Sunshack

Chalk and Cheese

noreply@blogger.com (Sunshack) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:09:00 +0000

I'm don't really go to many music events, but last month I went to two. It's been two years since I saw Massive Attack in Birmingham and as they are releasing a new album soon, it was a good opportunity to hear some of the new material played live.

Coincidentally, I'd discovered that ZZ Top were playing just 2 venues in the UK, they had not played here for 10 years, and we'd never seen them live. We managed to get seats at Wembley Arena, oh the luxury!

Massive Attack, played Swindon Oasis, which is run by Swindon Council. It's grubby and run down, needing modernisation. I really enjoy MA, and would have enjoyed seeing the band play, but as we were all standing in a sports hall, and being a bit short, I listened to most of the event. Some of the new stuff is really excellent, and they were superb musically as ever.

Wembley Arena by contrast is big and bright and well run. There are plenty of facilities. The staff are polite and helpful, and I was blessed with an uninterrupted view of the stage from my seat, at pretty close range!

ZZ Top have been playing together for 40 years, and are pretty slick, needing few few stage props to hook the audience. I do enjoy my clothes flapping to the bass, and my ears rang until the day after. A really memorable event, with plenty of feel good music.

Their support act were Steel Panther who parodied every heavy metal cliche that ever existed, but could also play really well, though I think I'll pass on buying any of their released material, there was just too much swearing for the sake of it.

Irony

noreply@blogger.com (Sunshack) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:18:00 +0000

Today I learned the meaning of situational irony. I drove to see my ski bootfitter, to so he could adjust the fit on my wonderful new ski boots. I'd been experiencing some heel pain, and he was aiming to adjust the shells to remove a pressure point.

By the end of my appointment my Zipfit liners were being refunded, and I was back in the manufacturers stock liners. I was upset, so was my fitter, but hey, it's a really bad month for bills and I was now £190 up on expectations.

15 minutes later, as I'm driving home down a particularly busy dual carriageway, my battery warning light comes, on, and that is closely followed by engine failure. My car just stopped running. I managed to coast onto a slip road up ramp, then made the necessary phone calls to my assistance company, partner etc.

Recovery was fairly swift, we went straight to my local garage to drop off my car, and then I'm dropped off at home by the lorry.

The garage phone me, I need a new Alternator, and a Battery. I get a choice of Alternators, priced from £150-£700. I'm thinking £150 plus VAT sounds perfectly reasonable. I should get my car back in a couple of days.

C'est la vie.......

All Day in The Fridge

noreply@blogger.com (Sunshack) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:41:00 +0000

I'd decided that my skiing technique needed some attention, so booked onto a 1 day course at The Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead. The event was run by Chris Fecher and Will Roberts. http://skiclinic.wordpress.com/

With 2 coaches and 5 students it was a pretty full on day, with little time for a rest and nowhere to hide! I'd never considered that skiing for a day on an indoor slope could possibly be tiring. Occasionally we were gathered round for a briefing, to find out what we would be doing next. Then it was back to the draglift for some more drills!

I'm being realistic in accepting that it will take some more practice time before I can make lasting changes to my technique, but I intend to get some more slope time before I head for the hills.

I have recently purchased some new ski boots. I was a little anxious about wearing them for a whole day, whilst the liners were settlling. I was pleasantly surprised that they were pretty comfortable. It's around 20 years since I've worn Salomon boots, and typing that makes me feel old!

It was pretty apparent that comfy though they were, I was a bit unbalanced. I felt as though I was skiing on the two inner edges. So I'd booked to have Skier Alignment undertaken by Andi McCann of Alpine McCannix, http://www.mccannix.com/2009.htm

It would have been ideal to have me and the boots balanced up before the Course. The best I could achieve was 3 days afterwards. I met up with Andi and he worked pretty hard to get me sorted out, the work took around 3 hours. The soles of my boots have been planed, and a protective sole plate has been fitted, internal heel lifts have been added, and heaps more technical stuff !

My new boots now look just a little different....

I can't wait to try them out!

I Am Not A Number

noreply@blogger.com (Sunshack) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:38:00 +0000

While we were in Wales, we took the opportunity to go and visit the village of Portmeirion, which was the setting for the TV series The Prisoner back in the 1960's. The series starred Patrick McGoohan and there is still a cult following for the programme.

The village was designed by architect Clough Williams-Ellis, with rescued architectural follies, which makes for a real jumble of styles. It's a private village, but is open to the public for a fee.

We were both surprised at how compact the village is, but because it's a mix of styles, there is much to catch the eye, and some of the colour schemes are pretty vibrant.

Some statues looked quite ordinary, until you took a second (or even a third glance). This one looks like quite a straightforward lion statue, until you look at what the lion has under it's foot!

It's a pretty decent way to spend a couple of hours on an overcast afternoon, and we were happy to get in for half price as it was after 3.30pm!

Be seeing you......

Yr Wyddfa

noreply@blogger.com (Sunshack) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:12:00 +0000

We had never hiked Snowdon, and with settled weather on the forecast we made an early start in anticipation of a few crowds on the routes and especially at the summit. We chose the Rhyd Ddu route and the sun was trying to break through as we set off.

We found we'd been a little optimistic with our weather forecast, as we were soon in cloud. At least it wasn't raining, or cold. Apparently we were hiking up an exposed ridge at this point!

We broke through the cloud layer to see beautiful sunshine and blue sky, about 200 metres below the summit.

The sunshine had brought out the big crowds and I needed to join a queue to get to the Summit marker.

Though later on, the crowds made the summit a little more crowded.

We stopped for a coffee at the visitor centre and headed down towards the Snowdon Ranger path, crossing the railway line and spotting the source of the crowds!

To access the Snowdon Ranger route we needed to walk part way down the Llanberis Path, and here you can see the crowds heading up, the summit marker, and the train heading up to the visitor centre.

We looked over towards the PYG and Miners routes, to see more crowds heading up, and it was a pleasure to regain the peace and quiet of the less popular side of Snowdon.

Our route led us off the Snowdon Ranger, through some bogs and across a slate quarry to get back to Rhyd Dhu, before crossing the Welsh Highland Railway line.

The Valencian Summer

noreply@blogger.com (Sunshack) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:22:00 +0000

This week, I have read that Valencia had it's third hottest summer on record this year. The sunshine brought record numbers of tourists to the beaches, and Peniscola was declared Spain's 4th most popular resort. May was not especially warm, and we had rain, but I can confirm that July was a scorcher.

The tourists utilised every possible place to park, including traffic islands and roundabouts, and the town, opened South Beach for parking. I imagine that this tourist did not arrive on Ryanair.

Here are the cars on the beach in the evening. Also in the image is frame for the Beach Cinema, which generally starts at 10.30pm.

Here is a queue of folks waiting for a table at a popular restaurant. It's about 10.30pm and they are queueing around the cars which are parked on the roundabout. The road was also open for traffic!

I took the time to go and explore nearby Benicarlo, which is not a tourist destination and has some great buildings, and the centre is quite smart.

I did my best to try some local specialities, and eat like a local. Some foods promised much and delivered very little!

I managed to see the beach early one morning, freshly raked and almost empty, so strange for high season.

There are always street performers on the promenade in the evenings. Some are more sophisticated than others.

Each September as part of the Fiesta, young bulls are set loose to run up the beach. The view here is of the safety fencing set up on the beach with the old town in the background. This was a very still, warm evening and it's about 10pm when I took this photo.

The weather was more humid than usual, and I've heard that this was typical throughout the region. We were not too badly affected, as the estate is on a hill and we always get a breeze. I did suffer my first local mosquito bite ever! Typically the insects blow past at such a rapid pace, we need no screens or spray.

Summer ended with the usual Gota Fria downpour, and nearby Vinaros achieved 20 litres per square metre of rainfall one day.

The Battle of The Beers

noreply@blogger.com (Sunshack) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:58:00 +0000

We were quite surprised to find our favourite Chimay beer in a supermarket 2 towns away. We made the decision to check out the flavour with the Med as a backdrop instead of the usual Swiss mountain. As it's 9.0% vol, it's potent stuff.

The next day our nearest Spanish neighbours called round and surprised us by presenting us with a case of a specialist Spanish beer called Ambar 1900, plus 4 Spanish wines.

These two beers were vastly different. The Chimay is a dark heavy beer, incredibly tangy and strong, when compared to the Ambar, which is exactly as described on the bottle, a Pale Ale! It's made only in Zaragoza, by one company, so is just as unique as the Chimay, with the exception of Chimay being made by Trappist monks!

The Chimay was a different beer to the one we'd been drinking earlier in the year, but brewed along the same lines. However it still does produce the same buzz. It's best not to even consider going out after a Chimay or two.

Ambar is a light refreshing drink, serve it chilled and it's perfect for a hot climate. Good job we were presented with a case!

El Noche del Fuego

noreply@blogger.com (Sunshack) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:43:00 +0000

The town has quite a few festivals throughout the year. We'd missed a Jazz Festival by one day on our arrival and I was around, for the series of concerts of Baroque Classical Music taking place in the castle each evening, at 10.30pm. Each night a large brazier was lit on the roof of the castle at the start of each concert.

To announce the start of the concerts, a large Firework Display was set to music, organised by the local experts Pirotecnia Tomas. I'd seen the guys setting up the fireworks on the beach over a couple of days. Lots of folks drove in from other towns and villages as this was quite a spectacle.

Everything in a plastic bag is explosive!

I headed up to the castle ramparts for a good view, and as they began at midnight, stopped at a shop to buy some water. My diversion meant that I passed by one of the speakers, which was powered up, and I wondered if the folks sitting nearby really understood just how much sound would come out of the tower, as it was huge.

Think rock concert.

The local police kept chasing me from each ledge I sat on, for being too close, and I eventually sat on one of the walls within the citadel, along with quite a few others.

When the fireworks began, I practically fell off my ledge, which would have been a bit serious. I thought I was used to the level of explosives in Spain, but these were bigger and better than any I had seen before.

I never did hear any of the music, and covered in the remains of fireworks and soot, I cycled back through the town at 1am, to see the temperature on an outside digital thermometer showing 25c. Perhaps I should have made it an all-nighter, there were still folks heading into the old town, instead I wove through the large traffic jam and headed back. My ears were ringing and I'm really not surprised!

Pintura Plastico

noreply@blogger.com (Sunshack) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:12:00 +0000

I'd headed out to Spain to get some much needed painting under way. I have to say, that it really didn't seem to be a big task, but as I took a first close look, the size of the job seemed a bit daunting. All I had to do was to paint a garden wall, which was on an incline, laid with membrane and covered with pebbles. The surface was the killer, it was so unstable, and the incline was 15 to 20 degrees, and the temperature was about 30-35 degrees!

Once I'd done some ground clearance, and found some really thick gardening gloves to push the neighbours ornamental palms aside I made a start.

Early starts were the key to success, as it became obvious why Spanish workmen down tools and head for the beach in July/August. I'd opted to try Spanish paint, and as I'd inherited a large can from the last workmen on the premises, I got stuck in, after buying a second can. The application method seems to be to load up the paintbrush and generally spread the paint out on the wall. To describe this paint as thick is quite an understatement. I would have confidently upturned the can over my head and looked up with my eyes open.

The gloves worked quite well, and I received only a few punctures in my hands, however it's really not nice to see a small army of ants marching up the glove heading for my arm, each time I disturb them.

The paint pots rapidly emptied, and I faced the prospect of buying more, (easy) and transporting it by bicycle (more entertaining). I knew I would find that there was a downside to deciding to manage without a car. It is entirely possible to carry 8 litres of external plastic paint on the handlebars of a bicycle in Spanish holiday traffic (and not fall off).

Of course, I had the locals pass judgement on my work.

Beta Tester

Quality Control

12 Hours

noreply@blogger.com (Sunshack) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 17:08:00 +0000

This is the time it took from the first phone call from my partner to say that our cat was seriously ill, to the second phone call he made in tears from the animal hospital car park. No need to speculate on the contents of the call. Of course we all know that our pets will likely die before us, but that does not stop us giving them a loving home.

There was no time for me to get home to say goodbye to our beautiful, spirited girl, and the vet was unable to take any action to save her. She died too young, but the odds were against her becoming an old cat, because of long term ill health. I will miss her, and right now I feel very sad. Once I get back to the UK, I will take the time to celebrate the good times she gave us over the last 11 years.

Natural High

noreply@blogger.com (Sunshack) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 19:46:00 +0000

I set off from Bendolla to hike to the Roc D'Orzival. My route took me through the Abondance area, which in winter is my favourite ski itinerary. It's quite a sharp climb and the area looks so different in summer, with features that I don't get to see in the winter.

The usual skiers entry point is in the centre of this image.

Here is the view from the entry point. I had no idea there were so many rocks!

Once up onto the main ridge I headed for the top, but the air was not too clear so the views were not so good.

This is looking across into the Orzival area, which is another popular off piste destination, easily reached without skinning up. Beyond is the Rhone valley.

After this, I headed down to Tsarva, and then back to Bendolla, passing a drag lift on the way. The snowpark kickers still had some snow, I wonder if it will last until the season starts.

Here is a good example of why surface lifts can't run in summer!

I stopped for a sandwich, beside a stream which was in a very pretty setting. I really think that the nearby bridge could use fixing though.

Weather 1 - Hiker 0

noreply@blogger.com (Sunshack) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:24:00 +0000

I set off to hike in Grimentz several days running, and turned back each day because the weather was not good. I was surprised at the amount of snow on the walking routes and as I was walking alone, I opted to turn around as the hills were very quiet.

Basset De Lona

I wanted to hike around Point De Lona across to Lac Lona and then onto the Basset De Lona, but was thwarted by the cloud descending. It was cold, and hard to see the route because of snow and cloud. In almost 5 hours of walking I saw no-one else. To add to my enjoyment, my boots leaked when I crossed a wide stream-twice. It's quite a rugged route and my guide book promised great views, which I completely missed due to the weather.

Cabane Becs des Bossons

I'd set off good and early, caught the first lift up to Bendolla and planned to reach the Cabane by 1pm latest. At about 11am it occured to me that I could not recall putting my sandwiches in my pack. Oh well, lunch would be an energy bar! I had a couple of hikers following me, perhaps they thought I knew where I was going, but for me, hills looks so different in summer. The path up to the top of the lift system, was quite snowy, and where I broke through the snow, there was shin deep orange mud underneath.

At the top, I set off towards the Cabane, but turned back after about 10 minutes, as the route was not visible under the snow, it's a traverse of a steep slope with much loose scree underfoot in parts. The folks that were following me, had not done the route either, but decided to keep going, planning to return via Pointe de Lona. I retreated back to my awaiting sandwiches and had lunch at 2pm having ascended 770m and descended 770m in 4 and a half hours. My boots leaked again, which was predictable given the conditions. These hills look so pristine in winter, early summer is very different.

Getting Down To Business

noreply@blogger.com (Sunshack) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:11:00 +0000

My life is unfortunately not all skiing, hikes and Tarte au Myrtilles, so, having waved bye to Andy who was heading to the UK, the next day I started on the job in hand. As a warm up, I totally masked out the apartment, and then painting the ceiling twice. Thereafter I spent a portion of each day getting the apartment up to a reasonable standard of decor, planning to spend the remainder of the time on hiking.

One slight disadvantage of travelling light by air, is that I'm not able to carry my tools, so ended up buying some Swiss tools, plus paint, varnish, sandpaper etc. I have decided that I really prefer my own, and I have now developed a dislike of Swiss paint. The stuff for the ceiling was like glue, and I'm not happy with my work, and have decided to repaint it next winter, and use my favourite paint. The varnish for the exterior was also pretty thin and odd, and reacted with the existing covering, leaving a sticky mess, which needed more stripping back.

My best results were with the Wood Oil I'd purchased, which was French, and I'll seek out the brand again, as there is still plenty of interior woodwork to be restored. I refuse to worry about the labelling on the can. It was certainly not Hell to use!

It was good to be able to get out and about and enjoy the scenery, which helped me regain some perspective on what I was actually achieving each day.

Cabane de Bella Tolla

noreply@blogger.com (Sunshack) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 16:02:00 +0000

A lovely sunny day, though a little cool to start with. My ankle was still not right, so we settled on an easy hike up to the Cabane. Heading over to St Luc and taking the Funicular to Tignousa, it's a leisurely 166 metres climb, though we did raise the pace in order to get a table in the sunshine ahead of a large tour group. The Cabane is a pretty place in summer and it's well patronised.

Interesting Menu though, 3rd Menu choice is worth a second glance.

So we stopped off for a coffee and very tasty Tarte au Myrtilles and then hiked over to Chalet Blanc and back along the Chemin des Planetes, passing lots of Herens cows, fresh from Inalpe, who were trimming the grass around the depictions of the Solar System.
No prizes for spotting the Cowherd lying in the grass!

Chilling

noreply@blogger.com (Sunshack) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:28:00 +0000

As it was my Birthday, and I'd managed to sprain my ankle on the Schwarzhorn, we decided to have an easy day, as it was a Sunday after all. So we drive up to the Dam and have a good look round, It's pretty spectacular, and the view of the right side of the bank here, is skiable, well sort of. I have been down it, but a bit further across, and mostly on my back with my legs in the air as I recall.

This has to be the biggest overflow, I have ever seen!

It's hard to get a feel for the size of the structure, but there is a car down on the foreshore in the image. Yes, I know it's the wrong way up, but I've not managed to find out why this is happening, sorry!

It was a bit chilly for June, so we grabbed out coats and headed off for a long lunch in Zinal. When the sun came out, it was a whole lot warmer.

Interesting restaurant, with live entertainment!

Some Parapente guys gave us a free show while we had a coffee, and then we set off for a slow walk around the Naviscence for me to try and get my ankle freed up.

Hiking the Rostigraben

noreply@blogger.com (Sunshack) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:54:00 +0000

Starting from Chandolin we took the Tsape chairlift up, which was not without a little drama, as the lift operator could not work the ticket machine. The chair only runs for 30 minutes every couple of hours and time was getting on, but he finally managed to issue a ticket.

We walked over to see the Illsee barrage, which is quite spectacular then passed Lac Noir, then carried on up the Schwarzhorn. The path is marked as difficult on the route, though the new Swiss Hiking grades only mark it a T2 Mountain Hike. It's certainly a hands on walk at times, with good eyesight needed to spot the marker paint.

After a walk around on the top, we had lunch at 2790m with our feet dangling into German speaking Switzerland and looking down on the lakes of Oberer and Unterer Meretschisee.
Andy had a little vertigo, and felt drawn to the edge, which was not good.

On the way back, we stopped at the Tsape restaurant, which has recently been demolished and rehoused in a tent behind the chairlift station.

"Have you ever visited a Harvester"...

We hiked down the piste back to the car park, as it was the most direct route. It's surprising how steep ski pistes are! The day 's height gain after the chair lift was 315m. Descent was 860 metres. It felt like more!

Cabane d'illhorn

noreply@blogger.com (Sunshack) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 18:51:00 +0000

We had set off from Chandolin village aiming to get up high. The old village is very pretty and on sunny days gets great views of the valley.
The weather had other ideas, so we hiked through the woods to the Cabane d'illhorn for coffee and cake.

The weather set in for the day, and after hiking through the woods for a while, we decided to quit in favour of a long lunch at a local restaurant.It was good to visit the Cabane, as we have skied past it many times, and never called in. It's a charming place with a good menu and friendly staff. Next winter we will be back.

All New and Very Shiny

noreply@blogger.com (Sunshack) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:55:00 +0000

Today is the official inauguration of the new Zinal Cable Car cabins. They will carry more people, offering a better view up to the existing destination Sorebois. The old cabins are looking elderly and a little forlorn in the car park.

Weapon Of Choice

noreply@blogger.com (Sunshack) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 07:18:00 +0000

I have a listing on Facebook. I guess, that like a lot of Facebook users, my Friends list is made up of folks I associate with with face to face, folks I've met elsewhere on the internet who have similar interests and affiliations, and genuine long time friends.

Who knows what makes other folks tick, but I'd hoped I knew a bit about my long time friends. As it turns out I didn't know one of them very well at all.

Facebook has a large number of selectable restrictions with which a profile owner can modify who sees their profile, and what those folks can view. These are in addition to the Public Profile choices. I'd never used them as it made me feel a bit uncomfortable, if I didn't want some folks to read what I had written, why write it?

Logging on around the time of my Birthday, I was very surprised when clicking onto a long time friends profile, to see it looking very bare, with a minimal page of Wall information. So I emailed him to ask if he'd had a clear out, and he told me he'd been messing with the settings and the way blog posts appear, and he also said he'd look at it again sometime.

Now as he's a bit of an IT expert, I did wonder how this could have happened, but hey, maybe all of his listed friends were in the same puzzled situation as me, maybe it's Facebook at fault.

So, I contacted a couple of mutual friends at random, from very diverse backgrounds, and to my dismay, was told that they could see the full profile. So I'm starting to think that this was personal, and using the Facebook help section I now understand the fairly slow and painstaking process of blocking Profile access through entering an individual friends name, against different sections of your Profile. It was also a bit shocking to read in the dedicated chat areas that this particular tool is most often used by women to deter sex pests on Facebook.

You really could not do this by accident.

Never mind, I was sure he'd put it right soon, he's a good friend after all.

Except that didn't happen, because by the next day, a click on his profile, produced a 1 line entry only, for his Wall. So, he'd definitely looked at it again, and it would seem, reduced my access further.

Why do that, what's the point?

Enquiring of mutual friends has failed to identify my crime. They are at a loss to offer a reason or justification for his actions.

The next day I used a dummy registration to view his Public Profile and it looked pretty complete, so clicked on "Remove as Friend" to watch his Public Profile fill up, now the restrictions he'd placed against my name no longer held. At least I could read his Blog entries now. I emailed him to ask him to restore my Friend Status and remove the restrictions - no reply. So I sent a "Friend Request" - which he rejected, by clicking the ignore button. He then placed restrictions on his Public Profile, cutting my view of it to the minimum.

So, I waited a month, and then phoned him. It was Voicemail, so I rang off. My phone rings straightaway, and it's him, and he sounds upbeat and cheerful, but then I'm on a new number and once I tell him it's me, his voice tone changes, and despite phoning me, now he can't talk as he's in the car. In fact, that's all he said, over and over. I gave up.

As for me, I'm still pretty upset by this, but I'm determined to get out there and enjoy my life, as this will fade with time. Perhaps he will make the time to contact me one day and explain why he took the actions he did, but I'm not waiting in for his call.

I failed to see this coming, it seems things are never what we expect them to be. It appears that I was friends with him, but he saw me differently, disposable perhaps?

Thames Stroll

noreply@blogger.com (Sunshack) — Sun, 31 May 2009 19:14:00 +0000

We took a very pleasant 5 mile stroll along the Thames Path. There is always plenty of activity both on and off the river, and the town of Abingdon was equally busy. Of course, the sunshine brings the crowds, and many tourists want to either walk beside the river, or rent a boat, and get afloat. Either way, solitude is not something they will be experiencing.

There are some very large boats moored near Abingdon, and we wondered just how they manage to get underneath the bridges.

Chufi

noreply@blogger.com (Sunshack) — Tue, 19 May 2009 18:55:00 +0000

I should really start this entry with an apology, because I have no idea why some of my photos are on their sides, or how to fix it! Perhaps a quick fix of Chufi is needed in the system. It's my weak spot, I can't resist chilled Chufi and I was a lost cause when I spotted a large chilled display just full of Chufi in the supermarket.

Of course I need the full-on version, the low calorie one just does not taste right. So there I am swigging enough calories to keep me fed for a week in one glass (or so my waistline tells me).

I did make the effort to get some exercise, and we played tourist one afternoon and climbed the Peniscola castle ramparts, and visited the little exhibition in one dungeon. This was hanging from the ceiling BTW.

This is a view we have never seen before, from the castle roof, over the old town and we were left wondering why the port decided to paint the town name on the roof of the dock!

If you have ever been to Switzerland, you may have memories of a well ordered, polite society. Well, here's an example of how the Swiss park when they are abroad. It's probably a case of "when in Rome, do as the Romans". This is a Swiss registered Subaru Tribeca parked outside a local supermarket in Peniscola.

The weather was a little dull, but we escaped being rained upon, until we were heading for the airport, so that was fine by us. We managed to do a little DIY and gardening and most importantly relax, which is what a holiday is all about.

Pass The Suncream

noreply@blogger.com (Sunshack) — Sat, 02 May 2009 18:15:00 +0000

It's April, and I'm skiing the end of season weeks in incredibly hot weather. I suppose the term hot is relative, but for skiing, it felt way too warm. I had arrived by train and then Postbus, and Sierre was baking hot. I was beginning to understand why vineyards are big business in Valais.

My skiing experience was that of very hard surfaces in the mornings, followed by soft slushy snow after lunch. The resort was pretty busy over Easter, and I worked hard to avoid the queues for the lifts.

Andy arrived for a short break and we had a great time off piste over by the Lona black slope. We saw that there had been an avalanche which had damaged the pylons of the drag lift, and we watched a new pylon being helicoptered into place.

In the photo, you can see the extent of the avalanche, and the helicopter with the pylon underneath. The helicopter had a twin set of blades, which I've never seen before.

The lift company fixed the left very quickly, and cleared the track between the debris, so we could use the lift. Seeing the debris up close was quite scary.

We did manage to get away from the Easter crowds though, taking a picnic and enjoying the spring sunshine.

An unusual sunset brought with it the promise of a change in the weather, but unfortunately Andy had to go home.

As the morning after the snowfall dawned, I received a txt from friend Brian. Who says there are no friends on a powder day.

As he's a good skier, he leads me off piste to places, I wouldn't normally go by myself. As usual I'm playing catch up!

Some of these tracks are mine, and for me that's good!

I did drop my camera on the tarmac at the gondola station, so right now I'm wondering if I did some damage to the inside, apart from the dents on the body, as normally my photos are a bit sharper.
I started with a cold on the night after I took these photos, so I was feeling a bit low for the last few days. Of course, this cleared up, in time for my journey home.

The Swiss Calendar

noreply@blogger.com (Sunshack) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 14:31:00 +0000

I have recently travelled on Swiss Trains. Not an exceptional activity by itself, though I did use a Swiss Transfer Ticket, available only to foreigners, and valid for two journeys in one month.

As my first journey was the 6th of April, I filled in the travel document on the day. The form is arranged vertically, so:
Day 6
Month 4

When my ticket was inspected, I usually get a stamp, but not this time. The inspector gets out her pen. She carefully inks a 0 (zero) in front of the 6. This I can understand, perhaps I might feel I wanted another outward journey on the 16th, or maybe the 26th of the month, thereby potentially cheating Swiss Rail of some income.

She does the same on the Month line in front of the 4 (April). How many other months can you name utilising 4 in the calendar? Take your time.......

Answers on a postcard :D

Big Snow

noreply@blogger.com (Sunshack) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 21:00:00 +0000

An amazing two weeks, skiing more fresh snow than I have ever encountered before. Day after day the snow was topped up, and I hope I might just have improved my skiing!

Met up with Ian , his girlfriend Julie and her brother Jason, who happened to be riding the same lift, and had a glorious day on and off piste in dry fluffy snow.

As usual, I'm playing catch up, but I did get a good opportunity to try out my new Scott Punisher skis, and I was pleased to be catching up on the flat sections!

Another superb powder day saw us meeting up with friend JT from Snowheads and along with a group of his friends we found some very dry, light and wonderfully fluffy slopeside powder.
JT was using his new Movement Gladiators and says he likes them, though I did catch him digging a snow pit with his head!

In his defence, he says, that it's a nice straight line (as far as it goes).
Andy, who only likes skiing on groomed pistes, has discovered that it's fun to ski the fluffy stuff.

Of course, all this fresh snow has it's downside when you want to use the car to visit another village.

The digging took a while, but afterwards, we managed to get over to St Luc to meet and ski with another of the Anniviers Facebook group members, Rodney and his wife Pam. Rodney likes to ski quite fast, and is discussing with Andy how to get to the bottom of the Prilet piste in St Luc in sub 4 minutes. I let them go ahead, it's probably a man thing.

We made a couple of visits to Zinal during our stay, and the resort was quite busy with a Parapente competition. Here is one of the sponsors with a little airship.

The slopeside powder in Zinal was well worn, but I still enjoyed myself anyway!

Back over in Grimentz, Ian had shown me this shortcut on the run down to the village, so I made good use of it, and so did lots of other folks.

We discovered a little chute after picnicking nearby, it was just waiting to be skied. Well actually others got there before me, and identified the rocks!

I did manage to lure Andy into Abondance, and we had a close up view of some avalanche debris. It was very close to the route, and it's easy to see why this Itinerary gets closed for days on end.

We made a day trip over to Vercorin, which was very quiet, and quite cold. There was a fog in the Rhone valley which looked quite spooky.

Zinal in the sunshine, provides a good counterpoint....

It's not often that powder is the predominant type of snow for a holiday. We feel very fortunate to have had a whole 2 weeks of the fluffy stuff.

What Goes Up.......

noreply@blogger.com (Sunshack) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 19:53:00 +0000

A pre Christmas getaway to Grimentz saw me arriving by rail at Sierre to be met by the Postbus which was on chains. This was the first time I had seen a bus in the valley on chains, and on arrival in Grimentz it was easy to see why they were needed.

Of course, the path to the apartment had not been cleared, so I was soon knee deep in snow. Next day the snow continued, and once I had dealt with some admin matters, I decided that I would try snow shoes for the afternoon. Visibility was quite poor at times, but I was very pleased with my 1st attempt. I did realise whilst walking down the Bendolla piste, that it is quite steep.

The next day saw slightly improved visibility, and as the lifts were still closed I decided to try my skins on the same ascent to Bendolla.

I was very pleased with my climb times, which were double last years' attempts. Of course, as the lifts were closed, I got to make some lovely turns in untracked powder.

The next day I was heading for the Bendolla lift, and I received a surprise txt from Ian, who was on his way over from Zinal in his car. We agreed to meet at the restaurant at the top of the gondola, however quickly went to Plan B, when the lift broke down.
After a coffee at the bottom, the lift resumed running and we headed up to blue skies and glorious conditions. Ian was on new skis, Black Diamond Kilowatts, and as he is a rock magnet soon made a hole in them.

We had wonderfully fluffy powder which lasted all day, although I really only got into turning properly mid afternoon, which was a shame, as the powder turned to overdone meringue overnight, robbing me of the chance to perfect my turns!

That evening saw the Grimentz Christmas Fair in full swing. This creation from the local bakers' really grabbed my interest.

The next day I skied Grimentz again, and tried the off piste, but it had frozen hard overnight and was just awful. I stayed on the piste, as the visibility was a bit poor as well.

Grimentz closed it's lift system again on the Monday, so I headed for Zinal. It was quite a long journey as there is no skiers bus linking Grimentz and Zinal until the 22nd December, so I had to travel via Vissoie, 2 buses each way. With delays at the cable car, it was really a 2 hour journey to the slopes, and it was a shame that the visibility was not so good, since the snow was quite nice.

The next day I made the same journey and was rewarded with better weather, though the off piste was as crusty as the Grimentz stuff, which is not too surprising really.

The snow began again next day, and I needed to pack, so I spent my time walking in and around Grimentz, which looks very pretty in it's winter coat.

It was lovely to get away from the overly commercial and tacky aspects of the run up to Christmas in the UK, and chance to get some great skiing done.