Friday 28 March 2008

Back in Argentiere

Back again in residence in Argentière for a couple of weeks. Having been out in mid April last year and enjoyed a week of blue skies and 20 degrees plus and some very spring snow conditions we weren’t really expecting the depths of winter when we arrived. But that’s exactly what we got! A big storm over the Easter weekend brought stacks of new snow to low levels (about 500m). Don’t know the final count but last we looked the fall in Argentière at around 1100m was 60+cm.


We arrived late Sunday to find that it was still snowing – and it continued into Monday. And with a chill wind behind it, the weather felt decidedly more wintry than it had done on our previous trips out in December and February, and we’d had some big snowfalls on both occasions.

The difference being, however, that in late March the sun rises much earlier in the depths of the valley and once the storms clear, the snow in the valley at least, soon gets quite wet. That said, it’ll be a while before the 60+cm thaws and we see the swimming pool again.


The days on the mountains have been as enjoyable as ever. Jodie, who turned 6 just last week has progressed beyond the red runs and is now attempting to shred the powder behind mum. And Sam, at just 3 years old, is into his 2nd season on skis and yesterday was let loose on the blue runs at Le Tour on his own. He’s getting quite good at ‘pizza and chips’ and I suspect it won’t be long before he’s chasing his sister into the off piste. And thre’s always time for a little hedonism for dad. First tracks this morning under blue skies and untracked powder in the combe and under the herse at the Grand Montets. A little slice of heaven…

Tuesday 11 March 2008

MTB Tour of Mont Blanc

Still very much in winter mode and we've still got another 2 weeks of skiing ahead of us, but there's always time to start planning for when the snow melts.

And no time like the present for planning a wee 'boys trip' to tackle the classic mountain bike Tour of Mount Blanc. The route will take about 5 days and basically goes all the way round Mount Blanc taking in some fantastic off-road mountain biking on the way. Have a peak at the KE Adventure web site if you fancy learning more about the route.

There's a group of about 10 bikers from the Highlands, home of the 2007 MTB World Championships, and we've chosen the middle week of September to head out. We're obviously still in the planning stages at the moment and givee that its an exclusively male club, we haven't got past who's carrying the beer yet!