Back to Burrough

You might have thought we had had enough of snow, but no! Couldn't resist taking a trip out to our favourite hill for a bit more sledging. It started snowing as we left, so we might be back again soon for some more.

Luke and Joe - Ski Champs

Well we are back home now and on a real computer and internet link, so I have managed to upload a few videos. This is Joe doing one of the jumps at the Jam Park (i.e. the fun bit for jumping and stuff - heavily populated by boarders).

Luke got the bronze medal (they don't do silver so that was just a step down from gold!) Joe got a 3 star medal. They were both very pleased with the results as you will see from the photos.

I have added a few more photos and videos to the Flaine webfolder.

Birthday Balloons for Elaine

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It took some organising but nothing's too much for my girl!

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Last night was the chef's night off so it gave us an excuse to find somewhere special for Elaine's birthday. It was only a pizzeria but it was very nice - excellent pizzas and a very cozy atmosphere.

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The skiing just gets better and better. I went off on my own this morning to do a 14 km run down to Sixt and then a bus back to Samoens to get the lifts back up and over into Flaine. It was great. I spotted some chamois on the mountain (look carefully at the picture of the rocky mountainside and you will see a few at the top of the mountain). Turns out that Joe had seen a chamois rather than a marmot!

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Luke and Elaine were feeling weary this afternoon, so Joe and I went off for a blast - off piste, moguls, red runs - no problem!

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I've added a few more photos.

The Sun has come out!

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Actually it was out quite a bit yesterday as well.

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It is still wonderful here. There is loads of snow - nearly as much as back home! There are hardly any queues and we have been keeping our eyes open for marmots as Joe saw one from a chairlift yesterday when he was with his ski instructor.

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It is the chef's night off tomorrow, so we have booked ourselves into a very cosy looking pizzaria. It is Elaine's birthday as well so we can have bit of a celebration with pizza.

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A few more pics added.

We're in Flaine

We have had a fabulous first full day after a very mixed arrival day. We had to get up by 3.30am to get to the airport in time, so we felt like zombies all day. We arrived to bright sunshine though, and loads of snow. we got here just in time for lunch and got kitted out in a deserted ski hire shop - bliss!

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There are a couple of free lifts here so we were even able to have a quick ski in the afternoon. We were all pretty tired though, so not sure it was such a good idea - Joe was a bit wobbly and forgotten some of his moves.

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Another downside was that Cath Rich and her hubbie Chris and their kids Ruby and George were going to come and ski with us, but Ruby was unwell yesterday and George and Cath have caught it today. Quelle domage! We may seem them in the week but I'm not sure - the kids will have school I expect.

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Today was a little bit snowy and overcast. The snow is fantastic but we had flat light which makes it difficult to see the piste. Joe and Luke had great instructors and Joe was back on form again by the time we joined up at lunchtime. We had laugh on the sleds to wind off the afternoon.

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Here are some pics.

Cracking the Code

We visited 4 churches this afternoon in order to discover Geocaches hidden in the churchyards. This is a series of linked caches and each one had a puzzle in it which we had to solve in order to get some digits. We would then need to put the digits together as a grid reference to lead us to the last (and hidden) cache in the series. We answered all the questions - which involved looking for certain individual's gravestones in order to find their age, or dates on the side of the church, or the number of villagers who had died in WWI, etc. It was so cold though that we decided to come home and figure out the coordinates of the hidden cache in the warm.

It took a while but, thanks to Joe's mathematical prowess, we now have it cracked! Our next adventure will be to go and find it - perhaps it contains gold coins!

2009 off to a flying start

New Year's Day we decided to go cycling in sub-zero temperatures around Watermead Country Park near Leicester. Most of the lakes were frozen over and our toes got a bit cold, but it got us in the mood for our skiing holiday later this month.

Geocaching today was a bit warmer although quite muddy in places! We managed to find 3 geocaches in the Vale of Belvoir, one of which was a the top of a very muddy hill (behind us in the picture) but had spectacular views when we got there.