Month: April 2018

Apparently the best snow was still to be had in Italy so …

Back through the tunnel we go having swapped Chris & Nicky for Mike and Angela, which means we can have a proper board meeting!

Day 64 and back to Courmayeur and some amazing fluffy snow. The trade-off being rather mixed visibility but we don’t care.

And the best thing .. ok not really the best thing .. about Mike & Angela’s arrival is new beautiful orange poles .. they match my zips.

Enjoy the snaps and snowy short.

music from www.bensound.com.

Tomorrow we stay put in France with old uni pal Adrian coming to play. He’s a bonafide Mountain guide .. what could go wrong.

We are getting good at this.

Top skills from Mark in predicting where we can find great snow so resulted in another Italian day filled with amazing powder, crappy visibility, fresh tracks in the trees, amazing hot chocolate & of course great coffee.

A very fitting end to some brilliant days with Nicky & Chris. Nicky found the off piste bug and Chris showing off some brilliant skills and putting up with some less than accurate predictions of how easy or hard our routes might be.

Actually we were lucky to make it back to base as our call to just do one more run ended up in a cloud filled valley where we couldn’t see a thing & shock horror we had to consult the piste map and use the power of the force to find the right lift back up .. senses of humour maintained all round .. thanks everyone for not killing your guide.

Enjoy the pictures but we really needed a photo of me here to improve the colour range, although I do quite like the red white & black palette.

it’s snowing

who goes there

tree action

Steep & Deep & public

view down the valley

The victors

We will have a really full house tonight as due to a small glitch in the “book your slot” spreadsheet we have an unexpected overlap.

Check back in a few days for some video footage of Chris & Nicky’s adventures.

Up next, day 64 and we return again to Courmayeur having swapped Nicky & Chris for Angela & Mike,.

2 days in the deep at the GM.

Day 61 & 62 with one beautiful sunny day with new ski buddies Trisha and Andy and one terrible vis but epic snow conditions with Sharon & Keith.

No warm up for Sharon and Keith but Thursday had us heading straight up to Les Grands Montets meeting up with Trisha and Alan for a day of blue sky, sunshine, new routes and fluffy stuff.

We culminated in an amazing run down Point de Vue from the top of the Mountain masterfully managed by all.

Friday and we split up with a well earned rest for Chris and Nicky .. well not really a rest as they were on the first Flegere lift (incredibly it was actually running!) Chris clocking up more high speeds on the BMW x-drive cup speed run and then they joined the grockles in the afternoon for a trip up the Aiguille de midi escorted by Mark.

The rest of us were back at the GM braving the rubbish vis at the top to be rewarded with amazing powdery turns down from the Pylones Piste and later the Lavancher bowl in the afternoon when the weather improved.

Some great action shots were captured along with some incredible views.

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And here’s a selection of the views from the midi and the famous glass box enjoyed by Chris, Nicky & Mark.

A long way down

Props

And to close off Thursday .. it’s been a while ..

We are heading back to Italy tomorrow. Nicky needs hot chocolate and we think the best snow will be had the other side of the tunnel.

Days 58, 59 and 60 … Flegere, Courmayeur & Les Houches

After equipping our new gusts with some fatter than they were used to ski’s thanks Sanglard we headed off the Brevent to find some ski legs.

A lovely cruise around some beautiful pistes, a few aborted attempts to find fresh fluff in the off and across to Flegere for epic views and a avalanche strewn home run which was fortunately soft and slushy rather than hard and icey and almost completely deserted thanks to the yet again closed Flegere lift .. once again it was defeated by the wind.

A pretty good warm up day. Chris has bonded with his Dynastar Legends, Nicky yet to be convinced about the Volkls.

Great snow conditions research by Mark saw us in Courmayeur on Tuesday and some great off Piste.. I think Nicky is hooked.

Admiring the view at Flegere

heading down

Home run Avalanche

Chris putting on the brakes

Snow shower

Thanks Nicky

Courmeyeur fluff

In the deep from the Youla

Looks like we have some exciting weather coming on wednesday .. better head to Les Houches.

Does anyone else keep in touch with their school PE teachers?

Nope .. must just be Nicky then. So it transpires Nicky’s school PE teachers, now retired, have a place in Argentiere, Alright for some 🙂 So we arranged to meet up .. they will be the ones with the pink carnations or something like that .. in Les Houches for the day.

We then enjoyed a great day with Andy & Trisha who are both great skiers, They hadn’t played in Les Houches for a long time so it was rather fun playing ski guide for the day. The snow conditions were just amazing .. so Sorry Chris for run one straight into the deep .. I just couldn’t resist the fluff.

Safe to say Nicky is well and truly convinced that yes she can indeed ski really well and not only on the Piste but also off and despite the arrival of the promised weather a fabulous day was had by all. Trisha & Andy had so much fun they are joining us for another day.

Les Houches

Fresh Les Houches tracks

Nicky & the Valley

Here comes the snow

Nice coat

Trisha

Andy

Team Les Houches

Trees

Success

looking a bit green further down the valley

Two more guests, Sharon & Keith, arriving tonight so we will be 6 in the apartment.

Tomorrow we are heading up the valley to Les Grands Montets, Chris & Nicky’s warmup is over and Sharon & Keith don’t get one.

After the snow days, the fresh tracks

Day 57 and after an aborted attempt to get up the lift at Flegere .. too windy apparently, I jumped on the bus up to Argentiere looking for some fresh tracks.

Les Grands Montets did not disappoint, lovely snow, sunshine most of the day and surprisingly quiet, well at least it was where I went.

Not quite the first

Long way down

lines in the snow

tracked

lunch spot

A fabulous day… hurrah I can still ski after a few days off … and back in time to make dinner for our new arrivals Chris & Nicky.

After rescuing them from Alpy Bus who dropped them off at the wrong location I tried to poison Chris with courgettes. I think he forgave me though. Up early tomorrow to hire some kit and see if Chris & Nicky remember how to ski 🙂

Up next. Chris & Nicky adventures….