Oh, the weather outside is frightful

2015-01-28_23-59-34-85-600

I’ve just returned from a few days’ skiing at La Tania, in the Trois VallĂ©es. A pretty spot, and quiet, since we were there before the half-term madness!

However, it snowed almost continuously from our arrival on Weds night to our departure yesterday evening. This was the view from my window on the first night:

2015-01-29_21-27-56-15-600

Well, actually, it looked like that almost every night – the snow just got deeper.

This trip therefore had the nicest snow I’ve ever skied on, accompanied by perhaps the worst weather I’ve ever skiied in. When you could see where you were going, and the headwind wasn’t blowing ice at you, it was nice!

This meant that, overall, I took very few photos. After all, there’s a problem with skiing pictures: large areas of white are generally of little interest to anyone who wasn’t there. This was some of our better weather, for example:

2015-02-01_12-59-06-27-600

See what I mean? It gets much less exciting and more cloudy above the tree line.

And then, on Saturday morning, just for a few hours, the sun came out, and even a quick iPhone snap could look like this:

2015-01-31_11-21-04-20-600

We headed to the top of the mountain, and skied down to La Folie Douce: a bar just below the cable car, parts of which have been around for some time.

2015-01-31_15-01-50-75-Edit-600

2015-01-31_15-05-09-48-600

This is a place where they know how to party. A large outside area has tables that are specially reinforced, so you can dance on them, which they encourage strongly. Regretfully, I felt I should decline, on the grounds that my table-dancing was not at its best when wearing ski boots.

Most of the music was intended for people two or three decades my junior, but some of the performers were really quite good.

2015-01-31_13-48-44-92-600

(We made our entrance down that slope behind him.)

Playing instruments outside, especially metal ones, does require some extra equipment:

2015-01-31_14-14-24-18-600

But it also makes for some dramatic pictures. This lass did a really rather good Lady Gaga cover:

2015-01-31_13-55-15-45-600

And this guy, as well as having a great singing voice, was just too cool not to shoot:

2015-01-31_14-08-15-84-600

But then the weather closed in again, and we skied down to the vin chaud in the valley. All of which explains why I spent several days in the Alps, and mostly came back with pictures of people standing on tables!

2015-01-31_13-45-23-56-Edit-600

But I can at least finish with one classic skiing shot, and my thanks to Steve, Paul, JP, Ray and Mani, who welcomed me into their group, and were great companions whatever the climate!

2015-01-31_09-15-17-88-600

Enjoyed this post? Why not sign up to receive Status-Q in your inbox?

2 Comments

Looks fantastic! My headplant this morning on Mont Chery was like being in an avalanche! couldn’t breathe and took what seemed like ages to dig out and reach fresh air.

Ouch – be careful, Geoff! We don’t want to lose you!

Leave a Reply to qsf Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

To create code blocks or other preformatted text, indent by four spaces:

    This will be displayed in a monospaced font. The first four 
    spaces will be stripped off, but all other whitespace
    will be preserved.
    
    Markdown is turned off in code blocks:
     [This is not a link](http://example.com)

To create not a block, but an inline code span, use backticks:

Here is some inline `code`.

For more help see http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax

*

© Copyright Quentin Stafford-Fraser