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 Pressure to Publish! And Carnard a la Can!!

Aaah...the pressure to keep my blog up to date! We had put aside some time today to see the Teste Family who are again in residence. Over our morning coffee, I learned that Marie & Hubert are diligently following my blog whenever they get homesick for Araches. Their usual routine is to check the internet for the Chamonix weather report, the Les Carroz snow cams and take a little peek at my blog. Of course they find my observations on the french way of life quite funny and so they were very disappointed this week when there was a hiatus in my daily publishing!!

Aaah the pressure to publish!

1/ Hmmm?? - Confit de Canard

2/ aka "Duck in a Can"

Tonight we tried "Confit de Carnard" ("Duck in a Can") for the first time. On special at Carrefours, I thought we'd give it a try. Nothing like picking up a can of something foreign to your tastebuds and being brave enough to have a taste! The can looked rather posh! A gold tin with fancy black label, so I have assumed that Confit de Canard is a bit of a French delicacy. I could also be wrong but it was certainly way more expensive than the pet food so it had to be half decent!??!

Despite his love for duck normally, Graeme was more than a little sceptical. Muttering something about "the only meat in cans is spam or PAL", he was extremely reluctant to participate in my gastronomic experiment this evening.

The duck is already cooked and all you need do is open the can, remove the 3 portions (breast & leg) from the fat and then reheat in the oven.

How do the french not die of heart disease??? Can someone please tell me? There was enough duck fat in this one can to clog the arteries of an entire football team. Gross!!!!!! Somehow I managed to fish out the pieces (would've have been much easier with tongs) and pat them dry with paper towelling. Then into the oven at 180C and reheat for 15 minutes.

3/ Off-the-scale fat levels!!

And the result....Surprising. The meat was tender and moist and Graeme claimed that it was delicious. He even went as far to say that he would like it again?! Tragically, he will be on his own. I am not a duck fan at the best of times and I suspect I will be adding "Duck in a Can" to my list of banned french substances lest my digestive system go into a complete meltdown. I can already feel the heartburn coming on as I am typing!!

"Voila - the end result"

French Observations

Important Tong Update

Well it's official. I had it confirmed by Marie today that real French people don't use tongs!! Incroyable!!

No reason! Just the classic french BOF in response to my in depth questioning. Looks like I am just going to have to get more skilled with the use of "le forche".

Other kitchen mysteries solved!

In the course of my discussion with Marie this afternoon, I also learned more about the "gaps in french ingredients". They don't have soft brown sugar or self raising flour! Our discussion about baking powder and baking soda was also a little confusing. Je ne comprende pas!! How on earth will I make my Sticky Date Pudding? I forgot to ask her about the Real Cream conspiracy but fortunately she is back next weekend....

Ski Tour #2 - Comment ca va?

1/ Skinning up to Pointe de la Rateliere

So how was Ski Tour #2? Well, words fail us!

Today we enjoyed a breathtaking tour with the head of our local guiding company - Christoph. He is a personal friend of Rick & Liz's. A mature fellow (ie, our age!!) - he was very much our kind of guide. Good sense of humour. Laid back but conservative and safety conscious - he was very much the "old" and not "bold" type of guide that we like!

Another superb sunny day with freezing overnight temperatures ensured that the snow remained light & dry. We headed west with Christoph from the top of Flaine - 2480m down into an area called the Desert de Plate. It is called this because underneath the snow it's a plateau comprised entirely of stratified rock. Unlike the alpine meadows of the other high mountain areas, it must truly resemble a desert in the summer when the snow has gone.

We headed down to the bottom of the valley, along with many other Frenchies who thought that today would be a good day to go ski touring. Fair enough! It was Saturday after all. But, that is the reality of Europe. People everywhere. However, the valley is huge and there's actually plenty of room for everyone. And of course the advantage of having a guide is that they know all the secret locations.

Christoph led us away from the people and back up again on the far western flank of the valley. From there we skinned and climbed up to a small peak - Pointe de la Ratelliere -2708m. Lunch was spent gazing out over the alps. The views from the top were incredible. To the South West, Mont Blanc and the Chamonix peaks dominated the skyline and to the west was Les Houches and in the distance Le Grave.

On the way up, we skinned through some amazing rock formations. It was like walking through a canyon or ice-seracs on a glacier. It was eerie and beautiful at the same time.

"The Rock Canyons"

And the skiing? The photo of Graeme putting in a nice set of tracks pretty much answers that question. Lovely frost dried, well consolidated, boot-top powder. Great fun to ski in!!

Graeme : "completing the set"

Inevitably, there are too many photos of today! For the enthusiast - click here.

After our second descent we continued down the plateau to Chalets de Sales. A collection of small farming chalets, it is abandoned in the winter except for a 72 year old fellow named Raymond. Christoph is a friend and regularly visits with him. Raymond refuses to leave the valley in the winter. There is no road access to this area and the walk from the nearest village Sixt-Fer-a Cheval is a hard one with a roped descent down through a steep icy gorge. Or a walk up & ski down to Flaine. The mind boggles how Raymond manages to get his supplies but apparantly he skins up and over into Flaine most days!!

Passing through Chalet de Sales, the plateau ends abruptly in a narrow gorge with a sheer cliff towards its end. As we travelled through the gorge we were privileged to see Chamois and the rare Alpine Ibex ( a long horned alpine goat) grazing the steep sided gorge far above us. Christoph has the eyes of an eagle and it sometimes took us an age to find the animal he was pointing to.

4/ The Frozen Cascade de Sales

At the end of the gorge, is a sheer cliff over which a waterfall tumbles 50m to a second terrace.

Hmmmm. Interesting! It's been a while since I have done an abseil. I certainly have never had to do one with my skis and poles attached. 48m doesn't sound very high, but when you are peering over the edge of a cliff, it is still a little daunting. Again a picture is worth a thousand words, so if you'd like to see Christoph and I repel down this ice cliff click here. Graeme has made some funny commentary, so it's definitely worth a look.

Following our little dabble in mountaineering, we continued down the gorge and the wooded forest to Sixt. We struggled to follow the nimble Christoph with his tight turns. I lost count of the number of times I had to use an emergency snow plough to avoid wrapping myself around a tree or hitting a big boulder in the frozen streams we were descending!

And in typical French fashion, our adventure ended with a beer in a little mountain cabin while we waited for the free resort bus to take us back to Les Carroz. How civilised!

It was a long day - 8:30pm - 7.30pm! Great value and we are well pleased to have made Christoph's acquaintance. We hope that we'll have a few more adventures with him along the way!!

Housework = Exhaustion

1/ Afternoon sunshine glistening through the ice

Our secret is revealed! Whenever we say we've decided to stay home and do our housework ...read "we are totally exhausted!" Certainly the housework did need to be done and there is a good chance that we will be going on another big ski tour tomorrow, but the sad truth is that we are whimps!! Plan A had been to clean the flat in the morning, do our french homework, have lunch and then head off to Flaine for a ski in the afternoon. Somehow it just didn't happen. Shocking isn't it?

We decided to go for a walk around our little village instead. The sun was shining but the air temperature is below zero and drops even further when the sun sets! All around us the trees around us are covered in hoar frost and the roads and paths are all diabolically icy!!

Not only that ...we have to be "Prudent" at the moment in our village. Montgolfiere's are lurking everywhere..

Like Wanaka, this area of the Haute Savoie has been the subject of a building boom over the last 10 years. There are tell-tale signs in abundance: too many real estage agencies, "Vende" (For Sale signs) everywhere and the odd crane or two marring the skyline.

Fortunately it appears that the building code is very strict. New buildings must look like a traditional mountain chalet. The use of wood in these buidings is extensive both inside and out even if the inner construction is of concrete or block. They also strive to make the buildings look old by scorching the timber cladding.

But like the rest of the world, Araches/ Les Carroz is being affected by the global economic slowdown and it appears that many developments have been abandoned. While this might also be due to the cold winter conditions, many of the sites look like the workers have just downed tools and stopped work. Certainly, all the ski chalet operators are reporting that their English visitor numbers are down on previous years. January has been dead and while February is tradtionally busy, the March and April bookings are not strong. Interesting times ahead?

3/ A new chalet and a new "old chalet" with it's scorched exterior.

And finally to end today's blog, while wandering through the streets of Les Carroz, we came upon an exciting discovery! Monoski's now come with twin tips....and you can even hire them!! Oohh ...the temptation!!

4/ Twin Tipped Mono's Awesome!

A Sensational Ski Tour #1

"So who's a happy girl then??"

Well, we have finally ventured seriously off-off piste today. Our first ski tour. C'est magnifique!Hopefully the first of many. We had spent 2 days investigating our proposed route off the north face of Flaine down into a gorgeous hanging valley to a charming Chalet / Gite situated on the frozen Lac Gers.

Two days earlier we had spied what we thought was a safe, low angle route down into the valley. Since this area also has no "rock crevasses" and after some further investigation of the weather & avalanche forecast we thought it would be a good tour to start with. Graeme had also dug a snow pit in the area on Monday and we ("actually I") checked the snow profile and our proposed route with the Flaine ski patrol before we started off. To complete the "safety-nerd" routine we let Liz know exactly where we were going so she could organise a search for the bodies if we were not back on time!! [Just kidding, Mum!].

"Nice!!"

What is it with blokes and asking for "information or directions"? Graeme was dead against me going to talk with the ski patrol at Flaine before we set off. My argument is the more information the better. I mean to say, it would be pretty incovenient if the Patrol were doing some avalanche control work in the area (ie., bombing) and we just wandered aimlessly into their path.

He kept predicting dire consequences - "they won't speak English, you won't understand what they are saying, they will tell us not to go, they'll just ignore you!!" "So?" was my reply. "Then we won't know any more than we do now." If the only risk is that they think I'm an idiot or they're rude to me, then that's their problem. I'd rather take the chance that they will provide us with some useful information. And so....it came to pass... that I had a lovely chat with a very cute French patroller who answered all my questions, reassured me that the snowpack was pretty stable especially on the low angle route we were proposing. And being typically French added "C'est tres important! Nous ne avons jamais cette conversation!!"

The Flaine backcountry is like TC touring. There were plenty of tracks down some seriously dodgy lines. While it is sometimes reassuring to see that people have been there before you, Graeme and I are not keen just to follow tracks blindly. I call it the "dumb and dumber" approach. Ie., a dumb person got away with it the first time and the dumber person follows them to their peril!!

Despite our conservative line, we still got some fresh tracks and the skiing was excellent. There was a rain crust at the lower altitudes but the snow was frost dried and light. Here's the film footage from today.

"Inside Chalet du Lac Gers"

But you just have to love ski touring in this country! At the end of our ski, we arrived at the most delightful chalet/gite you could imagine. Chalet du Lac Gers is something out of a fairytale. A converted old cow barn, it is filled with historical photos and memorabilia. It is set in a magical location that can be accessed by ordinary skiers from a long ski run called the Cascade. If you want to visit the Chalet, you make a call on a telephone from the track and the owners will arrive on a ski-do with tow ropes to take you back for lunch. We had seen this on a previous trip on the Cascade with the Teste Family.

Since we had arrived from the uphill side, we didn't need a tow. We were the earliest arrivals at the Chalet and ordered a coffee and hot chocolate. Sitting out on the sun-drenched deck we sipped our hot drinks while watching two Chamois cavort on the mountains above us. Idyllic!!We were secretly wishing that we could just settle in for a delicious lunch. But alas, we had a 3 - 4 hour skin back up the hill ahead of us and I had already packed our sandwiches. But next time.....

"The easy way to Chalet du Lac Gers"

We made excellent time back up the hill and arrived back in Flaine to call home to "Mother" aka Liz to say that she didn't have to start a search for us!

Then back to Le Refuge, a shower, change and quick bite to eat and then off to Cours de la Yoga. Yoga is proving to be quite random. Our instructress, Antoinette is having trouble finding a permanent location to hold her classes. This week, the day changed from Monday to Thursday and we had to drive 8km to a school in neighbouring village to attend our class. Next week the day and venue has changed again. But this time it's on Wednesday in our village, Araches, and we will be able to walk. All good. No new track suit pants for Graeme, though. I will just have to survive the lustful intentions of my fellow female classmates and remember that Graeme might actually benefit from the special attention he gets!! He is a long way from putting that left leg over the right shoulder. This is an important skill to learn, we have a long economy class flight home!!

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"