In the thick of it

 

What a great way to start the week. It's been snowing since some time last night and there's more promised over the next few days. Time to find some fat skis...

How many skis can you ski at once?

Christmas came early at Chalet Edelweiss: a car full of Scott goodies rolled up first thing this morning. Not just  Herve, Scott's ski designer, and Steve, Scott UK's general manager but a range of freeride skis as well as brand new ski outfits for us both. Penny's will without doubt convince female clients they should check out Scott's great clothing range. Mine will ensure clients don't lose me in a crowd, or in a snowstorm, unless they want to.
After yesterday's snowfall, trying out the new kit was even more fun than expected - I would never have guessed we'd be skiing powder today from the Corne de Sorebois. And with just racers up there, sticking to their gates, we had it all to ourselves, doing laps from the top chair. Another tough day at the office for the Scott guys and a taste of the season to come for us. Heaven.

Time for an update

A year is probably a respectable interval since last posting anything on here. Life just got busy - that's not an excuse, but everyone must know how it is. Anyhow, the chalet is now finished and we're scrabbling around trying to get our website sorted out - a bit late, I know - but bookings for this winter seem to be materialising even without it. For now, a few photos of the chalet...

Sierre-Zinal 2008

The 35th edition of this 31km, 2200m ascent, 800m descent mountain race has just finished. Archie entered the junior event ('just' 19km, from Chandolin to Zinal) coming 19th in a field of 82 boys with a time of 1 hour 57 minutes. Under two hours with minimal knowledge of the course and only last-minute training was outstanding. He will be back. To win. And it will be our porridge that makes the difference.

First floor renovations

Friends Archie and Roo spent the week on site with us after the fete. At 17 and 15 years old, destruction was the most popular part of the program for them ("Can we use sledgehammers please?...") but they also found time for last-minute training for the Sierre-Zinal race as well as enthusiastic but ultimately futile attempts to chat up one of the very pretty girls who lives nearby. Bravely knocking on the door and saying in French: "We've lost our black dog" must rate as one of the more unusual chat up lines, but full marks for trying.

Mottec Fete

For a hamlet where only a handful of people live, Mottec - just down the road from Zinal - seems an unlikely candidate to have not one but two chapels. The one practically in our back garden was restored with funds raised ten years ago; this year it was the turn of the chapel St. Laurent. Our neighbour Georgine masterminded the whole event, putting on an epic two day show. Statistics - principally bottles of wine consumed and chickens roasted - still to come, but I know that enough was raised to do much more than just repair the roof. More to the point, lots of people had a very good time...

Moonlighting

It always pays to glance out of the window at sunset, especially when there's a spectacular moonrise. The first shot is from the balcony a couple of nights ago, which inspired us to climb up to Sorebois last night for a chilly picnic while waiting for a repeat performance. It was worth it, particularly for that moment just before the last red glow leaves the peaks. The way down by moonlight through herds of munching cows (I think they graze all night long, without so much as a sit down) was more exciting than it should have been due to electric fences across the path at random intervals, which are very tricky to see in the dark.