We got to Italy

Amazing powder snow in La Rosiere, but grey light and poor visibility. One excellent run, first down the top of the black run from the Roc Noir lift; powder so deep it fluffs up into your mouth and over your goggles! The couple of French guys who were also there agreed that it was "Incroyable" and "Magnifique".

However the sun in Italy was calling so off through the pass and down to La Cremerie.

The pizza oven in Le Rascard was broken, so we had lunch at Maison Carel.

As expected, the snow in Italy was very different. Icy low down, and blown off higher up. Still, nice to get in one day in something approaching sun.

On the way back along Choucas, in poor visibility, I hit a snow drift (on piste!) that knocked me backwards so that I ended up still in my skis but lying backwards with snow over my head! Apparently I just disappeared.

Back in La Rosiere

Back in La Rosiere with the family, but in a new (to us) chalet. This year we have the chalet to ourselves. Food and hospitality as good as ever, with Alex and Emma doing a great job.

Tea laid out ready for tired skiers

The weather hasn't been great so far this week, with lots of grey clouds on the pistes and snow, so we haven't made it to Italy yet. As the sign said "Italy is closed" (which may be a slightly extreme view!).

Alison threatened by a mad marmotte

We had a good day today despite the grey weather, with an off piste lesson in the morning with ESF. Ashley got stuck in a tree, and Jennifer is probably now ahead of Alison on points in the "Breaking ski-poles" competition, since she managed to break one of the instructors poles, which counts for three points as against Alison's two for breaking both her own poles. (Breaking someone else who isn't an instructor would be 2 points). By the end of the lesson everyone more or less had the idea, and was enjoying themselves.
After lunch more just off piste, with nice snow everywhere.

I wanted to take a picture of Mont Blanc for Roger, since he's so keen on them, but we haven't seen it yet...

Panoramas and other photos

A few photos (mostly panoramas) for you today...

View of Bec Rouge and Mont Pourri

View over Bourg St Maurice from just down the Ecudets run

Petit St Bernard pass from the Fort

Mont Pourri framed by cloud.

Back to La Rosiere

7 Feb 2012

7 Feb 2011

What a difference a year makes ! (Well, 38 degrees C, anyway...) Last year there was very little snow (none in the village) , and the temperature at the "front de neige" was +19C. This year there was snow at Lyon airport, 235cm at the front de neige, and the temperature is -19C.

The problem this year is stopping all the snow on the roofs bringing buildings down. A problem that isn't always solved successfully...

Building in Les Eucherts collapsed through weight of snow.

A couple of good days skiing, yesterday with the family, today over to Italy, since Jo was off on an all day snow-shoe excursion, and the other had booked a private lesson so needed to be back at ESF at 12:30. 

The weather is supposed to warm up, though it's currently cloudy with light snow forecast for tonight. It was certainly cold in the pass once the wind got up!

Нижний Новгород

A non-skiing post, since I'm no longer on sabbatical.

However, I am just back from Nizhny Novgorod (AFAICS the editor here does a good job of transliteration from phonetic English to Cyrillic) It was a bit of a shock coming from lovely, sunny, 15C weather in Bristol to 2-3C with rain and lots of piles of snow in Nizhny.

Here's a panorama of the Волга (Volga) as seen from close to our hotel. Note that the river is still partially iced over. I didn't see any Volga boatmen, but did see the hovercraft that acts as a ferry . It  seems a sane way of coping with mixed ice and water.

Panorama of the Volga looking north-ish from Nizhny.

I was hardly immersed in Russian, but you do soon get your eye in for the Cyrillic, and then you start to recognise lots of French, German and even English words... "СТОП" (STOP), "РЕСТАУРАН" (RESTAURAN), "ФРУТТИ ДИ МАРЕ" (FRUTTI DI МАRЕ), "ЭТАЖ" (ETAGE, as on lift signs etc.) Going round with Arch Robison, who had taken the time to actually learn the script first, meant we could also read the sign for "Стриптиз"(which we didn't sample!)

The church across the square from our hotel

The snow melted significantly during the week I was in Nizhny, and there was even some sun at the end of the week (even if a black cloud then came over and it snowed).

The central pedestrian shopping street in Nizhny has lots of global brands, which can be confusing. Arch had trouble with the "Ecco"shoe store since he thought it was in Cyrillic. There was even an Аксессориз. 

A theatre

There's an interesting mix of completely run-down buildings, some still wooden (or, at least, pretending to be), restored old buildings and completely modern ones.

Nizhny region branch of the state bank

When Nizhny was Gorky it was a closed city, and Sakharov was exiled there; his house is now a museum (Nizhny Museums).

It's a real pity that obtaining permission to go to Russia is still so hard. If it was made trivial, then I could see Ryanair and EasyJet flying there. 

Some Summary Statistics

I was away from home for 37 days, of which four were spent driving, and I skipped two days, so I skied for 33 days. I managed to remember to turn the My Tracks GPS tracking on for 31 days. In those 31 days, I was out skiing for 182 hours and 2 minutes, and covered more than 1,274 miles ("more than", as the GPS sometimes teleports you if it can't fine enough satellites, which it definitely can't when you're in a tunnel). Since I drove a total of 1850 miles, until I set of for home, I'd travelled further on skis (and ski-lifts!) than by car.

The longest day was over 100km (80 miles), and highest speed was a well judged 99km/h (~62mph), which was at the bottom of the Trolles run into Tignes.

A few random highlights

• Best Omelette : Omelette au Beaufort at Le Dou du Praz, La Plagne
• Best Cafe: La Cremerie, La Thuile, Italy
• Best resort for skiing: Tignes
• Best resort overall: La Rosiere/La Thuile

Day 37: Back to Bristol

After spending the night just south of Troyes, I left at about 8am just as rain started, with the sun rising over Champagne and the multitude of wind-turbines. It was rainy more or less to Reims, then clear. Through the tunnel and back to Bristol, getting back about 4:25pm.
Total distance from La Rosiere ~885 miles. Total distance for the whole holiday ~1850 miles.