First the important stuff - This weekend we participated in an avalanche awareness course, and I'm really glad we did. Although I knew a lot of the theory, and have managed well without for two decades(!) of off-piste, getting a lot of practical exercise crammed into two days was well worth it. There is to much to go into detail now, but I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone who spends time in the mountains at winter. 

Now lets talk weather. I spent both yesterday and today at Le Tour, although it hardly seemed like the same place. Yesterday it was a complete white-out. Riding the piste I had to stop at each pole and try to spot the next pole just to know where the piste went. And we all fell over numerous times not being sure if we had stopped or were still moving. Oh, and the wind was so strong we worried the lift would close and we'd get stuck on the wrong side of the mountain. Fun times! Going off-piste was completely out of the question. 

Today on the other hand was the complete oposite. Beautiful blue skies, and I even got my first hint of a goggle tan. Very windblown, but still good enough conditions to get some very good runs both down to Vallorcine and Le Tour.

Here's a couple of not-to-blurry phone-pictures.

Yesterday, New Years Eve, they closed of the road just past our house, in front of the climbing crag after we had some record amounts of snow dumping down on us. There was an avalanche there some years ago that went straight across the road, so I guess they were worried.

Since I had/have a cold I took it easy with the partying, and was rather ready to take advantage of the empty slopes on New Years Day. But I ended up staying home after all. With all the avalanche risk going around I decided to do some training in the garden. And even the snow there looks like it's slipping!

Went for a little stroll as well, and to my surprise there had actually been an avalanche down the climbing wall! Nothing to throw cars into the lake, but I'm very happy I wasn't near when it happened.

Happy New Year!

Duncan Snowman got a 30cm hat this morning.

Yes, there's more. A little video this time. (From last Wednesday)

I got woken up by the friendly words “Have a look out the window” today. It’s white! The first snow that’s reached all the way down in the valley came overnight, and it’s kept snowing all day.

So I ignored my cold/man-flu/whatever, went to the post office to pick up some christmas presents (yay!), and brought my camera with me.

Last Sunday we got in the car and drove from Chamonix to Cervinia in Italy. It's a 2 hour drive, with around 65€ in various tolls, so it's a good idea to fill up your car with friends. 

It seems Cervina is currently the only open resort in the alps, which is easy for them since the base is at 2000 meters, going up to 3500 meters, or 3800 meters if you venture over to the Swiss side. But that costs extra, so make sure you don't accidentally end up there if you have an Italy-only pass. Like we did.

I was super rusty getting back on the board. It's been almost 4 years. It was funny riding the first few hundred meters though, getting used to it again. It seemed it was the first time for everyone else, and I had a hard job dodging falling skiers and riders left and right. By the end of the day I eventually managed to get some grabs in, instead of wailing my arms wildly, and felt comfortable on some steep off piste.

It hadn't snowed in three weeks, but the conditions were surprisingly good for this early in the season. They already had a little park up with some rails, and both half pipe and a big park was well under construction. 

The terrain is very inviting to play in, a bit of New Zealand/Riksgränsen-like rolling terrain with many natural features in the lower parts, and larger mountains higher up, especially on the Swizz (Zermatt) side. So I'd like to go back on a powder day. But everything is above the tree level, so watch out for white-outs. 

And then there was the Swiss drama.

After lunch we headed town to the nearest t-bar to move over to another part of the system. We accidentally missed the first t-bar, but the next one was nearby, so we went for that instead.

Bad idea.

It turned out to be the longest t-bar I've ever seen, and under no circumstances were we allowed a free lift back up. The very unfriendly old Italian manning the lift only knew two words in English. Fifteen. Euro. Which he repeated endlessly amongst a stream of angry Italian arm-waving. 3 que-jumping attempts, some traversing and a bit of hiking later, I was back at the top ridge, the Swiss-Italian boarder, the right way home, and just as the lifts closed for the day. Lucky! The girls made it up as well, without the traversing and hiking, having decided to ride back down and pay the price after all. Which amazingly they managed to avoid this time! So it was happy endings after all. We got to finish the day with a really long run, down the right valley this time, heading into the sunset.

Back home I submerged my now very sore body into a hot bath for a good 2 hours.

One week ago I had never heard of this sport, tonight I saw Killian Jornet talk at the Chamonix Adventure Film Festival. He is a professional Ultra Runner sponsored by Salomon. This morning he took an “easy” run from Les Houches to Mont Blanc in 4 hours 15 minutes together with his sister. That's over 3800 meters of vertical, topping out at 4808 meters above sea level. On the way down they stopped for some breakfast at one of the refuges, making their leisurely return a full 2 hours long. 

And he didn't mention this himself, it came out during a questionnaire with the audience after showing the film Kilian’s Quest by Sébastien Montaz. Makes me wonder how many other humble super-humans I have walked past in the street in the last week.

We also saw Panik in Baffin (ski & snowboard), Feel the Hill (longboarding), Wild Water (whitewater rafting and kayaking), and The Climate of Change (environmentalist). 

I feel very inspired now.

We spent our last day in Morzine before moving to Chamonix driving over to Chamonix to walk to Lac Blanc, a lake I've seen pictures of heaps of times, but didn't even know where was. Turns out it's a reasonably easy walk, 2.5 hours in and out. If you take the telepherique up the first 1000 vertical meters that is.

View Larger Map

I was very excited to see the mindblowing mountains around Chamonix again, but not quite as excited paying 23 euros for a single return ticket on the lift. It was great going for a little hike though, and my legs and back even coped fairly well.

Afterwards we went into Chamonix town which was quite the circus. I wasn't expecting it to be that super busy. I guess it's a popular tourist destination. After the obligatory browse in one of the climbing shops we rewarded ourselves with a pizza and pint before heading back to Morzine.