supermarkets in the village.

Seeking a better value alternative, I followed an "Open" sign for the Gandegghutte. The piste runs underneath the KM cable car, and some of it is uphill. When I arrived, the staff out laying the tables, went inside and locked the door. One to avoid!

Though the glacier was in great shape, some of the lower runs were a little thin. This slope leads down to Furi from Furgg. Rocks, grass and mud with some wet snow, with a walk out at the end! This is not the village, it's well above it.

I decided to catch the gondola over to Riffelberg and then the train up to Gornergrat. Wonderful views, and it was fun to be on a train as a skier. I raced the train back down to the gondola.

On my way back down to the village one day, the lift company were running the old cable cars, so I was treated to the view of old and new together. Underneath it's possible to see the piste running down to the village. Based on how thin the piste was higher up, I didn't try the ski down.

Dear British Airways

I was caught up in the latest BA industrial dispute. Come to think of it, I was caught up in the last one, and the one before that, but I digress. A couple of days ago, my nerve failed me. I would be 1500km from home with no access to a laptop and only a PAYG mobile phone, before I'd find out if BA were going to run a plane to get me home. Not a good situation, and with potentially limitless costs ahead, and with BA's new reputation for not paying stranded travellers' expenses hitting the tabloids, I've bottled out.

Discussed my options with my OH and we agreed I should get on the phone and move my flights away from BA's ongoing problems. He would have to manage alone, and I would not be arriving by plane/train.

So, after looking through the latest strike list of options from the BA website, observe that they have blocked DIY changes, I'm obliged to phone a call centre.

Problem #1, I'm gullible. The operator can't offer me the dates I want, because the computer says no. She offers me 2 earlier dates, which are no good to me, and I tell her this. I am reassured that it's okay, I can go into the system later and change them. So, having been duly reassured, I agree, and await the email I'd requested to confirm the changes.

Problem #2, I'm trusting. When the email arrives, not only are the dates no good, the return flight is now only 2 days after the outward one, which is utterly useless. I decide to test what the operator has told me the day before and swap them.

Problem #3, As BA appears to have still disabled part of it's website, customers cannot change their travel, you have to keep phoning them.

I'm an Executive Club member, so they are the people who I phone. Up to now, I thought I'd had a few problems, but really that was just chicken feed.

Problem #4
The operator tells me:
That "to change your flight will cost be £60, plus any additional fare costs."
That "you are only allowed 1 change"
That "I'd entered into a new contract"
That "if you cancel you won't get a refund"

So, by now I'd really had just about enough of British Airways. I've naturally done nothing about the flights, they are still a crock.

It's pretty interesting that the rights of passenger seems to be pretty poor with this company. I made a booking in good faith to meet a tight timetable with a scheduled train service which is advance reservation only, and realistically 1 train a day.
Like most of the public, I cast my eye over the booking conditions, but fail to read into any of the weasel words in the sub clauses because it generally takes me into a closed loop, and I have a life.

Why does the schedule play no part in the booking contract ?

When a BA passenger books and pays the money, the company does not have any obligation to deliver to meet the schedule. It's in the small print.

So, for a fair and balanced contract, I should be able to turn up and get on any plane to my destination, yes?

Well no. The airline takes my money, and I enter into a one sided contract. It then runs the plane to it's timetable if I'm really lucky. If not, then I won't get a refund.

As a passenger, it's become a matter of (if) not when I'll arrive.

I'll be searching the web for a decent priced airfare for my return trip.

As for not getting a refund, from reading I've done it seems that like most of the plane companies, BA charge disproportionate sums to refund the Taxes and APD charges paid by travellers that they hold until after we have travelled.

Disabling the website from offering this function, DOUBLES the charge they make on the hapless punter, because the only way to make the cancellation is by phone. Nice little earner, and no wonder the operator in the Executive Club sounded happy.

As for my reservation only onward rail travel with Spain's national rail operator RENFE, I simply cancelled the booking online, paid a single figure admin fee and the money was back in my credit card account in 2 working days. Excellent service. British Airways should take note.

In December 2009, I flew with BA, I had no idea how I would get home, but a judge intervened and declared the strike ballot unlawful.

In March 2010, I flew with BA, well actually I flew with Jet2 and Air Finland. My outward flight was cancelled and it took me an hour and 20 minutes on hold to BA to get a seat on a later flight. I had no real indication of how I'd get back when I left the country, but as long distance public transport at my destination, is plentiful and most requires no advance reservation it's not such an issue.

Of course BA were supposed to email/txt me with details of any cancellations, and I received nothing at all, so have little confidence in their service.

I do not feel that British Airways has any right to expect any loyalty from me or any of the other victims of this fiasco. I have lost a small amount of money in comparison to many travellers. We should have all lost nothing, as it's not our problem.

Patrouille des Glaciers

Whilst in Zermatt recently I was fortunate to see the start of the mountain race between Zermatt and Verbier. This only takes place every 2 years and it's pretty tough. There were hundreds of soldiers in Zermatt to manage the start and the preparations. I was quite surprised at the large numbers of the media there, but when lots of exotic looking skis filled up the ski room in my hotel, I realised it was a pretty big event.

During the afternoon the army band officially opened the event by marching through the village.



The start on this, the first night, was outside the main railway station in the centre of the village, and the main street was fenced and roped off by nightfall.

I bagged a position along the fence near to the start and was in place to see the tape go down and a row of soldiers hold back the racers until the official count down is over. The soldiers make a run for the fence and the competitors surge forwards.



Most of them were wearing trainers, and had their ski boots fixed into their bindings on their skis, strapped onto their packs. As I walked back to the comfort of my (now) quiet hotel, I imagined that I would be having a much better nights sleep than any of the racers (who skied and climbed all night).

Mountain Bite

This is a friends Giro helmet. He was wearing it when he lost a ski and somersaulted onto some rocks last month, while we were skiing together. He had a bruised arm and sore knee as well.

In fact all his focus was on his sore arm. I went over and picked up his kit and he skied back onto the piste to take stock, and only then did I see the rock sticking out of his helmet. I really thought that it was a piece of rock stuck onto the snow,which was stuck on his helmet. I was pretty surprised when I pulled it out of a hole.

It had gone right through, and he had a graze on his hairline, the helmet stopped the rock going further.

He's going to buy a new helmet.

Beep

This winter I'd promised myself that I'd get some snow time practice in with my Transceiver. I've practised in two dimensions, but I really wanted to have a try in the local Avalanche Training Centre in Zinal.

I have an Analogue Transceiver, an Ortovox F1 Focus, and I had the perfect opportunity to spend a sunny afternoon at the free facility in Zinal. The snow was warm and soft, and not too good for skiing, but perfect to practice in the warm sunshine.

The facility is really easy to use, with instructions available in several languages, and once I'd set the timer and number of "victims" to search for I began to discover just how tiring it is to clamber around wearing ski boots in hilly conditions using a probe and Transceiver.

The facility has buried several responders around the site, and searchers have to find them and touch them with their probe to switch them off. I had good success at getting close in using my Transceiver, but failed to get a pinpoint location every time I tried. I don't know if my machine is faulty, my skills are deficient, the facility has a fault, or it really only works with 2 Transceivers. My machine kept losing it's direction signal when I switched to close range, new batteries too!

The experience made me understand just how exhausting it is to going to be to search for a buried person under Avalanche debris.

I'm sad to report that my 2 "buried victims" would have died as I failed to find them in the search time I'd set.

Pass The Soap

Lots of new visitors to the Anniviers Valley are a little overwhelmed by the narrow steep road from Sierre. Well, there is some good news and bad news. The good news is that this road is closed during the daytime until mid June. There are roadworks in progress.

The bad news is that all traffic must travel up via Vercorin to Mayoux, which is quite a lot narrower.
I had my doubts that the Postbus would even try to run a service using full size vehicles, would they borrow some minibuses? Make that a no!
Even delivery vans fill the road, and remember, this is 2 way.


I had been idly wondering what would happen if the Postbus I was on met something bigger, and on cue along came a really large lorry. It really does not matter how many air horns you have and which tunes they play, both these vehicles are too big for the road they are on.


In Switzerland the Postbus should have right of way, but as the the lorry had a tail of cars and vans behind it, reversing was impractical. Impasse!

The solution was found! The Postbus reversed a small way, crossed onto the opposite side of the road, allowing the lorry to pass alongside, now also on the "wrong" side.


We did this once again before we arrived in Sierre!

I know all my photos are sideways and I apologise, but it's something that Blogger does, I don't have my laptop tipped on it's edge, honestly.

Powder Daze

We are often asked if we are lucky with our snow when we visit the Val d'Anniviers. This is how it is most of the time, we respond. I guess it's just as well that we like skiing off piste and in powder.

An opportunity to revisit classic runs that we enjoy, which seem to change just slightly each winter. Once the Itineraries are declared open, there is a rush to ski them, which left us with chopped up powder, still fun though.

One morning we headed over to Zinal to watch some Parapente competitors in a local competition. The objective seems to be to touch down in a marked box on the snow and fly on to the next checkpoint. It's good to have some entertainment with lunch and this checkpoint was just outside a cafe.

Andy has some new skis, and was busy getting the feel of them. After a day or so, he declared that he liked them. Just as well really!

Crossing the valley to St Luc and Chandolin we decided to try an Itinerary down to one of the base lifts. The top was glorious, the bottom was icy moguls, refrozen snow, rocks and trees!



We headed up a little higher to find some softer snow!

Over in Grimentz, we kept missing meeting up with a member of the Anniviers Facebook Group. Maybe next time, we will be more organised. We did bump into a group of friends off piste, not literally, but they were skiing the same pitch, it was quite surreal!
Grimentz was starting to get busy. We got the picnic habit again!

Headed over to Zinal again, in the hope of a quiet day. We had some good snow in the Combe Durand area, and then skied down to Zinal, which was a bit mogully.

We made a tactical error in skiing down, as we saw hundreds of children queueing for the cable car. It took perhaps 20 minutes for the line to go down. Whilst waiting we bumped into another member of the Anniviers Facebook Group, quite unexpectedly, took the chance to catch up with news and then we went for a welcome coffee at the top.

Back to Grimentz to have a look at the Skier Cross and Freestyle competition. The competitors in the park were getting some serious height.

Our last day was pretty snowy, it's just possible to see the sun in this photo.



Our journey home was quite snowy too. We crossed the Jura in a snowstorm and saw our last snowplough around 30 miles from Calais. Here's the view through the windscreen just south of Reims.

Chilly

A quick getaway to the Val d'Anniviers before Christmas. It seemed really easy. Hop on a plane to Geneva, and then the train and Postbus. Of course I had not bargained on British Airways staff voting to strike, and declaring their intent to strike before I travelled back. Oh well, if I had to travel home on the train, it would be no hardship.

I had a walk around Sierre on the way up the valley and saw locals playing outdoor Bingo, accompanied by some guys on a Karaoke machine. All in -2c.




The weather and a judge then intervened in my travel plans, which was just as well. The weather in the UK was awful and lots of folks were stranded, then Eurostar suffered from the wrong type of snow and upset thousands of travellers plans. The judge conveniently (for me) declared the BA strike vote unlawful, which meant that my flight home was running again!

I skied in both Grimentz and Zinal, both hills were pretty cold. The skiers bus does not run until high season, so the journey to Zinal each day was over an hour and two buses each way. It was also not free, unlike last year.
The cold was pretty invasive! I saw -20c at mid station in Grimentz and saw a reported -29c at the top of the lift system. The loos at Bendolla were full of screaming children and anxious parents, who had failed to read the weather forecast and dress their children to suit the conditions. I have never seen so many people who looked as though they had been slapped hard.

All this cold weather, meant very little new snow, it was just too cold. I did manage to find isolated pockets of fluff, but generally off piste cover was thin and rocky, so I stayed clear.

Meeting up with some old friends was a real bonus, and I enjoyed skiing with them again, though don't feel I did my skiing justice, as I went down with a really bad cold, which sapped my energy. I also slipped over crossing the road and tweaked a knee, so I'm guessing the cold left me a bit vulnerable to injury.
The cold is now going, and I can't wait to get back out there later this month. It's rather cold again right now, but I'm confident that will pass and lots of fresh snow will follow in it's wake!

Vertical Chill - Saab Ice Wall

Ice Climbing has been on my "must do" list for a while. I grabbed the chance to take an hour's climbing on the Saab Ice Wall in London. It was huge fun, though quite tiring. I completed 2 straight ascents, then 2 with an overhang, and tried the most difficult face twice.



Although I'm in a fridge full of ice, it's hot work, and once I'd finished my session and changed, I headed into Covent Garden to act like a tourist, before meeting up for a Pastie with Tim who is a fellow member of Anniviers Ski. It's nearly Christmas, and I'm certain I've never seen a Reindeer this large! Santa's view December 24th....



Around and about in Covent Garden.

Chalk and Cheese

I'm don't really go to many music events, but last month I went to two. It's been two years since I saw Massive Attack in Birmingham and as they are releasing a new album soon, it was a good opportunity to hear some of the new material played live.

Coincidentally, I'd discovered that ZZ Top were playing just 2 venues in the UK, they had not played here for 10 years, and we'd never seen them live. We managed to get seats at Wembley Arena, oh the luxury!

Massive Attack, played Swindon Oasis, which is run by Swindon Council. It's grubby and run down, needing modernisation. I really enjoy MA, and would have enjoyed seeing the band play, but as we were all standing in a sports hall, and being a bit short, I listened to most of the event. Some of the new stuff is really excellent, and they were superb musically as ever.

Wembley Arena by contrast is big and bright and well run. There are plenty of facilities. The staff are polite and helpful, and I was blessed with an uninterrupted view of the stage from my seat, at pretty close range!

ZZ Top have been playing together for 40 years, and are pretty slick, needing few few stage props to hook the audience. I do enjoy my clothes flapping to the bass, and my ears rang until the day after. A really memorable event, with plenty of feel good music.

Their support act were Steel Panther who parodied every heavy metal cliche that ever existed, but could also play really well, though I think I'll pass on buying any of their released material, there was just too much swearing for the sake of it.