Saint Christophe

so i,ll just skip over the Pan de rideuex, which was in between la vut and St.c. Suffice to say, there was no photo opps readily available, due to my hands being required fairly constantly, and even if they wernt, there was no chance i was taking my gloves off in -20c. anyways, a nice relaxing day was on the menu after the Pan. bring on St. Christophe. This was a classic buy 1 get two free. massive desecnt from the top of the lift, with great lunch in a rustic french village.

at the lift, Soph spots her fashion idol...

Girose glacier lift in action finally....

wee bit of hiking required to get to the skis-on point, but not a lot!

looking South over the Ecrins

down down, u take me down...

woopeee!

traverse traveser trarsevseres!!

fling skis over river...

beware, skiers crossing.....

almost there!

Lunch!!

after lunch we got a free bus down too the bottom of the ski resort of les 2 alpes, a megalopolis of horriblesness. from here we can ride the lifts up and walk a bit and then ski home.

after half an hour of argueing, Raphael the frenchman from LG convinced the fasicts at les 2 alpes to let us on the lift back home for free. good man Raph!! but we were really late to get back up top and were worries that the top glacier lift was closed. rush rush, mucho q jumping, i upset a few posh english wifeys by jumping over the barriers on the lift Q. 20 or so la gravians on the fattest skis les 2 alpes had seen for weeks, and with funny beeeper things and helmets too!! all fun.

the les 2 alpes glacier lift...

cheers go up when we see the romanche valley! phew, that was pretty horrid having to deal with les 2 alpes circus de ski.

Benjo and Soph almost home, only 2200 vertical metres to the bar :-) :-)

La Vout

these pics are a mixture of two separte descents...

Cpt. Ben surveys the Girose glacier

Erin

Clayton

team decision on the line to take....

1 by 1

flick to 2nd descent, this time me, capt ben and the winter Beaver

dropping in to la Vout

exit. no prizes for guessing where i was missing some photos.....i have some Vid somewhere, will post later...

A small day out in the hills

1100m up, 1300mish down. My best ever days out on skis? Certainly my hardest descent. Thanks to my flatmate Ben for the vid.

http://benemitchell.blogspot.com/2009/02/epic-touring.html

later!

more randoms to Feb 9th

....a beautiful girl from behind, shame about Ronaldskis helmet.

early season randoms

here is some random photos of the season so far:

Caroline and a bottle of glenmorangie...

Food shopping!

Fly in my Vin Chaud!
















Jean and Marike

A Marmot on his way into Banane

Thai Yoga

wheels
















1st day at the top
















The ski lift (the only lift)

Avalanche course 17th & 18th january

Snowlegend again, with guest appearance from francois, the ex chief of ANENA - the French avalanche prediction and research agency.

Francois explains snow crystal morpohology!

Attentive students

Anne found a mouse in the snow!!

Happy campers!

Phase 2: la Clusaz

After the first three days i was practically in a wheel chair. That third night i slept 11.5 hours straight. Anyways, still in deep La grave avoidance mode, i drove up North to the village of La

Clusaz in Massif de la Aravis (a very well kept secret, absolutely stunning scenery and very authentic ), where didi from snowlegend has a beautiful big chalet. I crashed at his for a few nights and did some great skiing, all with his guiding. Getting my ski legs togther was prooving quite expensive, but best to get the season off to a good start! here goes

Meet Nicola.

Mrs. M. Blanc, from col de Aravis

50 year old bottle of white wine!!

Meet Didi, the true Snow legend. Ex French Alpine Ski world cup team, ex Champion mogul skier, ex telemark champ, snowboarder, oh, and apparently pretty wicked with a surfboard.

Moonlight skiing! i thought we were going to climb a beautiful deserted mountain under the shadow of moonlight! turned out we were going up a skilift and going from bar to bar down a crowded piste- oh well, we made do. Halfpipe was fun too!:-)

happy campers after some lovely skiing and great company, even if i hardly understood a word!