We See the Sun & Start to Work Things Out!

Today, for the first time since we arrived in Livigno, the sun poked its head out for the morning. The freezing level has been quite high and while it has been snowing steadily since we arrived, there has not been much accumulation in the village (1800m) - only about 10cm or so. But higher up the mountain, a good 20 - 30cm of light snow has fallen overnight. The Livigno ski resort is split into 2 areas on either side of the valley. To the east, is Mottolino resort (2785m) and on the western side of the village is Carosello at (2797m).

1/ Livigno's great facilities!

The clocks moved forward here last night, but I still managed to be too early for the morning bread run. While I waited for the shops to open, I had a good opportunity to stretch the legs and see a little further into the village.

Livigno is obviously doing well. There are few run-down buildings or signs of neglect. All the buildings are beautifully decorated with Italian friezes, there are also great facilities like a full theatre, convention centres, ice-hockey stadium, skating rinks and climbing wall (with ice-climbing no less!!).

2/ Newer stone & concrete buildings but beautifully decorated with Italian friezes

The early morning start proved to be a stroke of genius! Powder snow! Italians, like the French don't seem to be early risers. Don't you just love that? Freshies all morning on and off-piste! Here's the footage! Actually worth looking at. Cinematography will never be my forte but today I managed to take some half decent footage with a coherent commentary.

3/ The true Telemarker of the Family!

I will confess that I cheated and did not take out the misery sticks ("telemarks") this morning. The snow was too good to be wasted or "tasted" if you know what I mean? Continuing to try the demo skis, I had a run on a Swiss brand called Movement Yakajam's. Mike rented these skis when he visited and loved them. I can understand why. They were so stable on and off-piste. But being 178cm I really had to work pretty hard to drive them....hmmmm. The temptation. I have become quite lazy on my 165cm Dynastar Legends. Maybe it's time to go a bit longer again? The internal debate is sure to continue!

Later in the morning, we spied a large group of telemarkers heading off into the back-country for their excursion. We were really not quite sure how these excursions worked and whether there was an additional charge. Back at the La Skieda headquarters in the afternoon, (a huge sporting/conference centre near the Carosello Gondola), we learned that not only were the excursions free but so were the "telemark" clinics.

What a bargain! Free mountain guiding and lessons?? Sign us up! A ski tour tomorrow morning and a lesson the next afternoon with John Falkiner, an expat Aussie who now lives in Verbier. John is actually a bit of a legend. A serious daredevil in his past, he has been a ski stuntman for numerous films including the James Bond movies.

"Right oh!" Now we are starting to get the "hang of this festival". Just get out there and sign up for everything and see what happens. Tragically our second night at the film festival was a bit of disaster with an horrendous self indulgent german art / ski film. It was so bad we actually left half way through. Fortunately the second film was outstanding and made up for the horrendous German film. If you get a chance to see Powderwhore's "The Pact". - do it. It received a standing ovation!

No late night partying for us tonight ...we have our first ski tour in the morning!!

She's Gonna Hurt Us!!

1/ Dana & Graeme

She's gonna hurt us!! Dana is not your ordinary middle-aged mother of two. She's seriously fit and strong. And although it has been many years since she has been on a long ski holiday, she has great style and scarily for us....loads of stamina.

There is a real hint of spring in the air since we returned to Araches from our ski tour in Italy. Today was bright and sunny but with a strong North wind blowing to keep temperatures down and slow the snow melt. It was an ideal day to show our friend around our "little" ski resort.

Dana joined me for the bread run early this morning, while Graeme caught up on his beauty sleep. Dana was amazed at the selection of breads and cakes available at our local boulangerie. She was also astounded at the prices. The cost of living in France is going to come as a bit of a shock to Dana. Compared to western europe, Slovakia is still well behind in the wealth stakes. "Boy! She's going to be shocked when she learns how much a hot chocolate or coffee costs on the mountain!...and we're not even in Val D'Isere!"

Being Sunday, we thought to avoid the usual crowds and buy our tickets at a little vendor on the way to Les Carroz. When Mike and Leanne were staying with us, we had come to know Annie, the ticket lady there. Keen to show off my good french, I thought I'd asked Annie for one day ticket. But as we walked back to the car, it dawned on us that the cost of the ticket was way too expensive for just one day. What I'd actually bought was a 2 day pass!! Hmmm! What to do? How do I explain this to Annie? The thought of rejoining the rapidly growing queue held no appeal at all. After much hand wringing, Dana noticed that she had actually got a bargain. The usual price of the ticket was E58, but we had only paid E48 for two days. A comedy of errors!! Dana was quick to agree that this was a bonus and was happy to ski 2 days at our resort rather than to go back and try and sort out the mess my "impeccable french" had caused!

After surviving the "forfait du jour debacle" we spent the rest of the day touring our home resort. With the cold wind, the off-piste did not soften, so we were limited to the groomed runs. We zoomed around the connected resorts of Les Carroz, Morillon and Samoens to help give Dana her bearings.. She was amazed at the size of the resort. It has been 14 years since she last skied in the Three Valleys in France and she had forgotten the immense size of French ski resorts. As we pointed eastward to Flaine & Mont Blanc on the horizon, an area almost as big again as where we were skiing, her eyes grew even wider!

2/ Sure, I'm smiling now, but I can't promise how I'll look after this week of skiing with Dana. Perhaps there will be a hospital photograph by Friday?

Did I mention that Dana was a good skier? We tried our hand at synchronised skiing again. Our last attempt with Mike and Leanne in Courmayeur was not a stunning exhibition. Dana, of course excelled. Here's our footage!

Despite hurtling around the whole resort, with only a quick picnic stop for lunch, Dana was not in the least bit tired. Telemarking on the piste is exhausting work and Graeme abandoned us early in the afternoon, leaving me to tough it out with Dana for last run. As I straight-lined it through the trees (I didn't have any energy left for turns), I realised that Dana was going to seriously test my stamina this week! (She's gonna seriously hurt us!!).

3/ Can we go home now, Dana?...Pretty Please???

Refugio Mario Bezzi - Day 3

1/ Atop Truc Blanc -3405m

It was a sad farewell to Mario and his magical Refugio this morning but his delicious food and comfortable beds have revitalised us. The temptation to stay just one more day is almost overwhelming. But Christophe has another trip booked for tomorrow and must return to Les Carroz. C'est la vie!

Despite "day 3 legs" and a heavier pack, it turned out to be a better day on the hill for me. I conquered a many of my initial fears and postively zoomed up the icy slopes this morning. No "cup of adrenaline" for morning tea this time. Although the weather forecast is hinting at some bad weather on its way, today it's another pefect sunny day for the run home.

It was my turn to summit a little peak. Now don't get excited.... it was 55 m smaller than Graeme's Pointe Bassac Sud and I could skin up the southern face of my peak - Truc Blanc (3405m). But even better, I could ski down her sunny face in corn snow to the Col below where Graeme awaited us. After his supreme exertions yesterday, I fully understood why he decided to sit this climb out.

The views from the top, like Graeme's yesterdays, were breathtaking. Looking South-west over another huge bowl called the Gran Paradiso the ski touring is endless and can be linked by travelling from Refuge to Refuge through the mountain passes. Just incredible!

We had reached Truc Blanc by mid-morning and so, it was decided to make a start on our long descent back to the valley floor rather than to hang out at the Col where a cold breeze was blowing. Along the way, our trusty Christophe sniffed out all the nicest pockets of powder.

3/ Lunch and admiring our tracks

3/ On Colle di Giasson (3154m). "My" peak is above my head in this photo. Graeme's peak is to the extreme right of the photo and in the background!

The run home was truly amazing. While there had been some heli-skiing activity in this valley a few days previously, there was still plenty of lines to be had in the frost dried powder. Whoohoo! Check out the film footage - the 3 video clips of skiing in this valley are at the end of all the photos.

And to top off a perfect day, our last task was a fun ski down through the conveniently spaced spruce forest to the valley floor. From there it was a flat skin along the road back to the car. This was truly the longest skin we had done in 3 days...at least it seemed that way. I could see the dam wall, where Christophe's car was parked, but like a mirage - it just kept moving further & further away with every step that took!

But finally, we made it to the car, and to a gorgeous little hillside hotel for a congratulatory beer and then home via the Mont Blanc tunnel. I am sure that the drive home was as equally exciting as the journey here, but I couldn't tell....I was asleep!

4/ Skiing the trees, for the final leg home.

It's a Fondue & Telemark Fest

1/ Stir that Fondue, Mike! You know what happens to those who burn the Fondue!!

It's Fondue-arama! Friday night -venison fondue with Rick & Liz and last night - cheese fondue with the Teste Family. They have driven all the way from Lyon just to meet the Kiwi celebrities, Mike & Leanne and introduce them to the delights of the Cheese Fondue!!

Put aside memories of that last cholesterol test...you are about to enter the "Danger Zone!" The traditional Savoyarde cheese fondue is a 200g/ per person mixture of melted Comte savoyarde, emmental & beaufort cheeses combined with 100ml of dry white wine per person. Hubert has a "close relationship" with Christine from our local Haute Savoie fromagerie! She knows just how Hubert likes his cheese combination!! If my description is sounding a little risque...it is intended. The French have a sensuous and emotional attachment to their food. It is important to know all the vital statistics, source, melting temperature, fat content and the taste subtleties between varieties. I'm sure that the French would ask for the names of the cows who donated the milk if they could!! The thought of picking up some pre-packaged supermarket cheese is unthinkable!!

We had to procure "Hubert's special cheese mixture" from Christine on our way home from skiing yesterday. We hid the bag under our coats and locked the car doors ....this stuff was obviously like gold!"

2/ Not our best photo - missing Leanne and Graeme, but they were there!!

Hubert's fondue recipe is a little modified from the traditional recipe. He found that he ended up with very sleepy children with so much white wine! So now he uses beer instead. The procedure is relatively simple. First the fondue pot (a caquelon) is rubbed with garlic. Hubert reluctantly has to be gentle with the garlic. According to him, Marie is one of only two women in the whole of France who does not like garlic. (The other woman is her mother!!). Next comes the cheese and the beer. Nothing complicated there, but woe betide if you don't keep stirring and burn the cheese. Along with murder, this is a capital offence in the Haute Savoie. Mike was motivated to keep stirring!

The mixture is then served on a warmer and eaten with bread squares skewered on long forks and dipped into the cheese. Accompaniments can include pepper, mustard and a light salad. But beware: there are penalties for losing the bread off your fork and into the cheese. In the Teste household, if you lose your bread you have to sing. This rule was quickly changed after I launched into what I thought was a spectacularly tuneful version of "Once a Jolly Swagman". Very disappointing! I was less enthusiastic about the new rule - a lap around the house outside in your underwear!!

If the fondue mixture has been kept at the right temperature there will be a thin crust of toasted (not burnt) cheese left at the bottom of the caquelon. This is called "la religieuse". It more or less means - "the nun". Why? I have no idea?? La religieuse has the texture of a thin cracker and can be lifted out and eaten. Alternatively, an egg can be cracked into the bottom for cheesey scrambled eggs or sugar and more alcohol added for a caramalised treat. We had the caramalised version. Fortunately, Marie sensibily provided a delicious orange segment dessert to help with the "internal deglazing".

French Observation

I continue to wonder why the Haute Savoie or indeed the whole of France is not knee deep in people turning purple and clutching their chests! In addition to cholesterol loaded meals like fondue & raclette, the French consume copious quantities of butter, dairy products and pork. Why doesn't France lead the world in heart disease? Apparantly someone else has also given this some thought. See Wikipedia - The French Paradox

I like the "red wine" explanation myself. Consuming red wine is thought to cancel the cheese effect! Well thank goodness for that!!! Bottoms Up!!!

Teaching Marie to Telemark

Still digesting our fondue from last night, Graeme and I headed out on the slopes again this morning. We had promised to introduce Marie to the "Misery Sticks" ie. the delights of telemark skiing. Despite the glorious warm sunny weather, we were abandoned by the Bartons who wanted (read: needed) to have a break from skiing.

As we've come to expect from the multi-talented Teste family, Marie picked up telemark skiing very quickly. After one run on the beginners slope she was off down a Red piste. Click here to see today's footage and the marvellous example set by Marie's instructor! Way to go Andy!!

During the day we kept asking Marie if her legs were tired. She kept assuring us that her legs were fine! Hmmm...Graeme and I suspected that she was not trying hard enough!! We had to retire hurt at lunch time - our legs were killing us! Marie continued to ski on into the afternoon! We'll have her out on the moguls next time!!

We returned home for lunch with the Bartons and a relaxing walk around our village in the sunshine.

Another French Observation

Now I'm not saying that the French are short. We have only a small sample group here in the mountains from which to judge. But so far, I have yet to meet any tall Frenchies! The few tall men that I have seen on the slopes have had British or German accents. I will continue my search for "de grande taille" Frenchman!

3/ Graeme - a giant among french women!!

Marie and Geraldine from our local ski rental shop.

Whoo Hooo!! The Snow has Arrived & How!!

1/ Andy has got rather good at shovelling snow!

2/ Mike learning the finer points of snow clearing!!

All right! It's got serious now! Continuous snow for 36 hours! We've had another 30cm at Le Refuge and up to 50cm at Flaine overnight. This is awesome! No sign of it stopping yet either!! Mike is well impressed. Leanne less so!

Leanne has been such a good sport! She is not a skiing enthusiast and I can see that she does not share our single-minded passion for this past-time. She was ecstatic to be snuggling back into bed with her book, while the three of us headed out into the blizzard! We promised to return for an early lunch and a "nana nap". We need to be in top form! We have a big night at Rick & Liz's ahead of us tonight. We have warned Mike and Leanne that a night at the Owen's is not for the faint hearted!!

2/Mike talking to his friend Annie at the ticket office!

Mike has made a friend at our local ticket office. Mike has surprisingly good french! I would even say better than ours! He studied french at school and spent a year in the Swiss village of Morgin in the Portes du Soleil where french and swiss-german were spoken. Dropping Mike off at the our local ticket office each morning, he has charmed the lovely ticket lady (Annie) with his command of the French language. We didn't have the heart to tell him that she speaks English fluently!!

Snow continued to fall heavily all day. Visibility was fairly questionable at the best of times - think Cardrona/ Mt Buller in a white out! But with the tree runs of Les Carroz and Morillon and our better knowledge of the area, we were still able to find some good little powder drops.

We met up with Rick mid morning and he took us for a blast down through the trees on one of his secret runs. Here's the footage of today - go to 6/03/09. Making a film of these guys skiing was a challenge. They certainly haven't studied at the "Powder 8" school! The Director's vision was that they would all ski down in unison creating a triplicate set of perfect tracks. Alas the result was more like a trio of old mountain goats scattering in all directions. They say that a film director's nightmare is working with children and animals! I think we might have to add Rick, Mike and Graeme to that list as well.

I can already hear the howls of protest from the old goaties about this incident! Apparantly, their view is that I did not explain my artistic vision clearly enough. They were confused by my hand signals. Yeah right?...Nice try fellas..!! But no cigar!

To end the morning, Rick took us on a magical mystery tour down through the trees almost to our village. We are ashamed to say that we haven't yet found the route down through the trees and gullies to Le Refuge. Work in progress!

Back home to a lovely late lunch with Leanne. An afternoon "nana nap" for the oldies and a walk to the village for a spot of shopping for the young and attractive ones!!

3/My old goaties!! Hmm..you're looking a little snowy, Mike?

What happened on the way down?

Serious Snow, Sore Fingers and Leggies!!

1/ Nothing like digging out the car in the morning!!

The snow has arrived!! It's snowed all night. I was sure that Mike was beginning to doubt my previous blog entries about all the dumps of snow we've had previously!! I could see a frissure of doubt clouding his vision over the last few days as the snow discoloured and melted all around us. But today, after a good length of time on the end of the snow shovel Mike finally believed me. He was excited to get up the hill and amongst it.



The visibility was fairly poor but the snow was perfection. We organised ourselves with walkie-talkies and we were able to keep in touch when each of us dived off the runs for a powder run! By mid-morning we were pretty tired and cold. Poor old Mike had a frozen finger!! See picture.

3/ Mike's sore finger! C'est vrai!!

It just kept snowing all day!!! And we just kept finding more and more untouched powder snow. The crowd thinned significantly by the early afternoon and we had whole slopes to ourselves. Mike thoroughly enjoyed the deep snow. Here's some film footage of his skiing!

Needless to say, we were all a bit sore and sorry for ourselves after such a hard day. Leanne thought she might try some Yoga moves to get her stiff legs working again!

4/ Leanne performing a Yoga manouvre!!

We were all tucked up in bed at 9:30!! Aaah, this skiing holiday stuff is hard work!!

A Day Discovering Our Little Hill

1/ The Mandatory Morning Coffee

The rain has cleared and we're out to play. The good news is that wet snow has fallen at about 1200m upwards.

The Bartons have learned that our "little hill" is not so "small". Today we took them for a more concentrated tour of our backyard - just the Les Carroz and Samoens areas. This is less than half the sectors that make up our ski resort called the Grand Massif. After an early start, a morning coffee and hot chocolate at our favourite chalet was mandatory!

All systems go today! Leanne has swapped her ski boots and she has no more foot pain! With a new lease of life, she positively tore down the slopes today. But we may have gone a little hard out again!! Mike was a shadow of his formal self! It took a little bit of encouragement to convince him to disengage from the couch for the evening's activities!!

4/ Hmm...a tired wee Mike!

Following the girls recommendation, the boys headed off to see the english version of Slumdog Millionaire. Leanne decided to go again too! She had slept through most of the film the first time around last Friday, when jet lag claimed her. I stayed home and tried to catch up on the blogging.

Blogging Observation

Don't ever get behind on a blog! It is a total nightmare to try and catch up! Not only that, you get copious emails and skype calls from your friends who are following it. Most of them were concerned that we had disappeared into the wilds of Slovakia but a few were very cross that I had not been keeping up to date! Please forgive me! I didn't mean to get behind, honestly! But when you are with friends it's very rude to have your head buried in the computer all the time! Add to this the lack of internet connection in Slovakian ...and there it is... a blogging crises!

Only 4 more days to catch up on....phew!!

Dolina - A Slovakian Ski Resort Experience

1/ The Slovakians like their skiing. There were some good size lift queues at Dolina!!

We have been left to our own devices again today. Tibor is taking Tomi to a karate competition today and Dana and Mischa are cleaning their rental cottage. All offers of assistance from us to help them with the work were firmly rejected. I'm hoping that Dana wanted some mother-daughter time with Mischa and it wasn't that she'd heard about my poor cleaning skills!! After all, I was the only one at Te Wanaka who scored 4/10 for room cleaning!!

While there is a ski resort in the High Tatras, about 15 minutes from their house, it's very small and Dana thinks its poor value. She wanted us to go to a ski resort called Dolina in the low Tatras about an hour's drive east. So this is where we headed today.

We actually managed to get there all by ourselves without getting lost. A first!! We were hopeful of a good day as the morning had dawned fine and sunny. We were directed to a car park at the foot of the mountain and duly loaded ourselves on the bus. Arriving at one of the entries to the ski resort, we got off the bus, bought our tickets and were ready to get the chairlift when Graeme suddenly realised that he had left his backpack on the bus. Hmmm!! Small problem!

Fortunately, Graeme had taken all the important things out of the pack and there was only a few chocolate bars and some water left in it. Dana kept warning us that Slovakia was not NZ and we had to be careful with our belongings! At the time, I was uncharitably suspicious of Graeme's motives! All morning he had been talking about buying a new back pack. At last count we have 7 packs of all varying sizes and shapes and so I was understandably unenthusiastic about any further pack purchases. I thought maybe this was a sneaky way of getting a new pack. But to be fair, Graeme was very upset and keen to recover this one.

Hmmm! What to do? The only thing we could do was wait on the road and check each shuttle bus as it went by. After an 1.5hrs, Graeme was going to give up and make a claim on our insurance. I had a funny feeling and suggested that we wait for one last bus going up the hill and check if the pack had been given to a lost property office. When the bus finally arrived, I realised that it was the same one we had travelled up on. Getting on, we were disappointed to see that the pack was no longer in the luggage rack above our seat. Damn! Lost forever! But no....as I scanned the bus, I spied a black strap hanging down from a curtained off area behind the bus driver. Looking more closely I saw the DaKine label and realised it was our pack.

Now what to do? After speaking to all the bus drivers going up and down the mountain, so far, none of them spoke english. Trying to ask about our pack might cause some serious problems. We were not confidant that the driver would understand that this was our pack and we wanted it back. We really didn't want to start any sort of confrontation. So we confess that we chose to perform a sting operation!! While I distracted the driver asking for directions to the ticket office, Graeme reached up and pulled the pack down from behind the curtain and made off through the rear exit. Poor bus driver! He probably was going to do the right thing and was just safe keeping the lost pack until he got back to the bus terminus. And now it had been stolen from under his nose!! Hopefully he was not too distressed when he found out! We were certainly very pleased to have it back!!

With all the standing around at the bus stop, we were chilled to the bone. Unfortunately the sunny morning had clouded over and most of the mountain was covered in a deep freezing fog. After 2 runs down the mountain we were icicles!! Finding a nice restaurant at the top of the mountain we tucked into a hearty lunch while we thawed out. Dolina is Slovakia's largest resort and has some very modern and fast lifts. The terrain is pretty good too. However, they seem to be obsessed with snow making and despite the lovely powder snow off-piste, all the runs were covered in icy man made snow. It didn't take us long to hunt out some good snow through the trees and of course we had it to ourselves, as the Slovakians, followed the European trend and rarely ventured off the piste. Our favourite run for the day was under the big new 6 seater chairlift. Here's the film footage.

2/ Another area at Dolina

Mother, (Dana) was worried when we arrived home later than she expected. We explained that due to our late start this morning with the "pack drama" we skied right through until last lift. Nice to know that someone is looking after us!!

Another lovely night spent with the family and chatting with Dana and Tibor. We feel that we've been part of their family for ever. I wanted to take a picture of Mischa. But she is 12 (going on 22) and very self conscious about photographs! Tomi too, was very camera shy! I did manage to get a photo of Tomi and Tibor doing a crossword puzzle together. I had secretly taken a photo of Mischa tucked up on the couch in her pyjamas, but she vetoed use of the photo. I promised that I would delete the photo only if she promised to let me take another one tomorrow when she had "done her hair". Classic!!

3/ Tomi and Tibor and a crossword

Ski Touring in the High Tatras

After a good night's sleep we awoke ready to face the day. And what a day it was! Ski touring in the High Tatras National Park with Tibor & Dana. The High Tatras are Slovakia's highest mountain range running appoximately E-W in the north-east corner of the country. The national park encompasses the mountains and also spreads northwards into Poland.

The Tatra’s are made up of a chain of granite peaks all around 2500m. The highest peak is Gerlachovsky at 2654m. Below the mountains is the forest, which although decimated by catastrophic winds, still abounds in natural wildlife. The forest has bears, wolves, wild boar and wildcats! I was certainly hoping that we would not enjoy any close encounters with these beasties! I don’t like bears! An unfortunate viewing of that film “The Edge” with Anthony Hopkins about a man-stalking bear has given me a fear of bears similar to all those gullible viewers of the “Jaws’ movies. Personally I prefer sharks!!

1/ They're not joking!

It had been snowing lightly all night with a cold and strong easterly blowing. Despite the weather, Dana and Tibor took us up through the sheltered forest to a lovely chalet nestled in a mountain cirque by a frozen lake.

It was as a lovely skin up the mountain trail through the forest. Tibor & Graeme striding ahead swapping stories about outdoor equipment with the girls trailing behind. We were busy solving the world economic crises! According to Graeme, we were also using up our allocation of words. He has recently read somewhere that women use 35,000 words per day and men only 20,000! He takes every opportunity to cite this new piece of useless trivia!

2/ The Boy's using up their word allocation!

The snow continued to float down as we broke the tree-line. Unfortunately, the clouds were down and the peaks were hidden. But every now and then the clouds would lift and we would get a glimpse of the ice falls and high peaks covered in the snow. Dana pointed out the ice-falls where she and Tibor climb. After reaching the high valley, we arrived at our lunch destination, another perfect chalet in the mountains. This chalet is very popular with climbers in the summer who come to climb the high peaks. But in winter it is quieter and the friendly staff have more time to talk with their clients. Tibor used to work here and this chalet is where he met Dana – 21 years ago. We enjoyed a local speciality – sounds terrible to our western palate, spiced sour cabbage soup and rye bread, but I can assure you it was delicious!

3/ The Team outside the Chalet

And then the fun part! The ski down through the trees! I always loved skiing in the trees as a child in Australia and today's run through the forest of the High Tatras will be a special memory for me. Graeme took some fantastic film footage skiing behind me as we sped through the forest. Definitely worth a look!

On the way home we stopped at the local ski resort above where Dana and Tibor live to collect water from a mineral spring. It is an acquired taste I must say. The water is slightly aerated and has a strong ferrous taste. I am sure it must be good for you (Dana & Tibor are certainly very healthy) but Graeme and I think we’ll stick to our own health tonic – red wine!!

4/ Tibor filling the bottles with mineral water. It's -8C - check out the bare hands!!

Finally tucked up in Dana and Tibor’s gorgeous little house in Stola we enjoyed another delicious Slovakian meal. Tibor is rather a famous climber in Slovakia and he even has films made about his climbing and mountaineering. We persuaded him to show them to us and settled in for the evening!!

Please..Send No More Tongs!!

Help! The tongs are breeding!!

Help the tongs are breeding!! No, seriously, thanks to all our friends and relatives who have kindly sent us tongs. We now have one for the meat, one for the fish and the other to chase the beans around the pot.

But please, don't send any more tongs! Graeme is finding new uses for them, which I would rather not encourage!

It was a shocker today. Officially, bad weather!! It's warmed up and all that lovely powder snow is being washed away by a deluge of rain. Accompanying the rain is some fairly strong wind. The locals here are calling it a gale - vent forte!! Little do they know about wind!! Now a good Canterbury Plains Nor'wester or a Southerly Buster on Bass Strait - now that's a vent forte!!

I will confess to having a lazy day. We had been invited to Gavin & Sue's for dinner last night and as usual it was a late one. Also another amazingly delicious dinner. I know these guys cook for a living, but it was just lovely. Blini's with tzatziki & tarasamalata, thai chicken curry and tropical pavlova for dessert. Yum! They were also intrigued about the controversy in Australia and NZ over which country can lay claim to inventing the delicious dessert.

I explained that unfortunately, as a nation settled originally by convicts, Australia has a bad-habit of "stealing" the limelight and claiming inventions and famous people, in particular, as "Aussies" when in fact they are from NZ. The most typical examples being the famous race horse - "Pharlap", the band "Crowded House" and the actor "Russell Crowe". There, have of course, been some other unfortunate events throughout history, like the infamous Chappell underarm bowling incident in cricket, which has rightly added fuel to the Kiwi's argument that Australia is always out to "steal their thunder". Despite all this, I'm not ready to concede that NZ invented the pavlova. Some internet research since the dinner party seems to support my view that Australia did indeed invent the pavlova. See for yourself - The Pavlova Debate.

It was a long walk home during the storm last night which will, of course account for my general lethargy this morning. Fortunately it was not raining when we left Gav & Sue, the only hazard while walking home were the slick footpaths and the great piles of wet snow dropping like bombs from the trees all around us. For some unknown reason (?) I remember feeling very concerned about the hedges. Apparantly I was worried that all the hedges in Araches were going to collapse under their heavy load of snow! Sensible comments from Graeme like "The hedges have been there for a while, dear! And every year they get covered in snow. Looks to me like they still survive!" and a little while later, "Please come away from the hedge, Andy!" and a bit later still.... "Seriously now, will you leave the hedge alone"...... "ANDY, WOULD YOU PUT DOWN YOUR POLE AND MOVE AWAY FROM THE HEDGE, NOW!!" I think the film he secretly captured says it all.

Yum, Yum more Pow!! The French don't do racks!

More powder skiing! Graeme whoops it up!!

Look I'm really sorry, but it just keeps snowing here!! It snowed all day yesterday and overnight. Another 30cm of light dry powder. Elbowed the septogenerian out of the way this morning and got first telecabine!!

We mentioned previously that our Grand Massif is like Cardrona. No-one skis off-piste and so we pretty much ski freshies all day. We have found a particularly good section which is accessed off a cat track connecting two ski areas. Terrific fall line where you can lay about 30-40 turns top to bottom. This morning we just put in set after set just going wider along the slope each time. And even better, no lift queue. In fact, for the first week of the french school holidays it is surprisingly quiet. If you are interested - here's today's footage.

French Observation

Ski Racks

It appears to us that the french don't do ski racks. Time and time again we see skis just thrown into the back of cars. When the cars are full, 4 pairs of skis & a snowboard are sitting on peoples shoulders and resting on the dashboard. You can tell that the car is full, their faces are pressed up against the glass!! Some of the "neater people" bring a brush and dust off their equipment before putting it in their car, but most don't. They just chuck it in snow and all.

Very strange I must say!

Bizarre Ski Equipment

Check out the upholstery on the ski-do's! Leopard skin print....nice!! I bet someone got a bargain with these puppies. Probably, Grand Massif resort bought them second-hand from an African dictator who ordered them but didn't realise you need snow to run them. Either that, or someone has appalling taste!! And there's not just one of them.....there's about 20 ski-do's parked at Samoens...all with styley leopard ski seats! Hmmmm!

A "Tele" Fest Today

We spent the day skiing at Flaine today. Flaine - 1600 - 2480m is the highest area of the Grand Massif.

It was an uncertain start to the day as the weather is finally starting to change. The temperature has risen and the wind has started up. We admit to being so spoiled with the snow and weather conditions that we were both a little reluctant to don the skis this morning, especially since the skies were grey and it looked like the weather was going to crack up any minute.

Au contraire!! In fact, the sun came out at lunchtime and it remained sunny and warm all afternoon. What do we know about the weather?

The weather in Europe is quite different than NZ. Everything happens very slowly. They have a gentle weather pattern. No howling NW'esters or 4 seasons in one day! We can almost predict what the weather is going to do by what the council workers routine. If they are busy moving lots of snow and clearing the road edges, then it's going to snow. If they are clearing drains...bother it's going to rain!!

2/ "8 -seater Telesiege "Grand Vans"

Today was a TELE fest kind of day. Not tele as in telemark, but "tele" as in Telepherique (Cable Car), Telecabine (Gondola), Telesiege (Chairlift), Teleski (Poma/Drag lift) and finally the very unique Telebenne. We went on a "lift tour" of Flaine today!!

We have never seen a lift quite like the "Telebenne". You ride it standing up. It takes only two persons and in Flaine it's used as a short access lift from the village to the main lifts. The best way I can describe the lift is to think "chariot". You climb into the little half cabin and hold your skis vertical. The back closes automatically behind you and you're away. Getting off is interesting! Easy than it looks, you step off backwards and the telebenne continues on it's merry way.

Our aim today was to see if we could manage to ride all the different kinds of lifts at Flaine. Mission accomplished! See the photos below, although we missed out taking photos of the telepherique and telecabine - you'll just have to take our word for it!

We also did a bit of skiing - here's todays footage!!

3/ Teleski de Veret

4/And... The "Telebenne"