Days 4 and 5

Wednesday 9th and Thursday 10th January

I've managed to post a few photos, as long as I can keep the iPad on the Internet. I've discovered that the way to do this seems to be to listen to the radio! I still can't seem to manage to post much text with the photos, so I'm doing them separately. As BlogPress no longer works, I can't edit what I've already posted so I'm having to do the photos separately from the text.

I still can't seem to do more than a couple of hours of skiing before flaking out, so I have spent two days concentrating on my skills and doing the beginners slopes again and again. I am feeling more confident, so on Friday, weather permitting, we'll go higher up the mountain and try a harder slope.

Yesterday (Wednesday) was a wonderful blue sky day again and so warm it was difficult to find any ski clothes light enough to wear - I was far too hot in just a tee shirt and a fleece, and had to shower and wash my hair immediately on my return. 

After lunch, I wanted to go right up to the top of the mountain to take some photographs while it was sunny - Thursday's forecast was for snow, and there was no knowing when we would next have a bright day. So I set off as a pedestrian up the Télécabine in the afternoon. It takes 20 - 25 minutes in this cable car up to Roche de Mio, from which you have access to a huge area of snow, with lots of different pistes. Unfortunately, most of them seem to be quite steep - Paul says there is nothing that won't freak me out. So it's only likely I will ever get up this high other than as a pedestrian. The views were truly spectacular, huge expanses of snow leading away to the far white peaks in the distance. We watched people paragliding off a high point - I'm afraid my photos are nothing special though. 

It was amazingly crowded up at this high point. I couldn't imagine how all the people managed to ski and snowboard without banging into one another, but there are a lot of pistes up there. It was also cold, in spite of the sun, and there was a warning that the last Télécabine descent would be at 4, so after I had taken my photos I made my way down again, and Paul skied down. The Télécabine goes up and down some particularly steep, not to say sheer slopes, so I tried to take some of the wonderful views from inside the little car; unfortunately the windows were spotty and badly scratched so I wasn't really able to do it justice. 

It is possible to go further up, right up to the glacier at 3000 metres, and walk through the ice cave. If there is any more sunny weather, I might try that. But it's a 45 minute trip each way and stops quite early, so I'd need to make sure I started out early enough. 

On Thursday there was snow! Fortunately, it was light in the morning, so it didn't stop me going out. It was still quite warm on the lower slopes, so after my two hours I was once again drenched with perspiration and needed a shower and hair-wash. After lunch, the snow became quite heavy, and the fog descended. I had intended to take the shuttle bus to the next village to have a look at their lower slopes, but thought this wasn't a very attractive option in the fog and snow, so I stayed indoors and kept warm instead.

Paul, of course, went out to ski but said he found it quite difficult. He said the visibility was very poor and it was hard to stay on the piste because it was difficult to see where you were going; several times the fog cleared and he found he had left the piste and was on a different part of the hillside.