The Last Snow..and the World is a Very Small Place

1/ & 2/ Graeme enjoying the last powder run of the season. Not bad for 20 April?

Last ski at Les Grand Montets, Chamonix today. To celebrate the occasion, Hughie ("the weather god") turned on some boot-top powder for us. Actually it was a day of 2 seasons, winter at 3300m - 2800m and spring below 2800m.

When skiing in Chamonix, never forget to pack the goggles! It might be fine and sunny and positively hot at the valley floor. But as we experienced today, at the top of the LGM cable car (3300m) it was still winter with driving snow and a strong easterly wind. But what a treat! Once off the windblasted top lift station we enjoyed about 500m boot-top powder before the mountain remembered it was April and the snow turned heavy and wet. What a way to end our skiing in Chamonix! Thanks Hughie!!

2/ Andy getting amongst it. Aaaha..that's what I do with the right leg?

But the classic Oxley moment came during our 3rd visit to the top of the LGM cable car. After climbing down the steep stairs to begin our ski, we were approached by an older English chap who started to make conversation with us. Edward was skiing on his own and asked whether he could join us for the run down the glacier. Warning him that we were no speed freaks ( I suspect he knew that already and he'd picked his targets well) we invited him to join us.

The Pointe de Vue (and our Oxley variation) is a huge glacial run. With a few rests along the way it usually takes us about 30 - 40 minutes. Ed, a Chamonix local, was keen to show us a couple of his variations. As we made our way down the mountain, we learned that his daughter was currently on her way to NZ and later that his sister was also a "kiwiphile" and have visited many times, with Wanaka being her favourite place.

We also learned that he was friends with Ken & Pat from Ireland who we had met on one of our first trips to Chamonix.

4/ Andy & Ed...what are the chances?

One more stop along the mountain and the circle of coincidence continued to close. Ed, explained that his niece, Stephanie had done a winter of cross-country training in Wanaka, and that his sister, an Alexander Technique teacher, had seriously contemplated moving to Wanaka. Alarm bells started to ring in my head. I knew this lady. "Your sister wouldn't happen to be Hilary Cook would it?" Mouth agape, Ed couldn't believe the coincidence. I explained that Hilary Cook used to stay with us Te Wanaka Lodge.

How small is this planet?

It's Going to be a Chamonix Month!!

1/ Our favourite picnic spot at Les Grand Montets

Today we were back to old haunts. I have a feeling Chamonix will be our home over the next few weeks as the snow line continues its march up the hill. The snow above 2500m at Grand Montets was still packed powder today and we enjoyed a huge run from the very top - 3200m to the valley floor - 2000m vertical!

We also lucked our favourite picnic spot. We have been keeping our eye on this broken down hut on the side of the hill overlooking the Arolles bowl. Almost always it's busy hosting other groups. And we know why! It has a breathtaking view over the run and down into the Chamonix valley.

Typical of spring, the pistes were bullet proof before midday (11 am by the sun). Les Grand Montets is largely north facing so while it holds the snow well into May, you need some sharp edges to tackle the mountain early. The Oxleys? We just went for coffee. Ice is for your gin & tonic as far as we are concerned!!

2/ Looking up at the top telepherique station - Grand Montets

But it didn't take long for the sun to work its magic. By 11:30 sun time (12:30 European summer time) all the slopes had softened and we enjoyed a magic afternoon of skiing in the spring snow.

3/ Andy, heading down the Pointe de View glacier run

4/ Stopping for the afternoon Panochet! For medicinal purposes only ...of course!

On the home front, we tried Antoinette's (the yoga mistress) herb in our salad this evening. Not bad. As predicted a subtle oniony, garlicky flavour. But we still don't know what it is. We checked all the reliable sources, Marie, Liz and even our naturalist french neighbour Olivier but no-one can identify the herb. So far...at the time of posting this blog there has been no adverse reaction....!

Vallee Blanche - Part 1

An early start this morning, with our french guide, Christof picking us up at Le Refuge at 7.30am for our first ski tour adventure of the week - The Vallee Blanche.

Along the way we picked up the perennially young Stewart Poon. Stewart, is a former guest of Te Wanaka Lodge and a regular visitor to Wanaka for heliskiing each year. We had met up with Stewart in Hong Kong, on our way to Europe. He went out of his way to show us a special day in his buzzing home town. He is such a delightful man and we thoroughly enjoy his company.

Stewart had been heliskiing with friends in Italy the week previously and he had organised to meet us in Chamonix before continuing his heli-ski extravaganza in Switzerland. He confessed to us that he had already skiied the Vallee Blanche 2 days before, from the Italian side, as part of his heliskiing trip. But he was happy to go again with us.

We had asked Christof if we could do some ski touring and see a bit more of the Glace de Mer, rather than merely skiing the traditional route down the glacier. Stewart, although a very strong skier, had never used skins or touring skis before, so it was a new experience for him. Unlike his first trip, we left from Chamonix on the hair-raising telepherique to the Aiguille du Midi (3812m) and walked down the infamous snow arret. This part of the trip is probably best described by http://www.pistehors.com/ :

"Before you put your skis on, there is the famous arête from the cable car
station which needs to be negotiated. Judging by the number of deaths this is
probably the most dangerous section of the route, especially for those who will
follow the voie normale. People fall off this ridge and die each and every year.
On one side you basically end up somewhere near Chamonix 2000 meters below.
Although both faces have been skied it is around 40 degrees pitch so once you
slide it is goodnight Vienna."

1/ The busy "VB" Arret!

But to be honest, it was not that bad. Even for me, who really hates tracks with big exposures. Compared to the conditions when we visited the Aiguille du Midi on Christmas Eve, a good track had been cut into the north face of the arret and roped on both sides. Travelling down this route was much easier. There was only one breathtaking cliff on your left, rather than on both sides when you climb down on the ridge line. We were also ensconsced in a big queue of people who, like us were off to enjoy their Vallee Blanche adventure.

There is no question that the scenery on the Vallee Blanche is breathtaking! But the number of people is quite daunting. And today was a quiet day, according to both Christof and Stewart! The Vallee Blanche is not the solitary mountain experience that we usually enjoy when ski touring at Mt Cook - that's for sure!

Stewart coped well for his first time on touring skis! We joked that he had now begun his mountaineering career!! He responded, that at 60' something years of age he may have left his run a bit late!! But he did say that he enjoyed being able to have a good look around. With heliskiing, the mountain scenery tends to pass by in a blur of speed!

2/ Stewart the "mountaineer!"

Our itinery took us to the southern edge of the glacier rim for a lunch stop on the Col d'Entreves at 3527m. We were spoiled with a cloudless sky but more importantly there was no wind - a rare event at this altitude. You could see the Matterhorn to the east and the Courmayeur Ski Resort stretched out far below us.

3/ A little Choagh waiting for lunch!!

A flock of the pretty little Choagh watched and waited for the humans to depart their high altitude home. Through experience they have learnt that humans are messy eaters and there is sure to be plenty of crumbs and leftovers to enjoy. What a contrast to our our bolshy NZ Kea's whose general modus operandii is to take a daring swoop at a sandwich or launch an attack on an unprotected ruck sack!

After lunch, with no other person behind or in front of us, we began our long run home down the Glace de Mer! Christof even found us some pockets of nice powder in which to leave our tracks. No mean feat as it has not snowed in Chamonix for nearly 10 days now.

For the run home...see Part 2!!

4/ Looking back up the Glace de Mer to Aiguille du Midi

Vallee Blanche - Part 3

1/ Stewart very happy that he can "ski to Chamonix". (Or so he thought!)

And finally, by late afternoon, we had just about filled our memory cards and were heading to the end of the glacier. There are many things about the Vallee Blanche that are not included in the glossy marketing brochures! But one of the things that unfit skiers must find daunting is the climb out of the Glace de Mer at the end of the trip.

Before "global warming", the glacier was much higher and skiers could just bounce out of the glacier, over a ridge and then ski down through the forest to Chamonix on the valley floor. Alternatively they could take the chairlift up to the Montenver Furnicular railway and catch a train back to the village. Now the glacier has shrunk so much, it is a steep 40 minute climb up an unformed track to reach the ridge or the chairlift and train station.

For those skiers who have already found the day already extremely challenging, this climb, carrying their skis, would almost break them. Certainly I passed two girls sobbing quietly as they hauled themselves up the icy track on wobbly legs. Graeme was also convinced that the man gasping for air in front of him, was going to collapse of heart failure!

Stewart, while a fit older man (his age is rarely revealed- suffice to say he is well more than another decade older than Graeme), did not enjoy this climb the first time he did it, 2 days ago. Somehow on the way down the glacier, Christof's comments about "skiing to Chamonix" were lost in translation. Stewart thought that Christof had an alternative route that meant he did not have to make this horrendous climb again!!

2/ The fairly challenging climb out from the Glace de Mer

Alas, this was not the case. I have another photo of Stewart which I've refrained from publishing. Stewart's joyful demeanour evaporated when Christof revealed that the climb was still necessary. Seeing the look of sheer horror on Stewart's face, Christof was, however, kind enough to carry his skis for him.

3/ All is forgiven about the expression "Ski to Chamonix" - Christof, Stewart & I.

In the true French tradition, a bouvette, selling beers and soft drinks awaited us on the ridge as we completed the climb. With breathtaking views to the mountains and back up the glacier, it was an ideal place to stop and rest in the warm late afternoon sun.

Only the ski down to Chamonix remained. This of course was another challenge, as the snow was thin or non existant in places. Narrow turns at high speed and the ability to take hairpin corners, steeply banked with scraped snow were essential skills! Somehow we all managed to make it down in one piece!

4/ The fairly "agricultural" run home!!

It was a challenging end to a spectacular day and we'd like to think that even Stewart enjoyed his second Vallee Blanche expedition in 3 days. Although he did admit that he might have a quiet day in Chamonix tomorrow. I wish we could say the same! We're off to Italy with Christof for 3 days ski touring! Phew!!

Vallee Blanche - Part 2

1/ No, do not adjust your computer - they are not flying saucers!

The truly amazing thing about the Vallee Blanche is the amount of infrastructure. Two huge cable cars deliver skiers, climbers and tourists to both sides of the mountain (Italy and France). A furnicular railway and a chairlift meets you at the bottom. And strung between the two sides of the glacier is another cable car. It's incredible!

Because the capsules of the cable car traversing the glacier are so high, you don't see the cable. They look like UFO's hovering in the sky! The engineering required for all these mechanical wonders is truly unbelievable!!

2/ Admiring our tracks - the furthest left.

Christof has a good nose for the snow! Even though the glacier was riddled with thousands of ski tracks he managed to find a couple of patches of old powder snow where we could leave our own mark. We didn't let him down. 4 nice sets of parallel tracks!!

Our route took us down the far skier's right of the glacier, avoiding the traditional route and crowds of people. It is not a popular route as there are some very steep sections where the risk of injury from a fall is increased by some big crevasses waiting at the bottom of the slope! Christof, the master of understatement, suggested that this was not a good place to fall! He said something about "Bon nuit, Vienna!"

3/ Christof, our funny french guide - a master of the understatement!!

It was a long trip down the glacier! So many photo opportunities! It was difficult not to stop every five minutes to take a picture. We kept thinking how lucky we were with the weather!!

4/ Looking down the glacier

Domestic Bliss & a Visit to Chamonix

1/ Mike on gourmet duties

2/ Not so squeezy around our little table

Weather still dismal. Graeme in a fit of depression! But we've kept him medicated with French red wine and Swiss chocolate.

We have settled into domestic bliss with the Bartons. Despite our rather cramped circumstances we are mucking in well. Our morning routine is a well oiled machine, although finding volunteers for the early morning baguette run is getting harder!

Today we headed into Chamonix village to have a look around and to visit the Alpine museum. And find a place for coffee or two! But lunch proved a little more challenging! In the bad weather, finding a place for a picnic was almost impossible. At one stage we accidently drove onto the cross-country ski course, nearly getting bogged and having irate skiers gesticulate at us. Fortunately, Pepi with her snow tyres saved the day, although we did have to perform a high speed long distance reverse manouvre while veering backwards through the forest. Leanne seemed to enjoy this snow rally driving more than I. Finally we gave up and found somewhere legal to park in the forest and tucked into our soup, bread, sausage and cheese. Poor old Pepi was showered in crumbs and soup drips as we shared our food.

3/ Girls in Chamonix village centre!

While all the exhibits in the Museum de Alpin were in French, there was some interesting things to see. The history of the Mont Blanc Guiding Company, the expansion of tourisim in the Chamonix valley and a special exhibition to celebrate the 100th birthday of an amazing Chamonix local woman - Margette Bouvier. She was the first woman to do a ski descent of Mont Blanc in 1929!! She's still alive and last married at 94!! [Go Girl!!] A skier, ice skater, climber and glider pilot, she was also a renowned journalist during WW2. What stories she must have for her grand children!

Feeling thoroughly humbled by the amazing achievements of Margette...there was only one thing to do....go for another coffee!!

4/ Coffee in the morning, coffee in the afternoon!

The Final Push - And at last, we see the Sun!!

Finally, we see the sun for the final push home! Hooray!!! It's been seriously bad weather for five of the six days we've been travelling to and from Slovakia. We've had difficult driving conditions and long days.

Unfortunately the original route that we wished to take through Switzerland via Andermatt was closed due to heavy snow. Leaving our salubrious accommodation in Chur, we were forced to back-track north via Interlaken. Not such a bad detour given the incredible scenery shown today in all its glory with the bright sunshine.

We have both been to Interlaken before, but of course the memory has dulled. However, Graeme is sure that we parked our car very near the hotel that he and his good friend Ralph, stayed in nearly 30 years ago. He remembers that it was near the clock tower and canal, with a restaurant underneath it. He can't wait to get home to check his photos with the one we took today.

1/ Graeme outside the hotel he thinks he stayed in 30 years ago!!

After a quick coffee in Interlaken our plan was to head south and cross into the Chamonix Valley via Vallorcine. That was the plan.....but unfortunately at this very moment, everyone became directionally challenged and we spent quite a deal of time "pfaffing around" on the shores of the lake trying to find the correct turn-off. When I say everyone, I also include Penny (the GPS). There must have been recent road-works or changes to the road system since she was programmed. She was positively unhelpful, telling us to turn left when the road signs clearly indicated that we should go right! Add to this confusion, the excitement of me behind the wheel and you have a class "A" storm "a brewin!!". Fortunately Graeme realised this and kindly suggested that he take over the driving again!! I enthusiastically relinquished the wheel and for good measure I used the "Off button" to silence the now downright annoying Penny. No more relying on technology - it was back to the faithful road atlas for us!!

As luck would have it, we ended up in a beautiful hanging valley brimming with the deep snow of the past days. Driving past Kandersteg at the end of the valley we found ourselves stopped at traffic lights. We assumed that there was a one-way tunnel ahead. Imagine our surprise when the lights changed and our car was loaded onto a train!! Cool!

The Swiss must be some of the best roading engineers in the world. Their twisting mountain roads all seem to need tunnels, viaducts and terracing. This car-train ferry system from Kandersteg to Goppenstein under an otherwise impenetrable mountain range was nothing short of astonishing! What a shame my Mum & Dad never travelled to Europe. My Dad would have just loved travelling through Switzerland to see all these engineering marvels!!

2/ The snowbound Kandersteg

3/ The amazing "car-train" under the mountain

And finally, we arrive at Martigny, our last stop in Switzerland before heading over the Col de la Forclaz (1527m) and Col des Montets (1461m) into the Chamonix Valley. The home stretch!! And familiar territory at last.

Observation - Europe is BIG!

This road trip has seen me seriously readjust my memories of "how big" Europe truly is. I think my memories of European travel have been distorted by train travel. Travelling on night trains meant that I was asleep for much of the journey and had no real understanding of the vastness passing below me.

Growing up in Australia, and living in NZ, I had an arrogant belief that we, antipodeans, were surely the champions of long distance travel. Sure, us Aussies & Kiwis do some long stints behind the wheel, but the roads are uncrowded, we are travelling fairly slowly and the levels of concentration required are nowhere near what you need to travel at 140km/hr + on a crowded, snowy autobahn with signage all in a foreign language! Our meetings with our Dutchie on the first day of the school holidays and a young Latvian who was going to be driving for 19 hours through the night from Slovakia has seen me change my opinion!

Yeeha!! We're back safe and sound in our little 48m2 in Araches!!

OMG Chamonix Again! Brevent and Flegere

1/ View from the top of Brevent, Chamonix, looking south - 2525m

Sadly, the only photo of a breathtaking day!!

What a day!! Chamonix continues to amaze & exhilarate!! For some reason, we had a totally wrong impression about the joined ski areas of Flegere/Brevent ("FB"). We thought that FB was not that big and the snow was often icy. Given that FB faces south and enjoys all day sun, the snowpack is obviously more affected than the other more northerly facing Chamonix resorts and may occasionally derserve a reputation for being icy. But after our terrific dump of snow this week, FB was just amazing.

We continually have to adjust our definition of BIG. FB is big! Five interconnected bowls . Each one at least as big or bigger than TC's saddle basin. Mind blowing!!

We have likened Chamonix to skiing Treble Cone and the Grand Massif (our backyard) to Cardrona. At FB, like all the other Chamonix resorts, 20% is groomed and 80% is off-piste with continuous fall-line. No meandering meadow runs, just point 'em down the hill and off you hurtle. The snow was still good today, 2 days after the last snow. But like TC after a powder dump, it was completely tracked out! I mean there was nothing left. In every bowl there were tracks down ridiculously vertical couloirs, tracks that launched of cliff faces and tight lines down through the trees and shrubbery. The skiers & boarders at Chamonix are at a different level - this is the experts playground!!

We spent much of our day touring the length and breadth of the resort to familiarise ourselves with the layout. But to our great disappointment our camera malfunctioned! This was devastating news, as the day was glorious and we had taken a pile of terrific shots!! Fingers crossed we will be able to sort out the problem tonight when we get home!

Another false impression - we thought that FB would be really busy. Access to the resort is directly from the Chamonix town centre making it easy for people to just walk from their hotel to the gondola. But while there were definitely people around, we never waited in a lift queue. I expect that this will all change when the French School school holidays commence on 7 Feb. But until then, we will just enjoy!

But the other very noticeable attribute of Chamonix is the lack of Frenchies! Today all we heard were british, nordic, german and italian accents as we toured the resort. While we have a few Brits at Grand Massif, the majority are French and French-Swiss from Geneva. We learned from the Irish couple we met a couple of weeks back at Les Grand Montets, that when the pound was strong against the Euro, the Brits bought up big! Of course, in the current economic climate, the pendulum is now swinging the other way and when you hear that British accent on the lift or in the cafe, they are inevitably whinging about how expensive everything is. Should we be so lucky, we'd trade pounds for NZ$'s any day!!

Of course with no photos of our visit to FB, we will just have to go again and make up for lost time.

As we made our way home, clouds were rolling in from the west and more snow is forecast tonight. I'm sceptical. It feels too warm to me. I suspect that it will rain first, in a repeat of the weather pattern earlier this week. Just between you and me, my shattered body is secretly hoping for a bad day so I can lie in bed and rest my weary limbs!!

Glen Plake's Father Lives On!

1/ & 2/ On tour with "Eric" our "French Semaphore Guide"

Yeeeeee... hah! We are back on the snow again! Although shadows of our former selves we managed to survive most of the day at Les Grand Montets ("LGM").

We had enrolled in the free safety briefing offered with our Chamonix Pass. The briefing involved some introductory information about the RECCO system and the use of personal transceivers. We were then taken by a Chamonix mountain guide for a tour of LGM. But it was also a day of "Kiwi Connections". Firstly, the lady running the course, was none other than Claudia Riegler, the champion NZ Slalom skier and we also met up with Johnny Benson's sister-in-law, Laura.

Graeme and I had always been quite sceptical of the RECCO avalanche victim recovery system. Given the size and weight of the detection equipment (several kilos and about the size of a car battery) we thought that the RECCO System was pretty lame. It seemed to us that by the time the Ski Patrol brought the cumbersome equipment to the location, valuable time would be lost and its only use was for body recovery (and we don't mean alive & kicking!). But today, the Ski Patrol showed us the "latest" system. The detection unit is only 1kg and about 20cm2 in size. In the Chamonix valley all the patrollers carry this new system in their kit. They showed us how it operated and we were well impressed.

After a short practice with our transceivers we were assigned Eric, the french mountain guide who took us for a quick educational tour of LGM off-piste. We suspect that Eric, was rather keen on the semaphore code or he was a calisthenic instructor in a former life!! Before commencing our run down the mountain he made us perform all manner of complicated arm waving exercises. Ostensibly it was to help us warm up. But I am suspicious! I think he actually had a bet with his fellow guides that he could get a bunch of people to perform the "YMCA dance" at the top of with telecabine! Tragically I wasn't quick enough to capture it on film, but it certainly stopped the passing skiers for a moment or two.

We ended up liking Eric immensely. He had a good command of the english language and a cheeky sense of humour! He interspersed our ski down with useful snippets of information about the Chamonix valley and the current snow conditions.

After lunch, Graeme wisely found a warm spot in the cafe to chill while Laura and I went for a long run from the top of LGM. Laura was a great guide and found some lovely soft pockets of snow. We had a good swap of Scottish/NZ news and we look forward to meeting her husband - JB's brother, Pete.

3/ Laura - JB's sister-in-law

So what's the reference to Glen Plake? And who is Glen Plake? For those who don't know, quickly take a look at this link http://www.glenplake.net/ to get some background.

This morning we rode the cable car with an old bloke who was sporting a "Mohawk" haircut. Now, it's not everyday that you see a man in his 60's with a Mohawk. Graeme was just impressed that the man still had enough of his own hair and it was located in the middle of his head to make such a haircut possible!! I was determined to get a photo. Truthfully, I wanted to go up and talk to him and find out his story, but a certain party pooper wouldn't let me! Can you imagine? ...How anyone would think I was going to cause an embarrassment - Moi??? I just wanted to know if he was related to Glen Plake (the famous extreme skier) or if he was just a fan? Fair question I thought? Unfortunately "GP's Dad" proved remarkably difficult to secretly photograph. My attempts to crawl under the cafe tables and hide behind the pillars proved spectacularly unsuccessful. Finally, after many attempts I was able to catch him coming down from the cable car. Unfortunately it's not the close up that I wanted, but look carefully and you'll see a man who is not afraid to try new things....at any age. Rock on "GP's Dad!"

4/ The elusive - "GP's Dad"