Freezing Cold

For the past 5 days the temperature in Chamonix hasn't risen above -4°C. In fact it's dropped down to -15°C in the night sometimes. That's pretty nippy by any stretch!

I had to do some chores yesterday and needed to dig Merv out of the snow in the morning. 2 feet of snow all over the lad requiring moving. Unfortunately I misplaced my gloves the other day and was in a bit of a hurry so rather than getting some snowboarding gloves, figured just to dig him out with the tools at hand. Bad mojo. I think I got a bit of frostnip in my right hand - after 4 tries of digging away the snow with a broken ice-hockey stick and a scraper the size of a fingernail he was free. A couple of weeks ago he would have been stuck solid but his new snow tires gripped as they should and he was released onto the freedom of the road.

After doing my bits and bobs, I decided to get a new pair of gloves from town and spent a few minutes checking out the vast array of winter handwear in the various shops. I love France and the French have a differing style but there's some seriously hideous fashionistas that obviously choose the clothes for some of the shops here. I actually found a pair of woolen leopard-print gloves, some black leather gloves of the type frequently appearing as part of serial-killer garb on CSI, rubberised (WTF?!) winter gloves for the more deviant man/woman about town. Of course there were some nicer options too. I went for a pair of black woolen fingerless gloves that are convertible to mittens with a fleece inner. Very warm and very funky.



I've got to dig Merv out again tonight to go down to Tinks'. Time to test them out.

Beautiful day

The mountains just look amazing today - clear blue skies and some high turbulent cloud around the peaks like an unruly mop of hair in the wind. It's days like this where I'm working away and feeling content that I really, really love my life.



I'm really looking to give one of my old boards its first wax ready for the season and I'm even thinking to bring out an old board, the silver dart (Burton Special 57 tricks board) and give it a bit of a slide at Tignes. Awesome.

Seasons Changing in the Chamonix Valley

Two days ago, overnight, the temperature dropped like a lead duck into a pond. Hats, gloves and some hideous neon 80's skiing jackets emerged from the various hotels and residences to be sported around town. The heat of summer is officially waving its last good bye and being replaced with the chillier climes of autumn.

Siberian winds pushing a giant cold-weather system from the north-east.


I'm bouncing off the fucking walls with excitement - snow's coming, I can smell it. Other members of the Narg household are not as enthusiastic and are starting to burn incense, chant melodic ancient parchments and sacrifice live chickens to try and lengthen the hot weather. These people are fighting nature and will not win (with or without my moral support)!

Cold and clear around Mont Blanc (latest webcam image)


There's still the sun and blue skies but instead of the deep azure lustre of recent months, it's a paler more powdery hue. Anyone venturing up high should be prepared with thermal undies and more than just a cheeky grin to fend of cold's frosty fingers. The boys have started talking about the upcoming winter, reminiscing about adventures past and stories of deep powder days are flowing like the house rose in Le Delice.

The frosted tips of the Aiguille du Midi (latest webcam image)


Chris is leaving today to go back to London to work on a contract and we had a bit of send-off last night. Fred and I texted everyone in our phones and the glorious man even put on a promotion of McCrampons - a favoured beverage amongst the Les Houches Royalty (fresh lime juice, ice, Jameson's whiskey and Canada Dry). Loads of friends turned up to send Chris off in style with a great blend of people chirpy and cheerful having a bite to eat and washing it down with plenty of booze. A really good night.

The recent madness of working on contracts when I've not been driving transfers recently is starting to get much easier. I've gotten into a good routine and there's regular additions to the company coffers which is very cool. Shaun (the guy who owns Transfer2TheAlps, whom I am driving for) is away at the moment so I'm doing everything and it's going very well. In fact I built his website and have built a very cool admin section which I've been adding to and generally tweaking. He's very pleased and so am I - the more work he gets the better it is for me!

So I'll pick Chris up from Les Houches late afternoon after grabbing some other clients from Cham then off to Geneva. Dinner and a video - a bit of Indiana Jones no less - will follow upon arrival back into the valley. Who knows, might even be able to squeeze in a bit more work this evening. Life's pretty full at the moment but it's great that it is. I'm enjoying it more and more these days and it always makes me smile to get a wave from a passing friend as I'm zipping around the valley in my magic blue bus. I've even managed to start whisking through iTunes and burning CD's to play in the van on the way back. I've even got a crap 80's collection CD for the tourists so they feel they're on a proper cheesy French holiday.

Dealing with the demons

Feeling pretty low today. Got lots on my mind.

Crampons has decided to use my place at the farm as accommodation for staff over the winter season. We had agreed that I'd stay there with Chris over the winter but hey, things change and it's not a surprise - it's something we've talked about several times over the past few months. It's no bad thing really - I love it up there but some pretty big problems were looming up on the horizon with regards to the winter. Heating and transport and internet access being the three main ones.

Ironically the weather's turned over the past 24 hours, the recent days of blue skies and baking sun have been replaced with the Jurassic Park look. Thunderstorms broke up the peace of the night and this morning misty cloud was rising from the woods on each side of the valley. The cloud is hanging low and heavy over Chamonix and Les Houches has taken on a darker hue.

Work's going well however but some seriously long days are needed before the end of the week to meet the first deadline. We're cracking on with it now and dropping it into the main development environment with several degrees of success.

I know in my mind that things are going to be good - the card deck is shuffled. Time to deal a hand and see what happens.

An avoidable tragedy on Mont Blanc

Normally I wouldn't post up about this but I want to this time. 4 climbers have died of exposure climbing Mont Blanc today. I offer my deepest sympathies to the familes and it's a tragic event - but was it an accident?



The BBC News story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6916549.stm

We've all been moping around waiting for the weather to break - waiting for the rain and storms of the past week to abate so we can go out climbing and up into the mountains. It really cleared up yesterday early evening and the sunset was one of those that really take your breath away. The rocks glowing red as the setting sun lit up the pure white peaks - a stark contrast to the blue skies behind. Blue skies peppered with a few clouds. Beautiful eh? Well it is but it set alarm bells ringing in my head.

I was actually outside with Brian looking up at Mont Blanc last night during the sunset as I met him outside his house to go for dinner. We actually chatted about how amazing it looked then passed comment on the lenticular cloud sitting atop Mont Blanc. When these clouds sit over peaks they generally mean high winds at the summit. Warning 1. The bright white peaks covered with fresh snow gleaming against the blue sky - so there's lots of new snow (warning 2) and it's obviously cold as it was pure white and looking through binoculars this morning could see lots of crystalline formations (warning 3).

Obviously these warnings aren't set in stone but they all add up. To have climbed Mont Blanc means that these guys had to either be up there already or going up really early first thing in the morning. Whichever way it's talking about being on the mountain a few hours after the weather has broken.

I was talking to a guide friend of mine, Mark, last year who said that the old rule of leaving a mountain 3 days to settle after a storm is no longer there. Backcountry skiing and more people wishing to climb mean that this timeframe has shortened considerably. But the mountain and atmosphere still needs to settle and get safer.

I really feel sorry for the families of these guys, and offer my deepest sympathies to them and it'll be something we talk about and chew over in the bars and between friends this week. Unfortunately there's a lot of accidents out here and they come in regularly (every week or so) over the winter and summer seasons.

But how many of my friends chose to go out into the mountains today? None. Not one.

Rain over Chamonix

Still raining! Mont Blanc is hidden by cloud when looking from the office. Thinking to finish up here and head home for a bit in a few minutes and see what's happening in the Delice in Les Houches before tootling off home for a spot of dinner. There's a few rumbles of thunder in the heavens too - might even get a evening show of electricity over the evening meal.

Raining over the Bossons Glacier


More rain up on the Aiguille du Midi (peak far right) and the Mont Blanc Massif.

What the heck?!

Woke up this morning to Wardo knocking on my bedroom door telling me to look outside. Duly rolled over and glanced out from my balcony and falling endlessly from the skies above - huge flakes of snow! And it's nearly June! So it's dumped down massively and everything looks Chrismassy again. Very pretty.


The balcony this morning


We knew there was a bit of snow forecast but it's dropped several inches of the white stuff last night between coming home from dinner at Caroline's (wicked tartiflette and apple pie - thanks Caroline!) and carrying on until around 2pm this afternoon. It's just started up again a bit now and there's more on the way. At this rate it's not going to be long before we get fully snowed in up on our snowy perch in the mountains.


The views from the farm




This screwing up global weather thing is really obvious up here in the mountains. We really need to get our act together and do something about it. Not the small steps some people are currently taking but large sweeping reforms to try to get the planet back on track.

On a totally different tack Zinzan Brooke, the ex All-Black suffered a head injury falling from a taxi and is in for brain surgery. He was a favourite player of mine in the 90's and I hope he gets better soon.

On another different tack, I found a lizard shivering in our pile of wood whilst stocking up this morning ready for this cold spell and so I brought him in and he's now living in a biscuit tin with some leaves and stones in our lounge. I'll let him go when it heats up a bit outside.

Liz the Lizard in the biscuit tin.