Raining today so spent the day at Pont de la Taule painting and wall paper stripping. Need to build a fire place next week.
On the way back I watched the kayak race down the Salat river.
A trip to St G market for some seedlings - then planting out tomatoes, courgettes, onions and lettuce. These join the potatoes (now sprouting) and the strawberries Emily gave me. A fence around the veggie plot will hopefully keep the chickens out. The grass seeds in the new field 1 extension have finally germinated so the nettles and brambles were scythed down to hopefully let the grass dominate.
Whilst looking for mushrooms a few evenings ago I was crossing a stream (which had eroded a deep channel after the recent storms) and I noticed a short length (6" or 15cm) of dressed stone crossing in the stream bed - after a bit of poking around I realised I had stumbled across an old lavoire which was now completely buried under the hillside. I went home for a spade and began to dig. After two evenings and most of today I have unearthed the old Pinsou/Quélébu lavoire at Gouteto. There's some more digging still to do (getting all the clay out is hard work) but John said he'll give me a hand. It's about 30' x 10' x 2' deep (10m x 3m x 60cm deep) with two interconnected pools and twin outflows. The back is carved into the white limestone at the springline and I even found an old stone spout through which the stream used to flow (it needs to be refixed).
Very changeable weather at the moment...but a chance to catch up on household chores, scything, servicing the chainsaw, tidying the workshop and admin' like my french tax return!
Having prepared plans to double the size of Justin and Emily's house in readiness for the impending arrival of twins, I have been lending a hand with the construction. This morning I jumared onto the roof and demolished the chimney then abseiled back down (we didn't have a big enough ladder). Then he and I started on the construction of the new balcony. Using oak sawn a couple of years ago from trees felled at Justin's, we managed to build the first bay of the new balcony (which will eventually wrap around the enlarged house) by the end of the day.
After skiing through wet concrete yesterday I went for dinner at Anne-France and Magnus's place in La Trappe. They are over for their Easter holidays from Sweden and it's the first time we've met in the flesh - we knew of each other through our respective blogs. Fellow blogger Penny came too as did my neighbour Dani from La Bordasse. A relaxing evening after the 'ski'.
With 30cm of fresh snow having fallen yesterday, a quick trip to Guzet this afternoon seemed like a good idea (even though it's been closed a few weeks now). Unfortunately the snow proved to be very heavy. After breaking trail to skin up to the top of Picou, we tried to descend what is normally the black run called Coombe. Trying to move forward even on steepest parts was difficult and turning more difficult still. The snow stuck to our skis and tried to set like concrete. At one stage I fell over and couldn't move for the weight of sticky heavy snow on top of my skis and it took me some time to release the bindings before two handed I heaved to withdraw the skis from the snow. I wouldn't want to be avalanched in this stuff!
Outside it's been snowing all day, inside I've been busy baking Pyrenean Pasties for future packed lunches.
There is snow forecast for tomorrow above 1000m, perhaps as much as 30cm! Bizarre as today on the snow I was in a tee shirt. With a short snap of cold weather there is still plenty of skiing to be had (even at Guzet if you are prepared to skin up the piste). Today North slopes are still snow covered from 1400m with 60-80cm at 1550m but south slopes are completely bare until 1700/1800m.
Another attempt at a solo ski tour today. After 40 mins of carrying the skis (because the road was blocked by an avalanche but clear beyond) I skinned upto the Col de Pause with the aim of going up to Pic de Cour Vic. The piste which leads to the Cabane d'Areau is cut into the mountainside and is about 6m wide, usually it's crossed by a few small snow slides. Today the road was completely 'lost' under the snow. About 12 fresh avalanches had buried the only tracks leading across the slope (they probably occurred on Sunday/Monday).
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Thanks to Paul who found this rare WWII photo of a German unit which patrolled the Pyrenees - if you look carefully one of them is in disguise!
Up at the crack of dawn for the 2hr 30mins drive to the Biesla tunnel across the border to Spain. We had hoped to climb some of the frozen cascades just on the Spanish side, but they weren't in condition, so we retreated to the French side. In the mist we ascended the valley trying to find the highest (introductory) falls, but they were too short and topped with meringue cornices, so we descended again to "Dorada". Eventually the low cloud lifted and we could see what we were climbing. We launched into a route of 35m at 80/85 degrees. After about 10m of climbing I remembered how bold you have to be climb steep ice. It's been 6 years since I climbed grade 5 ice. David joined the fray and soon we had placed 5 screws and were nearly at the top. Some Spaniards were climbing next to us on the "Variante Directa" which reaches the top with an extra 5m of 90 degree ice. We swapped routes and had a grand day.
Had a thought of climbing Mont Beas which looked promising from Guzet but from this side we could see that it would be suicidal - a knife edge of soft snow adorned with colapsing cornices.
With high pressure set to continue for at least the next week, the temps here are well below zero at night but the bright sunshine is slowly raising the air temperatures, though in the sun it's often high twenties! So it was now or never to try and find some ice nearby. We decided to head up towards Casierens and Fouillet. There is still a lot of snow, well over 1m50 at 1100m and this is still very light with a crust. Even with snowshoes we were sinking a foot or more into the snow which made the going hard work. Alas when we arrived after nearly three hours of hard trail breaking - it was a waterfall not an icefall.
David is over from the UK so today we spent the day skiing at Guzet in fantastic sunshine.
Guzet reopened today after the closure forced by avalanches, so Justin and I headed up to ski in the enormous quantities of fresh snow (there's now nearly 3.5m or 12 feet of snow at 2000m). I did a couple of runs in the touring skis but when Justin arrived he had brought Emily's fattish skis - perhaps 90mm underfoot - for me to borrow (thanks Emily). No sooner had we arrived at the top of Picou than we saw the lift up to Freychet start to run. We were in the first dozen on it and had the privilege of making first tracks down the black in the deepest fresh snow I've ever skied - well over my knees when skiing. It wasn't exactly fluffy powder but it was still great, especially with wider skis. Spent the whole day on unpisted slopes - the skiing wasn't always pretty but it's all good practice.
About 15-16" of snow fell yesterday, enough to bring the phone lines down! Today it's started melting, although there is a little more forecast over the next few days as temperatures drop once more. Avalanches blocked all routes into Guzet yesterday (the local ski station) trapping people in the resort. 
A hard days skiing yesterday in deep snow of all types - the highlight was about 12-18 inches of perfect powder in amongst the trees found at the end of the day, elsewhere was a mixed bag, not always easy to ski.
Now the Lime tree is gone I have a great view from the workshop, so I decided to extend the boardwalk right around it. Three-quarters finished when snow stopped the works yesterday. It's been snowing all day today, so I spent the morning drawing up plans for Philippe and Sophie's project up the road. Tomorrow I'll be enjoying the powder I hope.
Another day skiing at Guzet with Ian. Spent most the morning on Freychet skiing the blacks and off-piste and learning to 'drive' my touring skis harder. In the afternoon we met up with Sandrine and her children Saskia and Natasha. They enjoyed being filmed with the helmet cam, click here for a short movie of 6 year old Natasha going as fast as she can and click here for one of Sandrine going a bit too fast(!) and finally click here for one of Saskia.
Sometimes I get worried about the tractor turning over when I'm traversing steep slopes, so I was relieved to see this test on my tractor. Admittedly it's a static test, but I don't think I ever get anywhere near 44 degrees!
After yesterdays' disappointment Séb and I managed to grab a short ski ascent of Pic de Cerda (2107m). In fact we left the car park at Guzet at 9.20 and were back by noon! The snow on the mountain was very hard and icy and occasionally with a thin crust. Strong winds from Spain hampered the ascent from time to time but generally it was a grand morning out. It also gave me a chance to try out filming with the camera fixed to a helmet - it needs some readjustment so I don't film my feet all the time! There's a long way to go, but here is my first ever ski movie. The film quality has gone through the usual web 'snowstorm' - but hopefully you'll get a sense of the trip! Click here below to watch the short movie. On the page that opens, click "view in HQ video" top right. |
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