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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3070 |
18th March 2016 Skiing: Bernex Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny and blue Max Speed: 50.63 (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: 43.70 mile (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Friday 18th March – ski ***** Bernex – sunny and blue ( 43.70 miles, 50.63 kts !!! ) Another restful night in the van and woke if anything to an even better day than yesterday:) So with breakfast had, picnic packed and flask made we were on the lift at the same time as yesterday, 9.25 for another 5 hours of action :) I had a short detour where a trailer load of husky dogs had been put out so a group of French girls could harness them up for a trip :) The day followed pretty much the same as yesterday spending the first part of the session on the lower reds and blue, Mag enjoying the mountain stream blue while I scared myself on the steep red – La Lanche – with tired legs from yesterday I went for one speed run and how I didn’t end up in hospital God only knows as I hit 50 kts my poor old knees very nearly buckled while trying to slow down! Lucky for me they held out and Mag wasn’t watching! Mag particularly enjoyed the red off the L’Arete button until the drag lift broke down for ages so she got off and had to ski off piste down and we lost each other for a while :( They had set a slalom course here and I had one go and made it safely to the end but in a slow time I should think! Again we had our midday snack break at the info boards at the top of the Le Pre Richard lift before moving on to the middle lift for a few runs, I made it safely down the Le Petit Combet red where I badly wiped out yesterday but it had been pisted today! It was then up to the top of the Pointe de Pelluaz for stupendous views, watch the paragliders take off and video the run down on my little Fuji pocket camera, even though the quality is poor it shows what a top run this is:) Mag was very nearly taken out by a flying 8-year-old not looking where he was going! Getting knackered now we headed to the top for our 2:30 picnic at the Table d’ Orientation, Mag walked up there first while I had one last go on the red, which because of the even warmer weather than yesterday was rucking up a little so I was pleased to get to Mag for a break but I did see a man flying a drone filming near the Pellauaz lift. Sadly, after walking up to the table where Mag was sitting ski boots off waiting for lunch, 10 or so piste people came up and said they were going to do an avalanche test and could we please move away:( We walked down to a little wooden hut with me only moaning a little and found a lovely spot for a picnic. There was even a short ladder and planks to make a seat :) We were soon joined by a flock of scrounging Alpine Chuffs who came really close to share our rolls! And what top flyers they are too :) We had another paraglider fly overhead and then there was a huge explosion from up above as the piste people set off their charge!!!! I managed to get a pic of the large plume of smoke! It was then time for our last run down at this resort as it’s the weekend tomorrow and resorts are best avoided then as they are busy and we are too knackered to ski three days in a row! I decided to see how many turns I could do all the way to the bottom, most unusual for me. On getting back to the van it was cuppa and biscuit time sitting in our chairs in the warm sunshine watching the world go by:) We saw a mini bus full of people going up late to sledge and the 50 school kids come down on the chair lift to be bussed home, ski tourers heading up the mountain after a day at work and to end it all another super sunset – the perfect end to two top days skiing :) Saturday 19th March – travelling, shopping and stroll – sunny or as the French say Outstandingly fair :) We are having a rest day today!! We woke up to lots of activity next door to us as the Bernex team loaded into the mini bus and set off for a competition somewhere – that’s what we decided anyway. Like last Saturday the car park filled up very quickly with Saturday skiers and we were pleased that we had skied the last two days and had the pistes to ourselves:) We had a quick look in the Ski 2000 over the road and went and had a look at the slopes over by the lift before leaving Bernex and travelling on small roads to Chapelle d’Abondance where we stayed last year (amazingly when we looked in the diary it was exactly the same day as last year!!). We had no intention of staying here, only visiting the shop but once we had had a drive round Chatel (we didn’t like it any more than last time! Busy and cramped), and visited the Intermarche it was lunch time so we parked up in the Cable car car park where we stayed before, right next to the cross country ski course. After lunch we relaxed in the sun (it is another glorious day) looking at the amazing scenery including the other side of the mountain we skied on at Bernex, and reading our books. We decided to stay here as we hadn’t got a plan for this weekend other than to relax and keep out of the way of any crowds until we can ski in peace again on Monday:) We went for a walk along the river Drance and saw two dippers almost immediately! We followed the river path past some rather mangy looking huskies with small individual outdoor kennels:( They looked very sad. Had a look at the lift at the far end of La Chapelle then walked back through the village, even popping into the actual Chapel! It was rather beautiful and they were playing music too so very restful! Returned to the van and saw some of the competitors in the local Triathlon cross country ski in the distance. We had seen two young lads sticking flags into the piste to show them the way on our walk. It is a great place to people watch and we saw all sorts of people cross country skiing, including a British couple who were very funny, a young couple who had all the gear and were very serious, an old man whose wife walked along the side while he skied and really small kids having a go. A car parked next to us and a young couple emerged with identical twin boys of about 18 months. They took ages to get ready but set off on sledges – very sweet even if they did have the wrong clothes on and walked up the middle of the cross country piste! We read outside until the sun went down then into the van for an easy filled pasta and cheese tea:) Photo Gallery here |
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