RAIN

It’s raining, hurrah! Ok so it would be better if it was snow, hurrah, but if I look out the window I can see it is snow half way up the hill (about the level the bubble goes up to and where the majority of the skiing at our little resort starts from), there is something really strange about seeing such a distinct line of snow, no snow, don’t suppose I’ll ever get used to that! It’s meant to snow today and tomorrow, stopping just in time for Roger (from the mountaineering club)’s visit, he arrives late tomorrow until Saturday, when we swap him for James (also from the mountaineering club! They were both on the club trip in January so have both seen the apartment so know what they are letting themselves in for!) until Monday evening.

Where has all the snow gone....

We have made the most of the weather in the last week though, enjoying the pistes (I still think the pisteurs are miracle works) though they do vary from sheet ice in the morning to slush in the afternoon. I’d sort of planned a relaxed day on Monday after the w/end, but as usual having missed 3 days B thought he might have forgotten what to do so we went out. Tuesday we met up with Cassie and Simon, the lovely couple we met on our walk to the via ferrata the other day. (How could he not be lovely when as an ex-Navy boy his personal email address is shipscat_meow@ !) just at St Jean which was very chilled, we didn’t do too much skiing, but lots of talking and siting in the sun drinking lemonade (how restrained) before bringing them back for lunch. (hope the packet soup and bread wasn’t too much of a disappointment!) 

Jackie with Simon and Cassie

Jackie, Cassie and Simon skiing 'Follys', a red run in our St Jean ski resort

Lack of snow in the Swiss sector (the pistes are OK though)

Wednesday we headed off to Switzerland again, where it was a little bit colder, not that this seemed to make any difference to the snow condition, just meant I wasn’t quite wearing enough clothes! 

Ski touring in the mountains, well away from ski areas

Thursday for a bit of exercise we went on a ski tour, though we didn’t quite make it to the col as having met a sign post saying ‘col via foret’ 1hr 15 or ‘col via something in French we didn’t understand’ 1hr 15 we thought perhaps the shade in the forest might be nice (it was jolly warm) this however was a mistake, it was a fine walking path, but not suitable for skis, so we turned round and cut across to the other route, but there is something very demoralising about turning round, and the snow was turning to mush and I could feel the warmth of where a blister would be before too much longer! 

Lunch stop on our ski tour

That's the col in the distance

What we hadn’t quite got into our heads, being far more used to walking up things and then having to walk down (which ok is faster but not by much when my knees start complaining) was how much quicker skiing down is! Having slogged up for 2hr 20 mins (which did include a toilet stop and lunch) we were down in 15 mins, and that was skiing over rises and about the place as much as possible rather than just straight down! Perhaps we’ll give it another go in the new snow, once I’ve stuck something preventative on my heel! Yesterday the car was in the ‘hospital’, fortunately we didn’t have to sit in the waiting room, mechanic Andy ran us to the nearest lift and collected us once ‘surgery’ was complete. ‘Recovery’ didn’t seem to take long, though of course he has now had today and probably most of tomorrow, so expect him to be fighting fit next week!

A refuge by a lake on our route in the mountains

You meet all sorts on the ski slopes!

We look forward to Rogers arrival, and the dinner we will have had before hand – Si and Cassie have organised the transfers for Rog and James (after the last trip through Geneva, I didn’t think collecting them was doing them any favours when they could just come back via the motorway with a transfer company) but so we get their discount it seems politic for the guests to be ‘staying’ at their chalet. In order that we are there when Roger arrives they have invited us to dinner! Yum!