Good times

The last 6 weeks have been great, so much so that I've not had a chance to do a full update.

At the beginning of February I had my first attempt at snowshoeing, thanks to my friend Marianne. We only went across one of the golf courses (in 2 feet of snow) so I could get the hang of how to walk with these contraptions strapped to my feet.

It requires an interesting gait, a cross between marching and walking but I soon got the hang of it. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that the following week I spent an afternoon walking the nature trails at Lost Lake. It was a beautiful, sunny day and I felt like I was the only one walking through the trees as the snow muffled all the sound

Time for a selfie

Knees and Clive joined us for a time and Mark has already blogged about the skiing. I joined them up the mountain one day and saw there was a lot more snow than this time last year

Blair joined us for a few days and gave Mark a run for his money. Well, he's about 15 years younger and way fitter than Mark so they covered many ski runs in 3 days. Mark's got the advantage of being 'gravity enhanced' so can easily keep up,  As Blair left, Kevin arrived and is here for a couple of weeks. The pair of us went snowmobiling yesterday and left Mark to a fast day on the slopes.

We picked a great day for it and had a lot of fun on the frozen lake and blazing the trails on Sprout Mountain

We've spent many a Friday afternoon enjoying apres ski at a bar called Merlins, singing along to a local duo called The Hairfarmers. 

We're seen as locals now and enjoy the atmosphere. Dancing on furniture is also a requirement as it is in many ski bars we've been to in Europe. Well, wouldn't want to let the side down now would we?

Cruising the blues again

I've been skiing with Knees and Clive ‎for almost 20 years - none of us can remember exactly when we started but we do agree it was the first group knees organised and it was in Selva . A lot has changed in that time - we're all older, I'm fatter, Knees has got faster and Clive has lost his distinctive 'tied to a chair' style thanks to a few years at the Ali Ross school of carving...

Conditions were not perfect for their visit - this season has been normal with a lot of cloud and fog - but they did get some nice days to get up to the peak and they even managed to get a day when the whole of the peak to creek was groomed.

It's been great to catch up with them and spend time - they were kind enough to put us up on our visits back to London, so it was good to repay their hospitality - and we met up with them for a few days in western Australia in 2013. Maria cooked us some very nice food, including the mother of all pork pies, and we've added to the empty bottle collection on the balcony - its been a really nice couple of weeks.

I now have a week to dry out and get back to full fitness before Blair comes back for his postponed second visit, then Kevin will be here until easter. It's nice to have friends...