Explore europe in a campervan

After a couple of busy, sociable weeks our Welsh friends Mike and Gwyd have departed and it’s time for us to knuckle down and spend a little more time blogging! For Gwyd it’s time to fly home and get back to work, while Mike is heading to a music festival in Spain, so we may see more of him later in the year.

Unfortunately we didn’t get to board with Mike again because the weather was really true to forecast and rained for the entire day. All the snow in the car park was washed away - what a waste! We even woke to a damp patch on the ceiling inside the van, which we’ll have to keep an eye on. The report back from the mountains above, in Avoriaz, was total ‘white-out’, which describes the conditions when the light is so poor that you can’t see the incline or terrain at all - only white. This has been so bad on occasion that (with headphones in) I couldn’t even tell if I was moving! Coupled with the horrible rain on the way down, which was a blizzard higher up, it was definitely no day to go out, so we slept in late and Simon somehow managed to clipper his hair in the rain by hanging his head out of the window.

In the evening we ate yet another incarnation of the vegetable soup from the previous two days - it’s final sitting saw it become vegetable curry for the vegetarian amongst us, and vegetable and pork soup with pork donated by Tanc, who works in the kitchen at a local school. Tanc also treated us to a late supper of galettes (savoury pancakes) with mushrooms, salmon, cheese and an egg inside each pancake! It’s a traditional dish from Brittany and we would both highly recommend it. The evening went on fairly late, with other visitors, some music from Mike on his guitar and free-flowing beer. A suitable end to their time in the Alps.

After waving the black van off we headed onto the mountain. The day was clear, with blue sky, few clouds and no rain. After yesterday’s constant rain in the lower level of the town we were expecting a good amount of new snow higher up. We had been talking to a couple who work as chalet hosts in the town about an off piste run that they know well. When we checked it out on the piste map it was good to see a ’ski de fond’ (cross-country skiing) piste runs through the valley, so there was definitely a clear route, with a bus stop, if we should get stuck in a dip or on the flat. With this in mind we made a short hike at the top of a chair lift to look over the ridge at the area. With the sky so clear it was a stunning sight - untouched snow with no pistes criss-crossing and nobody to be seen. The very few clouds were light and fluffy and some were actually below us. A party of skiers led by an instructor hiked up behind us, so we watched with interest to see where they headed - which was around the hill, giving little away. We’re going to look again at the area on a nice, bright, clear day when we get up early - and after checking out the ski de fond piste from the car park where it ends. There’s a small possibility of kiting in the area too. We’ll see…..

The intention was to continue over into Switzerland, but we were tempted by an area we’d often looked at as the chair lift went over. It’s marked on the piste map as a blue ’snowcross’ run and a red run called ‘Pschott Canyon’ but the two are not marked by poles and blend into one. As we’d hiked a little off the usual piste we went straight into this ‘canyon’. The Grand Canyon it’s not - but it describes the natural contours of the snow - there are natural ‘pipes’ to ride up and down the sides of, jumps and drop-offs if you want - but they can be avoided! As the light was very good you could see every bump and contour, so riding here was a lot of fun. It really has the feel of a playground - where there’s something for everyone and all abilities, but opportunities to try something a little harder than you usually would in relative safety. We’ll definitely be back.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 10:40 pm and is filed under Diary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.