Our Last Day Skiing with Teste Family

1/ Hubert & the Racer - Camille!

A fitting end to our stay with the Teste Family. We shared their first day of the 2008/09 season in December and we were thrilled to enjoy their last day too.

It is closing day for Les Carroz, Samoens and Morillon but the Teste Family decided to ski at Flaine, where the snow is still good. A little top up of snow 2 days ago above 2000m meant that we were still able to have some fresh tracks off-piste. Amazing.

In typical Teste family style several high speed runs on the groomers were mandatory for Hubert (with his shadow Camille hot on his heels) before we were able to tempt them off-piste for a run in the Ger. Serious spring snow greeted us but we enjoyed a couple of runs to say goodbye to our favourite part of the Flaine resort.

Back at the chalet we tucked into a delicious BBQ lunch with the family.

I suspect that Graeme and I, are a disappointment to Hubert & Marie. Our french is still atrocious! But we blame them!! Their english is too good! To make jokes and really have a two-sided laugh, a common language is a must.

We hope that we have inspired them to make the long trip to NZ some day. Hopefully if the NZ$ stays low it will be affordable. But since living here, I can understand why the French are such reluctant travellers. Their country has just about every type of climate imagineable. Beaches, serious mountains, rolling countryside and exciting cities with history, art & culture at every turn. New Zealand and Australia are lovely but I think it would be hard to truly impress the French. We'll have to wait and see!

2/ Team shot: Teste Family & "A&G"

Col de la Portette

1/ Looking at the Col de la Portette (2354m) from the western side.
It's just to the right of Graeme's pack in this picture.

It was my turn to choose the ski tour this morning. Col de la Portette, sounds good, don't you think Graeme? Yes, that's the one you didn't want to climb.....well yes, you will need to climb it this time!

Seriously hot this morning, with a change predicted for later in the day, the snow was rapidly becoming rotten. We had chosen to climb the eastern side of the Col which at the same time 3 days ago was OK. But today, the heating process was occurring far more rapidly. It was touch and go stability-wise and with the benefit of hindsight it would have been far better to do this tour in reverse, ie., climb up the still frozen western side of the col and ski down the sunny face still early in the morning.

We made it to the Col, just in time and celebrated our climb by texting Pick in NZ to wish him Happy Birthday and to celebrate the occasion with a run down the western face. His reply "Whoohoo - glass of red 'n hand!" We are sorry to report, Pick, it was a terrible run! I think you would have described it as "frozen elephant snot!". Steep and lumpy, it was survival slide slipping and speed traversing until we found some spring corn on the more southerly aspects. We dedicated these far more pleasant runs to Pick instead!

2/ Refuge de Plate - 2032m

Arriving at the Refuge de Plate around 11am, we encountered a family group of Brits with a guide. The matriarch and patriach of this family group were wonderfully inspiring. Well into their 70's with touring gear from the same era, they were doing a fine job. They have an apartment in Flaine and come out every year for skiing and summer walking. It is my fervant wish that Graeme and I are still ski touring when we are their age!

The Refuge is only open in the summer although it does offer emergency winter shelter. Climbing up the ladder to the attic, we felt immediately at home. A few candles, mattresses and blankets. The attic interior reminded us very much of a NZ DOC hut. West facing this Refuge would be an awesome place to watch the sun go down!

3/ Inside the winter room of Refuge de Plate

Surrounding the Refuge are a number of other huts. Collectively called the Chalets de Plate, we are not sure what they are used for? According to the Refuge website only one farmer still grazes sheep here. They refer to extra accommodation in tents set up on the terrace. Woe betide if you are accompanied by a canine or you're a snorer, according to the website - you'll be relegated to the tents!!

4/ The Chalets de Plate

There is endless summer walking in the Alps! Graeme and I could imagine walking for months visiting all the little refuges along the way. With no heavy tents or cooking equipment in our packs - how good would it be?? Aaah, the temptation to stay longer....!

Stopping for a quick lunch on the climb back to Flaine, we were back in the resort around 2pm.

Despite passing the older English couple before and again after lunch, we were so impressed by their fitness and stamina. It was a long hot climb in wet snow. They did so well! Little did they know our motivation....

Graeme and I raced each other up the last 200m or so, in anticipation of our now customary Panochet!

Really Getting to Know our Backyard

1/Flaine Backcountry

After our quick reconnaissance yesterday morning, we were all packed up early and ready to explore Flaine's big back yard - The Desert De Plate. This is a huge horseshoe shaped valley dropping away to the north. The peaks enclosing the valley are in the 2500 - 2700m range and their slopes are mainly, E, N & West facing, making it an ideal area for ski touring.

My fears of a really unstable snowpack were allayed yesterday and it looks like we'll have the opportunity to do many different tours during our remaining days here. Also today, while still warm, the intensity of the sun was tamed by some thin high cloud. This should further reduce any wet slide problems!

Our first ski tour in this area was with Christoph (our funny french guide) back at the end of January. In contrast to the conditions now, back then we were skiing powder snow all the way to the valley floor!

Spring skiing is great fun. Generally fairly low avalanche risk and if your timing is right, you get some great skiing on spring corn by late morning.

Today's tour took me to the Col de la Portette (2354m) for a look over into another south-west facing bowl. From the Col, I could see a cute summer Refuge - Chalets de Plate. I keep referring to this part of our tour in the first person... because it seemed that there was some reluctance on the part of my "learned leader" to make the climb. On reaching the Col, I was very surprised to find that Graeme still had the contents of his pack strewn out on the snow.

Fortunately, the Oxleys are equipped with some very handy walkie-talkies. These are perfect items for being able to politely inquire of your partner, "What the @**!, are you still doing down there?" Even more polite banter continued as he advised me to come back down again as his planned route had changed. Hmmmm!! How kind of him to allow me such a wonderful opportunity for extra exercise. Graeme can be considerate like that!!

2/ The breath-taking cliff and views to Mont Blanc.

Well at least my dear Graeme's alternate plan found some great views and good spring corn. Skinning up again to the edge of the mountain ridge, we were able to look over the sheer cliff to the towns in the "l'Arve" valley - Passy, Servoz and Sallanches. We could see the busy Chamonix autoroute with it's massive viaduct winding it's way through the narrow valley far below us. To the SE, Mont Blanc dominated the horizon.

We'd made good time and despite the good views it was too early for lunch. And besides which, spring skiing is all about timing. The snow for our run back down was in perfect condition. Still firm with a lovely layer of "cream cheese" corn snow on top. With the heat of the day increasing rapidly, all could change in minutes.

Wooohooo! Of we go! Down for our picnic. Here's the footage!

3/ Understandably given the Col debacle, I had rights to first tracks on this run!!

4/ That was nice!

And the best part of a European ski touring day? The cold Panache (Shandy) after the long, hot skin back into the resort around 2pm. Actually, if I think about it, a cold Brewski from the back of Pick's truck after a similar TC tour - ain't half bad either!

A Quick Recon & We Introduce Rick to Telemarking!

Shaking off the sunny sky blues, we got ourselves motivated today.

A busy day today! We want to take a quick reconnaissance of the Flaine back-country, be back in Les Carroz by 11:30 to meet Rick for telemark lessons and then home for dinner with Hubert & Marie.

1/ Flaine Backcountry - Desert de Plate

It's been so hot here this week, that I am seriously worried about the stability of the snow pack.

There's been no frosts overnight and the freezing level is floating between 2200 - 2600m. There's a heap of natural wet slides around and I tossed and turned with nightmares about falling down Flaine rock holes or getting caught in an avalanche. I am driving Graeme crazy with all my fears and making it impossible for him to plan any tours! Who'd be married to me?

Compromise was a "dawn raid" of the Flaine backcountry. The deal, no freeze-up, no go! We were on the first telecabine from Flaine to the top 2500m at 8:45am. Looks like all my nightmares are groundless. The snow - she was locked up solid! All the holes are well covered but still easy to see. It was a slick, quick run down to the floor of the Desert de Plate but it gave us a much better idea of all the aspects and angles. Much to Graeme's relief, I am much happier about touring there now. Back up at the top of Flaine at 10:30 am for the lift down and back down the hill to meet Rick in Les Carroz for his first telemark lesson.

2/ Having a good look around Flaine backcountry in the early morning sunshine

3/ Ground Zero - Rick not looking confidant about this Telemark Caper!!

Oh no! We've created another telemark enthusiast. After a nervous start, Rick picked up telemarking really quickly. By the second run he was linking turns and by the fifth run we had moved off the beginner slope to something steeper! Well done Rick. Graeme likes to think it's his tuition that does the trick. I'm not sure about that ....I am also his student. Rick's comment of the day. "I like it much better than snowboarding!" Well duh!!!???

4/ I'm not sure I should put a caption to this one?

This evening, I invited Hubert and Marie for dinner. Marie has been here for the week with the kids and Hubert has joined them over the Easter break. French children are on holidays again! Can you believe it? Two weeks in Feb, 2 weeks over Easter, 6 weeks July/August, 2 weeks Oct/beginning Nov, 2 weeks at Christmas. That's 14 weeks of holidays! If my calculations are right, that's 3 -4 more weeks than Kiwi kids get? Add to that, children in the Haute Savoie region don't go to school on Wednesdays - well there's skiing to do, after all!!

Conversation is alway interesting with H&M. Their english is perfect (unlike our abyssmal French), but I still think some things are lost in translation. Marie tried to tell me that French people don't drink that much. Using their family as the example, she told me that she and Hubert only have wine on the weekends. Hubert explained that he also never has wine at business lunches or during the working week. I'm not sure about this? We saw Hubert after a hectic week of wine-tasting (business trip) in the S-W of France. Do you think they are kidding us?

The other classic French observation arose because Hubert is now sporting a very nice new pair of bifocal glasses. They look very smart on him, although he is concerned that he can no longer see his feet clearly anymore? I reassured him that "feet aren't that interesting!" But the discussion about spectacles led us to a question about whether you have to have an eye test to get a drivers licence in France. "Well....no, not really. If you are wearing glasses in your licence photograph, then you can be fined if the police pull you over and you're not wearing them" explained Marie. "But if you don't wear your glasses when the photo is taken, even if your eyesight is poor, then there will be no penalty" Marie chuckles wickedly. "Silly French way, hey?" "No not really....it just explains so much!" I reply.

It was a late night as we delved further into the french education system, familes, working mothers, house design...so much to talk about...so little time.

Flaine, Exhaustion and How Not to Ride a Teleski!!

It looks like our first two days of Spring with Dana on Sunday and Monday is all we are going to see of the sun this week. Heavy snow is forecast to continue right through to the weekend. A mixed blessing. We love the deep powder snow but the sun was lovely too! We are torn!

After sharing all our secret powder stashes with Dana we decided to show her the other half of our hill! Flaine! She just can't believe the size of our ski area. Truly, the Slovakian ski resorts are way over priced! Dana has been able to ski Flaine for E$33 per day and yet the largest Slovakian resort Chopak (where we skied), at one third the size, is charging E$42 per day.

While Flaine is a more of an "on piste" kind of hill, the runs are long and we arrived close to the opening of a special off-piste area called the Combe de Veret. We enjoyed 3 runs making our own tracks in the deep fresh snow. Here's the film footage of today.

After a shakey start yesterday, predictably, Dana is doing well. She is skiing the deep powder on skinny carving skis and surviving. I know I wouldn't be able to do this. Oh how I love fat skis!

1/ How not to ride a "Teleski"

Today we witnessed one of those classic "Warren Miller Movie" moments. Following us up on the Teleski (Poma/Draglift) was a class of beginner skiers. Obviously their first time on a Teleski, they took the sign "Let Go Here" literally! To be fair, the "Lachez Ici" sign had been placed very poorly - right at the apex of the off ramp. So all the beginners were letting the poma go just below the crest and sliding back down the lift track in a crumpled mess.

It was like watching lemmings, throw themselves off a cliff. We couldn't believe our eyes, when one after the other they slid backwards and landed atop their classmates. Not only that, they were letting the poma go with such force they were nearly decapitating those who had managed to get to their feet. After the fourth lemming, I ran over to see if I could help. Someone was going to get seriously hurt at this rate. Fortunately the group were all English speaking so I was able to coach at least the last four to let go at the appropriate time to avoid further carnage.

By the time the ski instructor arrived on the last lift, the body count had thinned to four. The others had managed to extricate themselves and their skis from the poma track. It's moments like these that I am reminded why I never became a ski instructor.

2/ I think even Dana looks a little tired in this photo...don't be fooled!!

Dana loved Flaine, even though the sun refused to shine. For her, it was a great mixture of on & off-piste skiing. For us, it was a killer. Graeme abandoned us shortly after lunch and headed for a cafe near the car. I am wondering whether he was truly "retiring hurt" or he just couldn't cope with the constant girly chatter? He was heard to be muttering something about us exceeding our daily word limit as he disappeared into the fog!!

Arriving at Le Refuge, the Slovakian eating regime continues. I am so utterly shattered that the thought of going to bed at 8.30 or even 8.00pm is positively intoxicating! Earlier this month, I patented the "Helmut Kip" lunch routine for moments of sheer exhaustion.

Tonight, I thought I would follow up the "Helmut Kip" with the "Pasta Bowl Dive" for evening meals. The photos tell the story.

3/ & 4/ The Pasta Bowl Dive

Did I say that Dana was "gonna hurt us?". Strike that....we're talking serious injury now!

Phlegm? Flaine! and Peter Sarstedt?

1/ Mike, me, Leanne & Sue at Phlegm!

The lovely Sue joined us for a ski at Flaine today. Sue was solo today as Gavin had gone skiing with Rick in Courmeyeur. Despite the glamour of reporting that you have been skiing in Italy, I think we chose the better skiing venue. As we looked eastwards to Mont Blanc and Courmeyeur, all we could see were dense clouds. Even though we didn't have sunshine at Flaine, the snow was in remarkably good condition and we enjoyed good visibility.

There was some confusion with the name of this resort. Leanne was very concerned this morning that we were going to be spending the morning clearing our throats at "Phlegm". Understandably, she couldn't understand why anyone would want to call their ski resort Phlegm? She had assumed that it had a different meaning in French!! She was much relieved to realise her error when we gave her the piste map!

Mike was feeling a little better this morning after a good night's sleep and really enjoyed the wide groomers of Flaine. It was a cruisey day, showing Mike & Leanne around the resort.

But we tortured poor Sue with our rendition of the Peter Sarstedt classic song - "Where Do You Go To My Lovely". This song has become rather a "camp song" for us Wanaka'ites here in Araches. Leanne started to sing it as she toured the streets of Paris and arrived to us still humming the tune. It wasn't long before we were all addicted and "googling" the song to find the lyrics. But this morning, Leanne and I thought that the song was very apt for Sue & Gavin. Being Welsh, their standard greeting for a friend is "How are you my lovely?" Even though Leanne and I sang the song beautifully for Sue, she failed to recognise the tune! Our persistance did not improve her memory...hmmm maybe we are really bad singers.

I'm sure our tuneless attempts prompted her early departure. We were left to another squashy lunch in the car! Flaine has horrible "Salle de Hors Sacs" - Picnic Rooms. They are dark holes with no external windows and located right next to the public toilets! The reek of disinfectant or horrendous toilet smells are not conducive to enjoying your picnic lunch. Cynically, I am sure that the on field eating venues have a major interest in keeping them that way.

2/ Our squashy car picnics!!

Tonight is Yoga night and after a quick bowl of soup, we left Mike and Leanne to reacquaint ourselves with the special sadistic talents of our Yoga Mistress...Antoinette. It was a quiet night as far as customers go and I think Antoinette was secretly pleased to see us. Although it was hard to tell. She has a gruff demeanour!

Stretched and toned, we returned to Mike & Leanne and headed out to Les Carroz for a typical french fast food - crepes! Smothered in cream, chocolate, coconut, bananas, these dessert treats are not recommended for the weight watcher or those who are cholesterolly challenged!! Couldn't help but think my dessert fiend pal, Steve, would just love them!! Despite the side serving of guilt, we tucked into the delicious crepes with gusto!!

But best of all....it has started to snow. Serious snow!! Fingers crossed it will go all night!!

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"

The Sun Returns. Further Exploration.

1/ The skies filled again with hot-air balloons!!

After the cold foggy day yesterday, the skies have cleared and are again filled with balloons as the Les Carroz Montgolfiere Festival continues. Try as we might, it's seriously hard to get a good photograph of them once they are aloft. Our little all purpose digi-camera struggles. There is actually 12 balloons in the photo I have posted!

We could not get warm this morning. Despite the sunshine, a brisk northerly was blowing. That's our equivalent of a cold southerly downunder. In January, my usual ski attire has been an icebreaker t-shirt, 2 patagonia layers of long underwear, a patagonia black fleece, a purple windcheater vest and my red overjacket - that's 6 layers! I also have a pair of 3 layer gloves. And my fingers and toes are still cold. I can't imagine what it must be like skiing in North America or Canada when it's -10C or less! Although I will thank our Chamonix guide Eric, who taught us a bizarre shoulder & arm manouvre to get the blood pumping into the finger tips! It came in handy this morning. Shame he didn't also have a cure for cold toes!!

We met Rick & Liz for lunch today at the our favourite little mountain restaurant at the foot of the "Goolies" chairlift in Samoens. Rick, Graeme and I shared a delicious cheese fondue, while Liz very wisely chose a salad. Tragically, even though these traditional cheese fondues are totally scrumptious, they are not my friends! My digestive system exacts a wicked revenge when I eat very rich cakes, creamy pastas or too much cheese. So sadly, today will be my last cheese fondue. Sniff!

Over lunch, Rick advised us that an area that we had yet to ski in Flaine had opened. Called the Combe de Veret, it's a "cheeky little bowl" ( to borrow a favourite "Rick'ism") whose top is at 2309m. It faces west so it's nice and sunny in the afternoon, the vertical's good and best news is that it's serviced by a good ol' fashioned Poma. This means few or no snowboarders sharing our playground.....yeeha!

The old poma on the Combe de Veret was remarkably gentle. There's still quite a few poma's about the Grand Massif and to-date all of them have seriously dodgy springs. Graeme and I have regularly been launched high into the air as we get the pole between our legs. For obviously anatomical reasons, Graeme finds this a little less exciting than I do!! [No need for further details!!]

We think we've really got this filming caper stitched up now. Here's todays movie footage of our ski in the Combe de Veret and views across to Flaine and Mont Blanc.

2/ The surprisingly gentle Poma at the Combe de Veret

3/ "The Combe de Ger "

One of the best things about being able to ski the Combe de Veret today was the view from the top. We have a ski tour planned for tomorrow down into the Ger Valley. While it's hard to see from this photo, just out of the shadow is a lake and a very cute restaurant. A ski tour with hot chocolate and coffee? Who could ask for more?

4/ Our proposed route down into the Combe de Ger

A Foggy, Doggy Kinda Day

"Look it's a view from the TC Saddle Chair!

No - that's Flaine, France somewhere in the fog!!

Today was a day of typical NZ visibility. And we're getting soft!! I didn't even think about going out. Graeme decided he would go skiing for the morning at Flaine as there was both low & high level cloud. While it wasn't sunny at Flaine, it's higher altitude meant that Graeme was at least out of the lower level fog for most of the time.

I confess to being a "whimp" and choosing to stay warm & cosy at Le Refuge. I know, I know, I've gone soft. I often profess to being the "fog queen" at Treble Cone, but the difference of course is that I know TC like the back of my hand. And besides I hadn't finished my french homework. Yes, I'm a nerdy swat too!!

2/ Only the "coolest" huskies cross their paws!!"

After lunch we headed back up the hill to see the dog sledding. Unfortunately, we had missed the racing but we were able to walk around the camp and see all dogs, sleds and parapharnalia involved with this sport.

It was really cold today - about -5C all day. I couldn't help but think how happy the huskies and malamutes looked. Lounging around in snow on a bleak cold day must be Huskie Heaven or at least the equivalent of a human tourist basking themselves on a beach in the tropical sun. In contrast, I always think that the poor old huskies in NZ look positively hot and bothered when I've seen them racing at the Snow Farm!

3/ Dogs in the van. Mushers in the snow?!!?"

One thing we couldn't work out was why these particular "Mushers" slept outside while their dogs were housed in nice snug cages inside the van. Huskies & Malamutes with their double fur lined jackets would have been happiest outside. And then we spied their dogs. Obviously they couldn't afford to feed a team of huskies. Their team was a motley crew of skinny German short haired pointers. They must have been the laughing stock of the pack! To keep them warm, they all had little jackets and booties on! Can you imagine what the Huskies and Malamutes were thinking!! Obviously, their owner's had a sense of humour. Check out the side of their van!!

4/ "Mushers with a sense of humour"