Snow and SMC

A 'deep powder' day. This was an unpisted black run

Well we have had some snow which led to a fabulous day playing about in the powder. There is something odd about not being able to see anything of your leg below the knee, it also makes turning quite interesting! Still, at least falling over is a soft landing

Getting our gear out of the car at the Ardent gondola lift station

We’ve both indulged and bought bird food and cat food, a fat ball for the blue and great tits, though they really seem to prefer the bread, and some cat crunchies, for two fraidy, fraidy cats, they must be strays as if we move too fast inside, while they are on the windowsill outside they leg it, opening the window even to put out more crunchies is definitely a no-no! Hopefully I will have managed to calm them down before we go, a stroke and some fuss would be nice! They are a little white one with a dark eye patch and dark tail, and a white and tortoishell one.  I've been putting cat crunchies on the window sill, the mostly white one, will walk along the sill to eat, but the other just pokes its ears over the top and snaffles the crunchies from below!
 

This may sound a bit in opposition to the bread we are putting out for the birds (that the cats were eating too) and the fat ball he's hung (if I was having cat food he was having bird food!) but the bluetits and great tits seem to be here 0800 ish and 1600 ish and cats are after dark, so hopefully we won't have a conflict of interests!

Skiing in a snow storm has its drawbacks!

Roger, our SMC chairman with his new Christmas present skis. At this point they hadn't even been on snow. They've even got his name and a little Union Flag printed on them. He's a 'happy bunny'!

This is Mike R, all ready for action....

Our gentle routine of opening the eyes, to look out of the window, and decide, depending on the weather, how long to spend over breakfast in bed (we have given up drawing the curtains as no one can see in, and it’s a lovely view to wake up to, or see the cats on the window sill), has been shattered by the arrival of the SMC (Solihull Mountaineering Club), they are staying just down the road in Morzine for the week long annual ski trip, so obviously they will be out regardless of the weather…..

Mike D...

Jo...

James...

and Jackie (and Brian the other side of the camera, but no-one takes a photo of him!!)

The team assembled at the top of 'Mouflon' and unpisted black run that we all did

They arrived yesterday in time to get a half day pass (though whether I would have bothered as Jo, Mike and Mike were up at 01.30, to leave Brum, drive to Manchester for an 07.00 flight! Even Roger and James who stayed overnight in Manchester were still up at 04.00) so we met them at the bottom of their nearest lift and off we went! Didn’t get home till gone 17.00, what about tea and cake? Well a small slice while the stew re-heated. 

Here's something you don't see everyday, men repairing a chairlift

Then alarm for 07.30 this morning to be at their hotel for 09.00. Back for 16.00 today, really ready for cake! We are just not used to these long days, we didn’t actually ski any more runs, you just spend longer re-grouping, deciding what runs to do, and having lunch! We’ve been having a sandwich on a lift, not an option for the guys. We may have to leave them a bit earlier a few days as we still have to do normal mundane things, like buy bread, cook dinner etc! It’s lovely to see them though, and the skiing has changed – James has a tree obsession, loves to ski off piste through the trees, so we all follow!