A Cruising Kinda Day

1/ Looking to Livigno backcountry. Photo doesn't show it but there are wet slides
on every face including the northly aspects!!

It's seriously spring now. The sun is shining and there's not a breath of wind. Wet slides are occurring all over the back-country as the sun cooks the slopes. Without a freeze overnight, the touring conditions are not good. Consequently, after 3 late nights and early starts in a row, we whimped out and stayed in bed this morning.

But by late-morning, I was back on those misery sticks, persisting with this telemark caper! Graeme is incredibly patient with me. But at the moment, I feel that I have hit the "intermediate wall". I find that I'm not progressing beyond groomed runs. The tips from John Falkiner have been helpful, but nothing has really clicked for me so far. After 10 turns my thighs are burning with lactic acid and by the end of the run, I am doubled over with nausea. And this is supposed to be fun....???

Fortunately, being pretty tired himself, Graeme was amenable to taking a few breaks today. Our first stop was a high mountain restaurant where we found ourselves surrounded by Poles, Slovaks and Czechs. After spending time in Slovakia with Dana, the distinctive sounds of the Slovak language are now familiar to us. We have learned that aside from the cheap lift tickets, accommodation and food, the duty free alcohol (in particular spirits like vodka) is a major attraction for these tourists. There certainly does not seem to be a shortage of money. We have been astounded at the number of former communists driving top of the line 4WD Mercedes, Audis and BMW's. I did have to giggle when Genni, our italian landlady hinted darkly that these tourists are mainly new mafia. Now, given that we are in Italy... surely that would be the "pot calling the kettle black!!?"

2/ This Polish lady was having so much fun after washing her lunch down with
the cheap Livigno vodka that she obviously thought she was at the beach.
Taking off her top and shoes, she danced around in the snow in her bare feet!!

3/ A traditional farmhouse bar

Second stop was a funky little farmhouse restaurant in the late afternoon sunshine. Instead of beer, my preferred choice is a "Panochet" - a French shandy of beer and lemonade. I often mistakenly call this drink a Chilean Dictator (a "Pinochet"), but the long suffering french in our resort now know what I mean. It took a little more explaining in Italy! The ol' Pinochet, is much better for the balance if you have to continue skiing! Not that anything seems to help my telemark skiing. Graeme on the other hand ordered a medium sized beer - see below. Not sure how large BIG would have been?

4/ Graeme and his "medium beer"

Tonight we are attending the last dinner of the Festival! Then, up early tomorrow morning to change accommodation. Unfortunately like most apartments in Europe, they're only a 7 night deal - Saturday to Saturday. If you want to stay longer than that period you need to book a hotel or pension. Fortunately, through Genni we have found a good little B&B called Chalet Moon just down the road.

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!!