Snow

We awoke to quite a dump of snow yesterday morning and the air temperature has stubbornly refused to rise above zero degrees since. The grey skies did however concede to the power of the sun this morning and the blue skies enticed us back onto the skis. Nordic skis, to be precise. Pat was unfortunately unable to make it, but Andy and I had a lovely afternoon up at the Plateau de Beille in sunny but very cold conditions. It looked as though we would be subjected to a full-on blizzard part way through the afternoon but Pat's text confirmed that the white-out had been confined to the valley and to the mountains to the east of the Plateau de Beille. We managed to stay on the very edge of the Weather and covered around 15kms in the course of what was a stunningly beautiful afternoon.

Winter playground

Today's outing up to the Plateau de Beille with Pat and Kev was simply stunning and more than made up for the abortive outing to the Etang de Lhers the other day. The snow was perfect. The situation was, well, breathtaking and the ski de fond tracks, perfectly cut, weaved and snaked their way for kilometer after kilometer across the Plateau. The skis ran smoothly and efficiently on the gradual inclines and Pat quickly taught me how to take one foot out of the 'track' and use it in a snowplough formation to slow myself down on the steady descent tracks, thus ensuring that I did not run out of control and end up broken! It was a cracking afternoon. I am now hooked. The photos say it all