Winter stoke

It seems like all that rain the last couple of days was falling as snow up here, and I have arrived right on the end of a storm cycle - perfect timing.

The view when I woke up this morning was this:

It seems like I can never escape the pull of Chamonix. When I looked above my bed, what I saw was this poster:

And outside, I found the mountains emerging through the mist, as the last few flurries of snow were falling:

In the village, the snow had got a slight crust, but at the base of the ski hill this was less noticable, and it disappeared as I climbed higher. It turned out to be a great day of deep fresh snow.

This is really getting me stoked, and fueling the fire of the winter warm up!

The car park at the ski hill looked like this:

The forest looked like this:                                                        And the line to ski looked steep like this:

I started the day skiing laps in the forest to the side of the ski hill. There was still some untouched snow, which was great, and it got deeper as I got higher. It was a little heavy, but with these skis it felt creamy, knee deep in places, and I could feel it fluffing up to my thighs as I plowed through. I have certainly found what I was hunting for!

The Chamois skis performed really well. They are really light, and fast on this slightly heavy snow. It was like floating on a cloud. I tried them on a groomer too, and they were nice and solid, though by that point my thighs were burning at the end of the day.

Idris Chamois skis in action

We got a little clearing mid morning across the valley

Looking down one of the runs to the resort base

My track

After lunch I went to check out the upper part of the mountain, and came up over a ridge into a clearing sky. The mist was still in and out, but there were some windows of good visibility, useful above treeline. I was able to see my way to some mellow alpine terrain, which turned out to be pretty stable. 

The snow was great up there, a little more compacted, but really top quality where the wind hadn't got it. It was nice to get some more open turns in, a little easier than dodging stumps in the forest.

The sun is supposed to shine for a couple of days, or at least tomorrow, so hopefully I can find someone to ski some bigger terrain with. This is a potential zone for tomorrow:

The lift into the alpine

Clearing sky in the evening

Meanwhile, back in Chamonix, the weather is looking great up in the the mountains (low pressure), something that didn't happen this time last year. Heres a webcam...


Many thanks to Frode, who is putting me up for the night in Hemsedal. He is a fellow night receptionist in a hotel, and lives in this beautiful area year round. Norway is a land of good food, especially cheese, and once again I am in cheese heaven, as has been the case since I returned to Europe from Canada.


You'd think that I should head for this place near the bottom of the photo...

Is that where it all started? I actually went past the town of Ski on the bus from the airport to Oslo, but its flat. Well, I guess skiing started as what we now know as Nordic skiing.