The Season Starts Here!

So tomorrow is the first day of our second season, the chalet is clean and the hot tub warming up as we speak! And we've also arranged for a snowfall today to make sure the pistes are in tip-top condition for our first guests tomorrow!

The Boy Done Good !!

After months of training Chris finally completed his first triathlon in 2h45. Not bad heh? Sounds like he's become addicted so look out next year for even faster times !! Was hoping to have some pix of the actual race by now, but they're not posted yet - so in the meantime, here's one of him training at the Lido.

The Dirty Bikers

Had a great (if eventful) few days at the end of June with 8 guys from Wales who were here for the Pass'Portes (hmmm, there's only 7 in the pic....)

Less than 1 hour into their first run and Chris went over the handlebars culminating in several stitches in his face. Day 2 saw Danny go over the handlebars and he ended up with a broken finger which required plastering !

You are not coming in the chalet in that state !! Put the hose on them Robin !

summer kicks off

A pic of the very charming and fit Russ and Oscar to show you. They were here to compete in the CycloSportive on the weekend of June 20/21. I was mightily impressed when I discovered Russ came in 45th !! (out of a field of over 300) and Oscar was not far behind. 150kms up and down hills finishing at the lake - some people took nearly 11 hours to complete the course but our Russ came in at 6h20 - just 1hr behind the winner. However, he promises to be back next year to improve on this time !! I look forward to it guys !!

End of.....

Thought a couple of pix of the last day ought to be posted - particularly Chris in yet another fetching scarf - de rigeur now me thinks !! Susie had us all kitted out in something outrageous as we headed off to Chez Flo's for lunch. A jolly time was had by all, then we had to get down the mountain..... nuff said !! So the season is over - did that happen in the blink of an eye ? or did it feel like a lifetime ?? No time for philosophical questions at the moment though as it's full steam ahead to the summer season. Susie's gone back to Oz (but promises to be back for next winter, thank goodness !!) and Chris is back at the day job in the City. So here I am discovering that under all that snow was a tonne of mud !! (and I said I wouldn't garden again.....) and looking forward to the more gentle pace of B&B throughout the summer.
Thanks go to everyone who helped make our first season so successful, for all your support and kind words of encouragement - and a reminder that many of you said you'd be back to check out the mountains without snow !!

New Year

Been a bit of a while since the last blog update, but here's a quick photo that one of our guests over new year just forwarded on - thanks Mark!

Everyone round the table for NY:









And of course your hosts; Susie & me (complete with fetching scarf):

Snow snow snow!

It's been a while since the epic snowfalls of December, but looks like the weather is back. Some pretty heavy snow came in today, and they shut a lot of the mountain due to high winds. Lots more snow to come by the look of it!

Hot Tub

Finally, a photo of the hot tub in action. A toasty 40 degrees this evening.

Eye Candy

These are just a few photos from the last few weeks that I took on the mountain. We've had some amazing weather, so there are some good photos sitting on my phone that I thought I should make use of.

We've had lots of cloud inversions recently. Laurent the paragliding guy we use says it's because of the temperature of Lake Geneva at the moment. Looks good though. This is looking down from Chatel towards the chalet.


Not sure how clearly this comes out, but there was a big ski race on in Les Crosets on Saturday. I think you can just make out the finishing gate & crowds on here.

Les Crosets park, le superpak.ch. Those jumps are HUGE.


Alan in the foreground. This is Les Crosets too.


And one more of Les Crosets, with John admiring the view.

Guiding Mishap

Last week, a friend of mine came to stay in the chalet for the weekend. Half way through the day, we decided to do the loop of the Portes du Soleil. The risk with the loop is that you end up in the wrong resort when the lifts close. We came very close to ending up in the wrong resort when the lifts closed. We had to take a very hairy drag lift at one point... unfortunately Jon didn't make it quite to the top. In the interests of speed, he hiked the last few hundred metres - hard work! So I not only took a photo of it, but now I'm putting it on the internet. Jon, hiking a drag lift in Chatel because I timed it wrong. Oops....



This is a photo from earlier on in the day. The Portes du Soleil is purdy. This was in Champoussin.

Dinner in style

Just so you know, just because we're behind closed doors in the kitchen doesn't mean we're any less glamourous. High heels - staple footwear at chalet Beatrice.

Parapente

Ksenia (who stayed with us over new year) got some great photos from a parapente trip she did with Laurent... Thanks to her for these pics:







And Morzine from the air:

Apres

Still catching up on the blogosphere... this was after the first day out with the guys who stayed with us over new year. There is a bar at the bottom of the slope at Ardent next to the bus stop. It'd be rude not to really.

Left to right, Ksenia, Mark and myself.

20th December - First Guests!

So, Christmas week and the first guests! We had a deliberately quiet week here, but I think it went pretty well. The conditions couldn't really have been any better, loads of fresh snow just before they arrived & then brilliant sunshine all week!

This is a photo of Nick, officially our first guest at the foot of the Wall (steepest run in the resort). On the guiding day he was keen to go there pretty much first thing - bold.



This is a picture of everyone round the table for dinner.

15th December - We Move In

We didn't actually get any photos of this, but the 15th December was the day we moved in. The place was an absolute tip, basically all built and finished, but with zero cleaning work looked like a tip. First night in the chalet was a pretty special moment.

The next two days, we had the cleaners in. I had argued that we could do the cleaning ourselves & saved a few quid. I'm so glad I was voted down on that one... it took 2-3 guys 2 days to get the place looking presentable, with all the proper industrial gear. It did look sparkling when they were done.

The two days after that we spent putting the furniture in. The chalet has three floors and a basement. I must have run up & down those stairs 50 times a day with various bits of sofas, tables, TVs etc etc. I think my legs are now made of steel and all my jeans seem to have slightly more of a hipster cut to them now than they used to.

First Day Up the Mountain

12th December - my first day up the mountain, and it was amazing. Tons of fresh snow and hardly anyone around... brilliant. I was kind of planning to take it a bit easy, not kill the legs too much as can be easy to do on day one of a ski holiday (or season...). However, Ryan & I ultimately decided that a 45 min hike up along the ridge between Avoriaz and Chatel was the way to get the best snow. It turns out that we were right - so right that we got back down and then did the hike again! Not quite the physical easing into the season I had in mind...

This is a photo of the top of the hike looking out over Chatel. This link is to a gallery of the pics from that day that I put up on the main website. Happy days.

Disruption to service...

Sorry about the lack of activity on here for the last month... turns out that starting a ski chalet keeps you quite busy... Anyway, I'm going to post a load of stuff from the best December (snow conditions-wise) in a decade now...