Skitouring with Donn&Jennevievre, near Grandvillard

Third week-end of February if I am right... I'm a bit lost in the calendar at the moment... As it is the week end of the traditional carnival in Fribourg (as in many cities in the German part of Switzerland), Donn& Jen stayed at my place for the week end. We didn't go in town Friday cos they arrived late, and we had to wake up reasonably early the next day, for a ski tour near the lovely town of Grandvillard. The original idea was to go up Tsermon, but we changed our plans due to the high avalanche hasard (500metres of slopes at 35degres is not very safe when there are tons of fresh snow...). So we went up Vanil de Van eventually, which is a really objective as well, with an attractive slope to ski.

Unfortunately, the snow was super deep, and starting to melt a bit. It was quite difficult to ski, especially for Jen, who was having her first ski tour and was not used to this sort of snow... After a few turns, and almost an equivalent number of falls, she almost lost of ski in the snow. I don't know why the place where she rented her skis didn't provide leashes, which are mandatory in deep snow as the breaks are pretty much useless. Anyhow, she managed to find back the ski, which was good. I don't know what we would have done if not, it would have been impossible to walk down...

Skitour with Donn and Oliver

We went to the Dent de Broc, where we found some powder of the best kind: fresh and very deep! I guess I lost a few friends again... That was a good occasion to present my new german "boy friend" to my ex-canadian one. No fighting happened, so that was good! That would have been more difficult to make the presentations with Travis, as he his of the jealous kind... ;o)

Was good to try Donn's new van as well, which revelled as "fun" to drive on snow as riding a snowboard in deep snow...

Frenchiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie :o)

Julien came over last week end, for an interview in my institute. He has to wait for the answer now...

But I think he enjoyed the day of skiing, at least as much as me and Mickael did! Man, what a great day it was... There was so much fresh snow, that was crazy! We didn't even manage to reach the skifield with the car, despite of Mickael's talent as a pilot on the snow... At one stage, I felt in a snow pool, and my pole + the full lenght of my arm where barely enough to reach the bottom old layer...

About Julien, he hate quite a bit of snow during the day, and ended with a sore throat the next day, for his (nice) presentation... Good luck bro for the job, that would great if you get it!

Week end at Martina's place, high in the Valais (24-25/01/09)

Oliver was asking me to update my blog, so do I, but he will regret it, hahaha. So, in short, we spend the week end at Martina's place, a friend of Oliver. Andy, an other old friend of him was there too, so I had to spend the week end with 3 Germans... Bad luck! ;o)

But that wasn't that bad, actually! We did a skitour Saturday, where the snow wasn't great... Shit happens! Anyhow, that was a good test to challenge Andy good style, while Martina made a demonstration of very wide turns (oops, sorry Martina, hehe)... Concerning Oliver, what should I say... It was quite funny to see him falling and falling (No sorry for you, you deserve it!) ;o)

The following day was a lot of fun too! We went ice climbing in Saas Grund, in the German part of switzerland... Bloody Germans, you have to pay for everything there, car park and ice climbing... So we decided to forget to pay for the ice climbing... Yes, I know, we are bad boys!

As a conclusion, thanks Martina for having us, and thanks to the 3 Germans to speak english with me... Andy's pics are here.

Just to make Travis jealous...

All is the pics! :D

But unfortunately, the ice was a bit wet, so I've been lame and didn't lead anything... But we top roped a relatively technical and fun one, with light and brittle ice formations. The lead would have been bold... There were some ice screws placements, most of them hollow...

PS: Oh yeah, it was the first time that Oliver was ice climbing, and I have been mean to send him in a hard climb (grade 5+ or so)... But he looks happy, doesn't he?

First paragliding fligth :)

We went to the Charmey skifield with my flatmate, Mickael. He was participating to a fun paraglading contest, while I skied. For his last flight, he asked me if I wanted to go for a biplace fligth, and obviously I couldn't say no... As it was part of a contest, we went pretty close from the ground, and even touch it a couple of times, it was a lot of fun! Many thanks Mickael* for the run!

The following day, we went skiing at Chateau d'oex with Olivier&Julie, and I discovered how skiing in powder is... difficult! But it is soft, and tastes good... when you fall...

* I don't know if I should thank you, actually... I want to buy a paraglider and to pass the licence now... Do you think I have enough time and money??? :)

Some more cool pics from some friends of Mickael:

Alpine touring trip in the Queyras (Italy)

The aim: 4 days of ski touring
The place: Chianale, in the Italian side of the Queyras mountains
The actors: Jerome&Gaelle, Etienne, Denis, Murielle, Emilie, and me!

Not much to say: brilliant weather for the 4 days, perfect terrain for ski touring, good snow for snowboarding (not that good for skiing, apparently...). And best of the best, our accomodation: the most welcoming bed&breakfast ever, with excellent Italian food, and the friendliest landlady you can imagine. And it's even cheap! I highly recommend to stay there if you are in the region, ask me the address if you need.

The negative point was (thanks to Titi ;-) ) the illness of a couple of people, which was a real shame... I guess it's a good reason to come back there sometime in spring, when the snow conditions would be perfect!

Thats all for now!