Monthly Archives: February 2013

Not quite as planned

We had planned to go climbing, but a late night celebrating Scott’s engagement to Anna  made this a bit more difficult, with fuzzy heads it was decided that just a ski would be best, I am not the best of climbers without a hangover so with a hangover I would have been useless.  We still wanted to go to the same area Coire Kander and have a go at skiing ‘Y Gully’.

With a late start we had some good scottish ski conditions

Non of this full cover, powder snow stuff that you get in the alps, we are talking rock hard snow and that is only in patches as well!  🙂

It is not a real Scottish ski if you haven’t skied on heather and grass along the way.  Above is Scott on the way up Cairn and Tuirc, half way up we had to put the old crampons on as the slope got quite steep and a slip would have meant sliding all the way to the bottom and having to start again.

Once at the top,. in true Scottish fashion the cloud came in and gave us problems seeing our hands in front of our face!  Map and compass out and moving on bearings.  Haven’t had to navigate in a while and we had a few moments where our man compasses did not tally with the real compass and we had to be good and fight the urge to not believe the compass even though it was completely against my internal sense of direction which is usually pretty good.

As we find the edge of the Coire and the Gully the cloud lifted ( which was nice) and gave us a great view of Y Gully in all of it completely rock hard snow glory making it a no no to ski.  Never mind, was nice being up there any way and practicing our navigation skills again.

The way down was an entertaining affair – god skiing down ice is loud!  A nasty scrapping sound is still ringing in my ears!  Apart from the noise it was a surprisingly enjoyable decent.

When it softens up it is going to be great, looking at the amount of snow up there, I think it is going to be a good gully season this year.  Lets hope I can make the most of it before we leave for Gap next month.

It was ending as a rather nice day which was not expected at all.  One of those days that looked like it was going to be rubbish but actually turned out great fun.

Ellis is 2!

We had a little party for Ellis this weekend for her second Birthday.  Granny Caryn and Grumpsi came up and we had some friends around

She wore the pretty dress she was given from Nanny and was poilt rotten by all the presents she was given.  Thank you all for your generosity.

An awesome cake was made for her in a Koala style as we all know her favorite thing int he world is her teddy koala called ‘E’

The house was full of small ankle bitters every where and fathers looking around wondering what the hell was going on!  a lovely day, thank you all.  the rest of the pictures can be seen by CLICKING HERE or at the ‘photo gallery’ link on the top right of this page.

Gap for a ski Holiday

Just back from an amazing week in Gap with Nanny Smith and Grandpops.  We felt we couldn’t leave Ellis behind so she cam everywhere with us!

We bought the ski attachment for the buggy and she came cross country skiing with us, she either slept, shouted at me to go faster, or watched Peppa pig on the ipad what was conveniently  in there with her.

A couple of days the grandparents were great baby sitters and Lara and I went off skiing together.  It is always special when we get out together now as it doesn’t happen as much as it used to for an obvious small blond reason!

An afternoon at Reallon after it snowed the day before delivered the goods and we had another great powder day there.  I love these little Frenchie resorts that don’t get tracked out in a few hours like the bigger resorts, this pic below was from the last run of the day……

We introduced Ellis to French sledging, (ie much bigger slopes and not as cold)  She loved it and me, Dad and Lara dragged her up the hill over and over and over again, each time at the bottom giggling then turning around and shouting “AGAIN – TOP” whilst pointing at one of us to drag her back up.

Even managed to grab a powder afternoon with my dad which was brilliant,  one thing skiing soft stuff with wife, but with wife and Dad it was great.  Dad proved he still has it.  Again this was a little french resort 20 minutes from the house.  3 lifts and only about 20 people on the whole mountains, so all freshies!

A great week with family and some superb skiing   Another 6 weeks and we will be back for the summer….. can’t wait!  Rest of the pictures can be seen by CLICKING HERE – or the ‘Photo Gallery’ link top right on this page