Ski Grand Massif

Bearded Vulture seen in Les Carroz

During a recent visit to Chalet des Tronchets we were graced with the presence of a very large bird. One of the party identified it as a bearded vulture, also known as a lammergeyer or, in French, a Barbu. According to information on the internet, there is only about 200 of these birds in Europe. They have a wing span of about 9 feet and feed on bones. If a bone is too big they will carry it into the air and then drop it onto rocks to break it into edible portions. Not sure what this fellow was after but there was a small dog running around!

Late season powder in Flaine

This morning we were treated to about 6 inches of new snow at Flaine. Myself and Dean spent a very happy few hours laying down new tracks. The Grand Massif is very quiet this week so there was lots of untracked new snow to go at. With more snow forecast tomorrow and then a sunny day after that, we should be in for another perfect day on Friday.

20″ of fresh powder in the Grand Massif

40-50 cm of new snow arrived on Saturday night and during the day Sunday, giving us some of the best skiing of the season so far. We had a great day skiing on Monday with untracked powder to be found everywhere. Cascades piste from Flaine down to Sixt (below 800 metres) is open, which means the snow is good right down to 800m. A snow mail alert also came in today with snow forecast for Les Carroz in the next six days.

October skiing in the Grand Massif

The Grand Massif is famous for being a snow-sure resort and 2010/2011 looks to be another great season if today is anything to go by. It’s October 26th and I’ve just come back from skiing in Les Molliets! This is the earliest I have skied – my previous best was the last day in October.

Myself and Ian Edwards (Snowbeds) drove to Les Molliets and then walked up Portet and then part way up Dolomie on rando skis. We then skied back to Les Molliets. There was approx 20cm snow depth at Les Molliets and approx 60cm at the top of Dolomie.

Sailing in the Canary Islands with CanarySail.com

Canary sail is an RYA sailing school based on the island of La Gomera. Jim Grey, the proprieter of canary sail and a great friend, skippered the boat for myself and three mates. This has to be one of the best places in the world for sailing/sail training. If you’d like to know more I recommend taking a look at the Canary Sail web site www.canarysail.com.

We flew to Tennerife South and then took a 45 minute ferry to San Sebastion, the capital of La Gomera. The boat was a few minutes walk from the ferry – could not be simpler. San Sebastion is a charming, very unspoilt place with plenty of good, very reasonably priced restaurants and bars.

We were sailing for six days and visited the islands of Tenerife and El Hierro as well as two other ports on La Gomera. Sailing conditions could not have been better ie warm and windy, we had some pretty exciting times in the ‘acceleration zones’. On the final day sailing, we set out well before dawn to look at the stars, fantastic, very little light pollution and to see a most spectacular sun rise over Mount Teidi on Tenerife. During the six days sailing we saw dolphins and flying fish.

On the last day we rented a car and explored the island. The interior has a national park which has been designated a UNESCO world heritage site. It’s a fascinating place, very green, wooded and humid and about 10 degrees cooler than the coast.