nein!

Well the good news is that the long promised snow has arrived!

It started cloudy this morning and started with a few brief flurries before kicking off big style around mid morning. So far we've had about 3-4" in the village (I always say 3-4" is enough for anyone) and more on the hill. The downside is that its blowwing an absolute gale at the top. This is preventing the snow from settling high, however the lower runs are getting more than their fair share.

As I type it is still dumping with a vengence so tmrw morning should be good.

The one (big) fly in the ointment of my happiness is the risk of avalance that has risen from medium to high and will probably be at dead cert by the morning. We are probably all getting avalance bleepers tmrw along with a ration of shovles and a few sticks.

For those of you coming out (so to speak) I am living at the Jardains de Balme

For those of you staying there you will be glad to know that they are perfectly livable for a week or two. I'll let you know if they are livable for 11 weeks......

At the moment our room sounds like a terminal care ward with Bruce (room mate #1) coughing away like an 80 a day pensioner and me hacking up some dubious stuff.

It has been brought to my attention (by Dave shaking me awake with "mate - you sound like a chain saw) that I snore. Now I've never heard myself snoring but I am lead to belive that it is pretty spectacular at the moment. I think it's the altitude. Anyway I've got a bag of ear plugs coming to give to everyone in the room.

Currently our training is focusing on getting our riding up to scratch. So there are loads of exercises with "bend zee knees" and "foward wiz zee 'ips". Its working though. I'm still pretty slow but thats a confidence thing and with the new snow I'm starting to speed up.

To those of you that chipped in with the helmet and goggles a massive thank you. They are proving invalauble at preventing pepole laughing at a chubby bloke with a green helmet and blue goggles. They also keep my head warm and stop my eyes from frezzing. When Ed comes over they'll be laughing at a skinny bloke with a green helment...