Yup, snow is falling as I type up at Atelas and on the Savoleyres ridge, meanwhile tonight is eighties night in the T-Bar – it’s almost like winter’s already here, with the cold weather and people dressing up like idiots again…
Anyway, do you know what tomorrow is? Cheese Day. OK, it’s actually really the Bagnes Fete de Raclette to celebrate the cows coming down off the high pasture and also celebrate the fact that our proud little valley invented raclette. I know, a great claim eh?
Essentially, however, tomorrow is a cheese and Fendant orgy.
Anyway, here are some shots of the snow as the clouds parted and duck fell…
Admit it, you’re a little bit excited aren’t you? We’ve had snow on Sunday and all day yesterday at the top.
Mike just sent these from up at Attelas where the poor boy is working for TeleVerbier on the lift maintenance. Very cold work indeed, but great views…
Yup, sticking with our recent ‘unseasonal weather’ theme, we had snow last night up high – about 2500m, give or take… However, it’s been a bit cloudy today. So if you click on one of these you’ll be able to spot snow at about the cloud-line. Unless you click on the one of Tom, in which case you just a get a picture of Tom from the Lodge (AKA mini Jamie).
>I know, on paper it seems a bit daft. The lifts are running, but everyone seems obsessed with racing them not riding them up. Hard to say, but I must admit to slowly coming to enjoy nearly having a cardiac arrest on my way up to Croix de Coeur…
The only real justification (unless you try it and become similarly masochistic) is the fact tat when you get to the top you get views like these:
Yup, whilst we’re pretending it’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere (in spite of all the rain) Sanna and Oli have headed south for more snow. Now, whilst it’s not been a stunning winter for snow down there, it’s been OK and Sanna sent us some pictures to give us all a little dose of winter…
“Had the most horrible snowstorm today in al long time but the nasty weather hasn’t stopped the kids from going out in the snow and skiing for the entire day until 4.30pm. It’s been windy and arctic here but at least we’ve got some fresh snow – exactly what we need right now (the grass has been sticking out on some of the wind exposed slopes so the new snow was very welcome). I even got some fresh tracks today – skiing backwards in a snowplow, but hey! It was still powder …”
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Meanwhile the rains been lashing down in Verbier and there should be snow up top – if anyone’s brave enough to head up there and get a picture we’ll let you know here…
…SNOW UPDATE….
The lovely Louise has just been up to Mont Fort (3330 meters) and whilst the views are “limited” there is a lot of snow up there (the official Louise estimate is eight inches) and it’s absolutely freezing.
Having just cycled down from Coix de Couer (2173 meters) I can confirm it’s chilly there too. Anyway here’s a snap of Louise’s Mum wishing she’d got warmer shoes on…
As you all know, the big challenge is next Sunday. Neil is to row the length of Lake Geneva (Leman) and Gareth is the cycle round it. They launched the challenge yesterday. The idea is to raise awareness of their challenge this sunday.
This mini challenge saw the lycra clad boys row and cycle continuously for an hour on a rowing machine and a training bike respectively in the blistering sun. The atmosphere was electric as no one knew what to expect. We weren’t disappointed. Both Gareth and Neil sprang into life from the outset. Unbelievably they kept up their initial pace..!
After the halfway mark both were struggling, Neil emitting some interesting grunts and squeals and Gareth making grimaces.
30 seconds to go and Gareth was out of his seat and Neil had picked up the pace. after the hour both boys collapsed in a heap next to their equipment with exhaustion. The result:
Gareth – 23km
Neil – 16.9km
Once the dust had settled we checked the equipment to see that the resistance on the back wheel of the bike was set to hill climb. So repsect to Gareth for such a handicap. You crazy kids..!
Neil will be rowing for St Mungo’s – http://www.justgiving.com/Neil-Aherne
Gareth will be cycling for Multiple Myeloma UK – http://www.justgiving.com/Gareth-Chandler
