Wet Blizzard!

A full on blizzard. Graeme is out in the wet snow putting on the chains.

The rain finally turned to snow very early in the morning and about 20cm of very wet snow greeted us. We are currently sharing the Teste residence with a group of their male friends. Last weekend, their wives had stayed and this weekend was the boy's turn. These boys were "party animals"!! But their late nights meant that they were not very early starters! We hardly saw them as we had left to go skiing well before they arose. The girls seemed more organised!! We are looking forward to having the Teste Family back in residence this weekend!!

Getting to the Telecabine this morning proved a little tricky. Wet snow was bucketing down and about 50m up our road, a huge 40 seater bus had managed to wedge itself on a snow bank and was stuck fast. As it was blocking the road we had to turn around and head back down our road. This is not our preferred route. The road is steep and frequently very icy. Applying the brakes at any point during the journey can have all sorts of unexpected results!! But we managed to get back down our hill and on to the main road without incident. Being early, it appeared that the snow ploughs had not really started their job, or if they had, the snow was coming so fast that they couldn't keep up!

It is always a little scary driving in these conditions as the locals persist in driving at the same speed they would in summer! We know that they are locals as their car registration plates end in "74", the number for our Haute-Savoie region. I will certainly accept that the locals generally have snow tyres and they are used to driving in icy & snowy conditions. But it's the old story. When something totally unexpected happens it won't matter that they are all ex World Cup Rally drivers, their brakes won't stop them any faster than a slow tourist! The crash will just be a bigger mess!

Speaking of tourists. To this exciting cocktail of driving snow, icy roads and suicidal locals, you also need to add the "seriously dumb" tourist whose favourite trick is to get half-way up a hill, lose traction, stop in the middle of the road blocking both lanes of traffic and then decide to put chains on. You can imagine the Local's reaction to this sort of nonsense!

So today, not only were we confronted with the stuck bus, but on our way up to the Telecabine we met with the "dumb tourist". Driving conditions were becoming borderline even with snow tyres. We were going to make it if we didn't have to stop. But alas as the tourist's car in front of us started to lose traction and begin its slide back down the hill, we decided that discretion was the better part of valour! A 6 minute chain fitting job by one, Mr Graeme Oxley and we were on our way again. With chains on Pepi Peugeot becomes a 4WD!! We zoomed past the bewildered tourist who was still trying to figure out whether the chains go on the front or back wheels!

After that eventful morning we had a couple of runs in the heavy snow and then retreated for an early coffee to calm the nerves. Unfortunately, there has been more rain than snow today and there was nothing much to report in the way of good skiing. We decided to come home for lunch and to finish the last of the french homework. Lessons this afternoon and then a casual drink and dinner with Liz & Rick. A nice Saturday night!!

The weather conditions were not conducive to good photography hence the lack of material for today. Hopefully when the sun does finally shine again we'll have the camera working again and get some good photos.