Weds 3rd Feb
It’s snowing! The forecast and much
anticipated snow started falling about 8am and has been falling heavily all
day. The temperature has dropped to a much more normal for Feb – 3 deg C. After
a leisurely breakfast we kitted up and walked up through the winter wonderland to
the ski station above us. After a quick internet session in the Tourist Office
we bought cakes and found a café to have a coffee with them. This is normal in
France and causes no problems – try that in the UK!
It was a total whiteout so the streets were
quite busy, as most people were not skiing. We browsed in a few shops before
walking back down to the campsite. The fresh snow was now 20cm deep around the
van. A good excuse to use my snow shovel. I also got our folding plastic step out and
retracted the electric step as they can get frozen solid when it snows then
freezes.
Tonight is curry night – we have brought a
take away with us, frozen of course. Boy are we looking forward to it.
Thurs 4th Feb
It obviously had continued to snow through
the night as when I looked out first thing all our footprints and the road in
front were all hidden under a fresh layer of lovely powder snow. We were up
early as we had to catch the 8.45am free ski bus, so quick cup of tea and I was
outside clearing the snow from around the van and knocking off some of the
amazing icicles hanging from everywhere. The trees looked lovely in their fresh
coating. Then a monster snow plough arrived to clear all the roads and spaces,
I again cleared the bank of snow it shoved in front of the van.
We gingerly walked down the freshly snow
ploughed road, but Tina had her first slow speed fall of the day as she slipped
onto her bottom! The bus was waiting for us, so skis into the carrier on the
rear and we were soon outside the maison de ski. The weather wasn’t great so we
opted for a 4 hour pass – a good decision as the visibility was very poor for
most of the day. We had some bright spells when we could see the piste clearly
but mostly we fumbled our way down in very flat light. Not good, but we still
enjoyed ourselves finding some really good fresh snow to lay down our tracks
in.
Once back at the campsite I got my
telescopic ladder out and cleared 25cm of snow from the van roof. We also fitted
the snow chains in preparation for getting out of the site tomorrow morning as
there is yet more snow forecast for this evening. J
breakfast view from the van
so happy it is sunny today
fresh tracks by Tina
what is in your rucksack?
last run about to happen :-(