Skiing

We had a leisurely start to the morning, we enjoyed a good breakfast and then were on the top of the mountain by 10am. There were absolutely no crowds at the lift today. 

It was initially -11C but it warmed up to -2C. It did not feel at all cold. Funny how I find dog walks when it is 5C at home absolutely freezing, but much colder temperatures in the Swiss Alps don’t feel bad at all - maybe it is the dry thin air?

We had an enjoyable day of skiing, stopping for coffee late morning, and then had a light lunch from a self service restaurant. I was delighted to find a salmon poke bowl in the salad section, one of my favourite meals and quite unusual as it’s not standard mountain food. I have my confidence back and have enjoyed skiing this weekend, although I still would not rate it as a favourite thing to do. Some of our group are very keen expert skiers, and they did some very wild off piste skiing yesterday, skinning up to a peak where they had to jump off a ledge - sounds terrifying! They skied into Austria and caught the bus and then train back again.

After skiing we went back to our apartment to drop off all our ski clothes, boots and skis and also did a quick wash load of the ski clothing so it is all clean ready for next time we have to use it. Then back to the hotel for drinks before supper. Some of the group leave tomorrow morning, as we are, and some are skiing all day and leaving tomorrow evening. It has been a lovely weekend with very enjoyable company - Gavin is lucky to work with such nice people and I have enjoyed getting to know them better. We were blessed with incredible weather and excellent snow conditions. Back home tomorrow and I hope our house has not blown away in the storm that the UK is having tonight! Luke has done an excellent job of looking after Xena, and he enjoyed the time studying as he writes his - hopefully - last ever exam in about 3 weeks time after several years of studying.

This was the sight we saw when we stopped for late morning coffee as people 'park' their skis. The extra was taken on the ski lift, the area below the lift is next to the groomed pistes but many people like this easy off piste skiing, as can be seen by all the tracks in the ungroomed snow.