Hmm. That doesn’t look much like a ski resort! Since Gary departed two weeks ago we haven’t really had any big snowfalls and the weather has mainly been sunny with unusually high temperatures. With this in mind we decided to go cycling around beautiful Lac d’Annecy. We headed off down the mountain on a glorious sunny morning with the intention of joining the cycle path at Ugine and cycling to Annecy, with a circuit of the lake totalling 75km.
Sadly not all went to plan. By the time we reached Ugine the valley had filled with dense freezing fog and we headed off on our bikes wearing more layers than we wear skiing. We decided to persevere, despite our fingers being so frozen that we couldn’t change gears, hoping that the sun would burst through at some point in the morning. By the time we were half way around the lake the sun did indeed emerge at which point I had a puncture! Our hands were so cold we could barely use the tyre levers but happily the bike was fixed in time for us to have a great lunch in Annecy. We headed off on the return journey only for me to have another puncture on the same wheel just 10km from the car. Certain that there was a problem with the wheel, Jonathan headed off to collect the car, leaving me waiting by the roadside…. for over an hour, as dusk fell, he failed to find me and I got colder and colder. Happily we made it home to defrost by a roaring fire and a very hot curry. I think we’ll stick to summer cycling from now on!
The beautiful clear mountain skies have inspired Jonathan to do some more night shots with the 360 degree camera.
This is the view from the field behind our chalet. Sadly we didn’t capture any shots of nocturnal creatures.
We’ve filled all the other sunny days with some ski touring, revisiting some of our favourite walks. We had a beautiful skin to La Savonne and the col just above the Ruitor hut. We returned to Col du Palet for the first time this season with a stunning skin over Col de la Grassaz and Col de la Tourne. We also made our first visit of the season to Refuge de la Laisse where we found three young chalet guys who had done their first ski tour and spent the night at the refuge.
After a quiet few weeks, albeit with lots of exercise, we now have a busy month. Ray and his daughter Lily arrive tomorrow for a week of half term skiing, and hopefully will be joined by Claire a little later in the week. Anna and Alex will overlap with them for a few days and it will be very jolly having a house full of friends. Then Lucy, Wilton and Alice will be here for the last week of February, before I head back to London for a week while Jonathan joins the ‘boys’ for an off-piste week in St Anton.
