Arrivederci Livigno - Bonjour Araches via Lake Como

1/ Arrivederci Livigno!

For me, Livigno will forever be associated with burning thigh muscles, great pasta and a broken heart.....I chose the gloves!!

For Graeme, Livigno was La Skieda. The greatest festival he's ever been to. The people, the skiing and .....oooohhh all that equipment and the freedom to "gear talk" all day, every day, for seven whole days. My man has been in heaven!

We're on the way home now, via Italy and not Switzerland as Graeme had originally planned. The high pass to Andermatt is still closed. We tried to travel this route on the way back from Slovakia but ended up on the back of a train, in a tunnel, under a mountain. After fighting with Penny (the GPS), Graeme finally conceded that it was not worth driving all the way there only find that "She Who Must Be Obeyed (Penny)" was correct and the road was closed. Much sulking!!

To ease the tension between Graeme and Penny, I diplomatically suggested that we drop in on George for lunch. George who? Clooney, of course! Reportedly George has a little shack somewhere on the shores of Lake Coma. I'm sure he'd love us to drop by and say hello!

2/ Graeme in a contemplative mood. What pasta should I order?

We didn't have much luck finding George's place. But we did manage to find Lake Como and a great little spot for a quiet pasta lunch. Quite an achievement for us really, especially since SWMBO has been switched off by Graeme. [His personal act of "rage against the machine"!]

Pictures tell the story. Lake Como is beautiful. I would imagine however, being so close to Milano and Torino, it positively heaves in the summer. But in the soft spring sunshine, a late afternoon stroll along the shoreline was sublime.

4/ The Sunday Bric-a -brac stalls lining the shores of Lake Como

Not the Best Day for a Ski Tour!

1/ Daniela & Luciano. Sure they're smiling now...but it's only the beginning.

Somehow we managed to struggle out of bed this morning after the mountain top dinner last night. We were meeting Daniela and Luciano for one of the organised ski tours being held each day during the festival. Sensibly D&L didn't go to the party last night. The were bright eyed and bushy tailed. A sharp contrast to our own bleary eyes and sagging tails!! Nevertheless we made it to the cable car on time and the morning cappucino at the top helped start our engines.

2/ A busy day for the ski tour!!

It was not the best day for a ski tour. The weather has changed. It was warm and foggy today and the powder snow at the beginning of the week is now only a distant memory. The excursion turned out really to be an endurance event, travelling in a dense fog, with 70 or so other telemarkers up and down the ridge-line separating Italy and Switzerland. Ordinarily the views are really quite something, so it was disappointing to have only the view of Graeme's bottom wiggling in front of me as he shuffled along on his skins. Ordinarily a good view in itself, but I have seen rather a lot of it over the recent months!

I had learnt my lesson from the last ski tour and today I donned my "normal" skis rather than try and pretend that I was anything else other than a very ordinary intermediate telemark skier. Nobody seemed to mind and I wasn't immediately ostrascised from the telemark community. Such is the relaxed attitude of these kind people.

About half way into the tour, I am sooooooo relieved that I didn't use the telemark skis. After a 2.5 hour skin up to the ridgeline in a white out, we had to back track to find a safe skiable slope back to the resort. With such poor visability, the original tour plan was abandoned. As is often the way with ski touring, the snow was heinous. Either heavy and wet or diabolical breakable crust. It would have been impossible for me to ski this on telemarks. I had enough trouble on my alpine skis! Graeme seemed to have no trouble at all and made a wonderful job of skiing in such difficult conditions. He received a terrific tip from John on our last tour and it was reinforced in the lesson we had yesterday. Graeme has been able to apply the "Cat Step" to very useful effect in the breakable crust conditions.

3/ Luciano loves his cake!! And cheese too!!

The "Ski Tour from Hell" as Daniela termed it, culminated in a final steep climb back to the ski resort. The final skin required about 10 or so kick-turns, so if you were not able to perform these easily, it was extremely hard going. The technique for a telemark kick-turn is actually very tricky and Daniela found it almost impossible. She was totally exhausted when she finally made it back to the ski resort.

Nothing a good bowl of pasta and a delicious cake couldn't fix however! We waited for D&L and joined them for lunch. Sadly, they are leaving this afternoon, as Daniela has to be back at work on Friday. But we've swapped emails and hopefully we'll have time to nip over to Italy and the Aosta valley before we leave France.

Late afternoon, we stopped by to see some ski films submitted to the Livigno Mountain Film Festival that is being held concurrently with La Skieda. We were especially interested to see a telemark film from Australia. A low-budget film, it nevertheless had some fantastic footage of skiing in the snowy mountains and around Hotham and Falls Creek. I am not sure that the European crowd was really that impressed by the skiing footage. I mean to say, skiing around on windswept hard packed slab snow understandably doesn't push their buttons. But there was some footage of a Val D'Isere patroller who spent a winter at Thredbo. His observations about our intense sun, blue sky and lovely snow gums went over well with the audience.

By early evening, we are back in our little apartment and I am busy blogging away, trying desperately to catch up. Graeme has left me to it, heading off to see another film or theatre production as part of the festival. I can't blog and socialise I'm afraid. But now I am back to the general silence of long term marriage!! ...I should hopefully make some progress.

4/ I love European villages. The view from our apartment window.
A horse stabled next door being fed for the evening.

A Striptease, A Lesson and A Delicious Dinner in Livigno

1/ An uninspiring Strip-tease!!

The La Skieda crew of telemark skiers (all 1,300 of 'em) are an eclectic bunch. Racers, jibbers, old hippies, the young & the old from all corners of the globe.
And today we were treated to a wonderfully extroverted group of telemarkers from Sweden (where else?) who liked to get naked in public. Standing on their tables during the peak lunch hour at the Refuge Carosella, they put on a fine show. It's always a time consuming process to rid oneself of all your ski gear. Personally, it was taking so long, I lost interest and went for coffee. I think from the few photos Graeme took, he wasn't that impressed either. I mean to say, looking at the photo, we are not talking prime beef cake here..are we??? Nevertheless the crowd, egged on by the band, went suitably wild.

We confess to a late start to the day this morning. We didn't get to bed until midnight (very very late for us) after seeing some of the award winning films from the most recent Banff Mountain Film Festival. All manner of extreme mountain sports were featured, climbing, skiing, paragliding, speed skiing, skydiving and base jumping. The main feature film was about 3 Base Jumpers (An Australian, American and Norwegian) who travel to the heart of China to freefall 2km into a gigantic cave. An interesting armchair glimpse into the psyche of men with a serious death wish!!

2/ Andy : "You want me to do what? On Telemark Skis - you gotta be kidding?"

After lunch we joined John Falkiner again for a Telemark Clinic called "Balance before Power". His theory is that, if you are balanced, then you use much less "power/energy" to drive the telemark skis. Sounds great in theory. I'm keen to learn any technique that will reduce the excrutiating thigh burn I experience every time I don the "Misery Sticks".

The afternoon consisted of some hilarious exercises : - handclapping, buddhist chanting (Om Bar Cha, Cha, Cha) and arm waving. Most of the exercises had to be done with our boots completely undone, in "walk" mode and without our poles. Other routines included skiing on one ski while lifting the uphill ski and placing it down as gently as possible during your turn - The "Cat Step". Lastly John had the whole class hurtle down a mogul field yelling "Ding Dong" over each bump like a bunch of crazed Avon sales ladies! By this stage I'm starting to get suspicious that we are secretly being filmed for the "candid camera" segment of the La Skieda festival?

I still have a long way to go before I am truly efficient at this telemarking caper, but Graeme enjoyed the clinic and found a number of the exercises really useful. But the best thing about the afternoon was meeting up with a lovely Italian couple from the Aosta valley (near Chamonix). Daniela is a psychologist and Luciano a ski instructor. Interesting combination to be sure. But they were delightful. Daniela spoke perfect english and Luciano spoke perfect "ski english" as he called it. Just don't ask him to explain Italian politics in English!!

We had plenty of time to get to know each other as part of the lesson also included stopping for a beer at a mountain top restaurant. Typical La Skieda fashion!! Needless to say the last lesson on the run down the mountain was fairly challenging with loose boots, no poles and a beer in our bellies!!

2/Andy, Daniela and John & others on the "beer stop" part of John's Clinic!!

And finally after a good cup of tea and a lie down, we frocked up for a special mountain top dinner. Graeme and I, are constantly in awe of the organisation of this huge event, but it was entirely due to some lucky connections that we managed to get into this dinner. Let me explain.

We are staying in the home of the Zini Family- a 3 story old fashioned apartment complex which, apart from our flat, is occupied entirely by Zini's. Aunts, Uncles, daughters & son-in-laws. Truly the European way. The Zini family, as we have been learning, are quite famous in the Livigno Valley. Everyone in the village seems to know Genni, who manages our apartment for her family. Genni's sister, now retired, was a famous speed skater and won a bronze medal in the last winter olympics.

As it happens, Genni is a telemark skier too, and she has taken the week off work to go to join the party that is La Skieda Festival. We keep running into her at various events and have enjoyed snippets of conversation with her. On the night of the special mountain top dinner, we realised that although we had booked the dinner when we registered, the flustered receptionist had failed to give us the tickets we needed to gain entry. We were with Genni when we realised this. We were so lucky that she was able to explain what had happened to the door attendants and plead our case for us...in Italian! We would have been lost without her help and doomed to have missed an incredible experience in the mountains. What luck to have been staying with her!!

As I have mentioned before.. these Italians really know how to cater. I guess I always knew this having grown up in Melbourne with many Italian friends, but this mountain top dinner for 200 or so people was really something. 4 courses, with wine and coffee all included in the price of our festival ticket. What a bargain!

Ours was a truly multi-cultural table. To our left were 3 young french couples from Geneva, and to the right, an older (60's) immaculately dressed Swiss mountain guide (Fritz..yes seriously), and then a team of wild french/spanish boys from the Pyrenes and La Grave who produce hand-made wooden skis. [I still didn't find out which one was Vincent!! ]. Across from us was a German chemistry professor, a mountain guide from Conneticut and his aircraft engineer wife. I told you that telemarkers are an eclectic bunch!! Needless to say the conversation was wonderfully interesting.

"Guess the German?"

To top off the night we caught the cable car down with Genni's father, Guido, who unfortunately does not speak a word of English. But also sharing our cabin was another lovely local couple who were also friends of Genni's. They had been to NZ and Australia and we enjoyed a lively conversation about their experiences on the long ride down the mountain.

What a day, what a night? How are we going to be up at the crack of dawn for the next ski tour??

Italians Know How to Party!!

1/ Festa Trepallina - One Huge Party!!

We learned today that there are over 1300 telemarkers registered for this La Skieda festival. Yes, folks...that's 1300 telemark skiers in this one valley. I'd be fairly sure that there's not 1300 telemark skiers in the whole of NZ or Australia for that matter.

And today, after reaching the valley floor, we skied to "Festa Trepallina", a free luncheon for all the festival attendees and half the Livigno township. We can't even begin to estimate the number of people all sitting in the sun enjoying in a deserted valley at the back of the ski resort. Words fail me when I try to capture the fantastic organisation and party atmosphere of this event. Best view the film footage!!

The food was amazing, great vats of polenta, spare ribs, ragout, salad, cheese, bread and a beer! I suspect, every Mama in Livigno had been cooking for a week in preparation for this event.

Above us, the freeride Skieda competition was being held. The experts showed us how it's done! Tearing down the slope, they launched themselves off rocks and used the trees as race poles. An incredibly daunting display!! The DJ, was playing all the classic tunes - Rolling Stones, George Thorogood, Zee-zee Top, all the hippy classics, mixed with some good latin salsas, bossanova and topped off with Pavarotti and Julie Andrews!! Classic!!

These Italians truly know how to throw a party!!

2/ The whole village was manning the food assembly lines!

3/ The Dance Party

4/ The Fancy Dress!

Ski Touring with an old Aussie Bloke

1/ Ski Touring out from Livigno this morning.

Each morning of the La Skieda Telemark Festival, there is an excursion led by professional guides to one of the surrounding peaks or valleys. With the bright sunshine and the hope that there was still some powder to be found on the north facing aspects, we organised to go out for a ski tour with John Falkiner. John, originally from Geelong, Melbourne, now lives in Verbier, Switzerland.


John is most famous for the stunt skiing in James Bond films but his involvement in the ski industry over the last 30 years is legendery. He knows a lot of the guides in Wanaka, but the funniest coincidence is that Graeme remembers taking a ski lesson from him way back in the 70's at Mt Buller! Graeme wore his Mt Buller beanie and giggle sun-hat (donated by his patroller brother) today especially for John!

2/ Graeme putting in some nice turns!

I was very relieved that our tri-lingual group (3 English speakers, one Italian and 2 French) were intermediate skiers and we were going to take an easier line down the mountain. I had elected to use the "misery sticks" (telemark skis), figuring that, after all, it was a telemark festival and it would've been rude to turn up for the tour with alpine gear!! A bit like arriving at an AA meeting with a bottle of wine!

As expected, John had a good eye for the easiest skin line and where to find the best snow. But I can't say I excelled in the telemark department, I think I managed 3 telemark turns for the whole morning! But the snow was too good to waste with ugly tele-turns and in the end I just wanted to put in a nice set of parallel turns. This telemark skiing thing is going to take some serious persistence and leg endurance on my part!

3/ John & my tracks! Hardly "figure of 8" are they?

Graeme was easily the best skier of the group. The french and italian women were very tentative. This excursion was obviously one of their first ventures skiing off-piste or away from the comfort of the resort. As a consequence, there were many stops and breaks in the journey while skis were collected, sunglasses cleared of snow and confidence restored. As a credit to our guide, we all managed to make it down in one piece!! But there was no pressure. We assured John that we were more than happy with the pace. We enjoy just getting out in the mountains and the weather was glorious!

4/ John Falkiner -"Probably wondering why he had been stuck
with a bunch of beginners this morning!!?"

Joining us on the tour, was Andy, from Edinburgh who was learning to telemark. John and his partner, Kathy, have been to the last three La Skieda festivals and we can see why they keep coming back. Where else do you get free ski guiding and lessons everyday from some of the top professionals in the business?

There was some serious incentive to get down the hill. Below us in the valley, a fantastic La Skieda luncheon awaited us!

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!!

Calling all Woodwork Enthusiasts

1/ Vincent's beautiful wooden roof box!

The La Skieda Telemark Festival is full of quirky characters. One of these is the mad french man, Vincent from the Pyrenees in South-West France, who makes and sells handmade wooden skis. Due to language difficulties, I haven't been able to ascertain exactly which one he is. I'd like to think he is the tall scruffy crusty looking fellow in the photo below, but I couldn't be certain.

Vincent brands his skis AME and he will custom make a ski to your specifications. They had these skis available for testing during the first few days of the festiva. Graeme tried a pair but they were too short for him. Unfortunately all their longer skis were out being tested. He wasn't that impressed, but couldn't say whether it was the inappropriate length or the ski itself.

But aside from all this, Vincent is a supreme wood craftsman. He even carries his skis in a custom made wooden roof box. Absolutely a wonder to behold. Aaah how I wish I was able to converse fluently in French so I could learn more about Vincent and his magical skis.

2/ More detail...for the enthusiast!

3/ The skis and sales pitch on the side of the combi!! How hippy!
Tragically, we don't know if the guy in the yellow is Vincent or not.

Livigno, La Skieda and Finding our Feet.

1/ Livigno Village - spread out in a narrow strip along the valley floor

Livigno, is a township of about 5000 permanent residents. Situated at 1800m, Livigno is one of Italy's highest habitations. The town runs north-south along a narrow strip in the middle of the valley floor. It has obviously developed this way due to the constant threat of avalanches which can pour down from the 3000+ m peaks on either side.

Starting life as a small & struggling agricultural community, Livigno is now a major tourist destination. Through some quirk in history, Livigno enjoys a tax-free status. This means, petrol, alcohol, cigarettes and luxury goods are all cheaper here than in Europe. Add to this, reliable skiing in the winter, beautiful summer hiking and the fabulous Italian food and hospitality and you have all the ingredients for a wicked tourist destination.

2/ The wonderful old wooden houses

Most of the buildings in the village are brick and stone, but a few of the ancient wooden cabins have been restored to their former glory.

The ski resort has 2 parts. East of the village is Carosello 3000, the larger more developed area and to the west, Motollino. Both sides are connected by a free bus, servicing the whole of the village. But both areas are big enough that you can easily spend the whole day without having to cross the valley.

It was still snowing lightly this morning with low cloud obscuring the mountain tops. Despite the weather we were excited to get out amongst it and be part of this La Skieda Festival.

The La Skieda Telemark Festival first started in 1993 with 53 attendees. This year there were over 1200 telemark skiers registered, such is the popularity of this festival. The organisation is massive. Part festival, sales conference, film festival, huge party and sporting event, La Skieda has something for everyone. If you want to see a really neat website about the event - click here. Every year there is a theme and in 2009 it was a "Fairytale" theme with an emphasis on reducing the impact on the environment.

The township of Livigno, on its own, has a strong history of telemark skiing and everyone seems to embrace and passionately support the La Skieda festival. Even our landlady Genni is a keen telemark skier. She and her boyfriend Fabio have taken the week off work just so they can attend the festival!

To get our bearings, we spend the morning testing the greatest selection of Telemark equipment you could possibly wish to see on the Mottolino side of the hill. All the latest boots, bindings and brands of telemark skis! Graeme was in seventh heaven, tearing up and down the slopes trying all sorts of the latest telemark gear. Meanwhile I was coming to grips with the concept of 7 days on the "misery sticks" as I call affectionately call them!

Today's La Skieda events included a ski tour (which unfortunately was cancelled due to avalanche danger & weather), a classic ski race hampered more than a little by the poor visibility and ski testing. This evening is the opening of the Livigno Film Festival, followed finally by a "Fire Party" with free food and drink in a forest venue up the valley.

Confessing to a "Nana Nap" after the trauma of my first day on tele's, we made the opening film of the Livigno Film Festival late afternoon. The opening film was the "The Fine Line" an interesting film with great photography and ski footage, but also some rather sobering images and commentary about the increasing number of deaths and injuries from avalanches.

Back to the apartment for a quick bite to eat then off in the car (sorry environmentalists!) to find the Fire Party. Located at the southern end of the village, a magical pathway, lit by laterns led us deep into the forest. Arriving at the bonfire, the party was well underway. But at this early stage, getting to know people is proving tricky due to the language barrier. So many of the people are from Livigno and neighbouring villages. They all know each other. We are very much the newcomers! We have our ears tuned to pick up on any native english speakers. But so far, no luck.

It has snowed on & off today and the snow is still coming down even more heavily tonight....looks like another powder day. Can we really take anymore of this??

4/ The Fire Party

On the Snowy Road Again - And an Italian Mud Derby

Excited about the trip to Livigno but as always dreading the thought of driving there! It's Saturday and I'm sure the roads will be clogged! Fingers crossed we won't get lost and it won't be as chaotic as during the last school holiday period! We left Dana to lock up for us and we headed off at 8am to hopefully make Livigno before dark.

1/ Lost in a Blizzard!

So much for the wishful thinking!!!

Do you need snow in your resort? Well, let Andy & Graeme know and they will plan a road trip to your area. Why, why, why does it alway chuck down with snow whenever we want to go somewhere?

Penny the GPS, is seriously in our bad books. The route she planned for us, over a high mountain road turned out to be closed during the winter! But to discover this inconvenient little fact, we had to drive through another pass at 2330m in a full blizzard and white out conditions. The snowbanks on the side of the road towered over us almost engulfing the 10m snow poles. Visibility was down to about 2m as the howling wind drove snow over the road. Eventually it was all too much for Pepi and we began sliding all over the road. Poor ol' Graeme had to get out and put the chains on. After surviving all this, imagine our disgust when we then learned that our road was closed and we had to go back the way we had come. Oh the joys of European driving!

Turning Penny off, we found the only other alternative into Livigno, a one way tunnel through the mountains from the Swiss side. Of course it's Saturday isn't it? This means that it's changeover day and the road is clogged with people leaving and arriving at the resort. A little tricky when you only have a one-way tunnel!!

Of course, the first we knew about this was when we were stopped by officials on the mountain road and herded into a muddy paddock with about 500 other cars. We had no idea what was going on, but every one else seemed to be sitting patiently in their cars waiting for something to happen. So as the saying goes, "when in Rome..." When I say people were waiting patiently, I'll exclude the occupants of the numerous vans with Czech, Polish and Slovakian number plates. They didn't seem at all concerned about the wait. They were playing disco music, throwing down beers and vodka and dancing around in the mud. Quite entertaining really. Although the novelty did start to wear off after the first hour!!

To ensure that the mountain road does not become gridlocked, during periods of heavy traffic, officials herd all cars into large grass holding pens. Unfortunately, the grass doesn't survive and with all the traffic, they become large smelly quagmires! In this way they can control the number of cars through the tunnel and at the swiss border beyond.

But the really exciting time comes when the officials open the gate of the holding pen to release the set number of cars onto the road. It's a Le Mans start in the mud. 16 lanes of cars are trying to take a U corner in deep mud and narrow to 2 lanes at the same time. I have never seen anything like it, in all my life. In the end, to save the nervous breakdown, I just closed my eyes and let Graeme fight his way through the mess.

No sooner did we get through the tunnel, than we were queued again at the Swiss Border. Another E$25 cash just to get out of Switzerland! Thank you very much!! No doubt about the Swiss! They certainly know how to cash in on the tourist at every possible step.

2/ The quagmire! Gentlemen, start your engines!!

It's now dark and finally we have arrived in Livigno. To top off a rather fraught day, our mobile phone is not working. We can text out but we cannot use it to make phone calls. We have no idea why this is and no patience left to find out. Eventually, with some luck we find our apartment and meet our lovely young hostess, Genni Zini.

The apartment is very neat and tiday, although it's in the roof cavity on the 3rd floor of the apartment building. 51 stairs from the ground! I think it will suit us nicely for the week, although Graeme may develop a nasty crook in his neck!!

3/ Graeme in our height challenged apartment

Dumping our gear, we were off again to find the La Skieda Festival head-quarters at the other end of the town. We managed this with out further incident even though it was now snowing very heavily. Registered, we returned with our flat to get some sleep before the big first day of the festival!

While today was certainly a challenging one, there was some good news.....along the way through Italy we came upon what looked very much like the Australian "Twisties" snack food. A perennial favourite of ours we were excited to try them. Same packaging, same twistie rice crisp shape, but with a milder cheese flavour than the strong chedder flavour of the Australian version. Yum!

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.

Refugio Mario Bezzi - Day 2

1/ Setting off early morning. Only the 3 old German blokes ahead of us.

Today I found my personal limits!

An easy climb for our guide Christophe and Graeme - that I found very difficult. The route to Pointe Bassac Sud - 3460m involved steep skinning on hard snow.

Unfortunately, my fear of "slipping" let me down and I made slow progress up the peak. Even despite the extra "bite" of my new ski crampons, I found that I really lost my nerve, especially when we were transversing a very steep slope with a cliff below. Try as might, I could not get the vision of me sliding uncontrollably down the slope and over the rocks!!

2/A break at a flat spot on way to Pointe Bassac Sud

To add insult to injury, I was ashamed to find myself being passed by the nimble 69 year old Mario, who was out for his daily run. He had started over an hour behind us after doing some cleaning and food preparation at the refuge. No fear of slipping from this this mountain goat, he strode past me without even breaking a sweat. Typical.... he wanted first tracks!!

But despite all the doom in my head, it was another perfect day. Bright sunshine and a gentle northerly breeze. The boys burnt me off at about 3200m and continued up the ice and rock scramble to the summit of Bassac Sud on foot. I was pleased to see that Christophe put a rope on Graeme as they climbed together, although with Graeme at 6'4" and Christophe considerably smaller, I did rather wonder what Christophe would do if my surefooted hubby did actually trip? I guess it's a moot point as both boys had no problems. Graeme managed the last 200m climb with ease! He is my hero!!

In the meantime I dug myself into the snow and passed the time watching the aerobatic antics of a big Eagle and a small group of Choughas who really wanted to eat the bread that I had left for them, but were too shy to land while I was there. I really like these Chougha's. They are excellent pilots. To me, it seems that they are really just flying about for pleasure, using the wind currents to lift and float them above the mountains.

2/ Graeme atop Pointe Bassac Sud - 3460m. Mont Blanc is the highest peak in the background

No sooner than the boys returned to pick me up and we had our skis on for the run down the hill. Christoph wanted to make sure the sun wasn't going to ruin the pockets of shaded powder that he had spied on the way up. Poor Graeme barely had time to catch his breath before we were hurtling down the mountain back to the refuge.

Graeme skied like a champion. He must have been exhausted but he linked turn after turn. In contrast, I skied dreadfully. After a day of adrenaline pumping through my system, my legs were like jelly and were no longer taking instructions from the brain above! In the end, I gave up trying to be stylish and opted for the "speed is best" approach. "Point 'em" down the hill and get down asap! After all, I had the incentive of a hot shower and a delicious 4 course Italian feast awaiting me!!

Well at least that's what I thought. But Graeme and Christoph wanted to practice our rope skills. The sun's last rays had left the refuge by this stage and we had to practice our crevasse rescue in the chill of the early evening. Nothing like freezing to death to add a bit of "realism" to the practice session. Did I mention that hot shower and big feed? That was all I could think about towards the end. Christoph must have also been thinking similarly. I could have kissed him when he suggested we take the rope inside and practice some more knots over a glass of Italian red!! What a guide!

After another delicious Italian feast, Graeme and I were so tired we literally collapsed into our beds, to dream about the next day!

4/ Thawing out inside and practicing some knots. Christoph & I