Retract previous post ..

Bill came to stay, with his shorts and his sunnies, and ... um ... the temperature took a bit of a nosedive. Winter is back! But on the plus side, half a metre more snow! hooray! It wasn't looking like some of the pistes would make it to April.  I might have not been able to ski back to the chalet for much longer, imagine how awful! And I've only just learnt how to do it without falling over. So whew, heave a sigh of relief, sorry for the primroses, but, oh well. C'est la vie, as they say somewhere.

We had three days skiing and one day snow-shoeing, the last ski day, yesterday, was the worst weather I had been out in. But by god we were tough! A little bit worrying tho when you go up the only lift that is open due to the vent fort - and you are the only people going up there - to the highest piste in the region - hmmm. And then Bill gets vaguely claustrophobic because we can't see beyond arms length - to him it's the same feeling as being stuck in a lift or otherwise enclosed in a small space even though there is huge space all around in reality. Lots of fun! Reminded me of some good days out on the Cairngorm plateau. 

Was slightly worried about getting frostbite on that exposed inch of flesh between hat and neck gaiter. 

Spring is sprung!

First flower of the year - a teeny primrose under the beech hedge spotted on my way to the boulangerie.
The birdlife is also perking up, becoming pretty lively and vocal. I was a bit disorientated the other morning - still not getting much better at these early starts! - and was pottering down the road enjoying listening to the kookaburras while I was still asleep enough not to really know which country I was in. It did eventually dawn on me that I was in France and that green woodpeckers laugh too. 

100m or less in hill fog patches

I was dreaming that I was having a lie in this morning, til my alarm went off at quarter to seven. Then I remembered that I haven't had a morning off for nearly 3 weeks! soon, soon ..... should get two days off this coming week to make up! 

Grim weather at the beginning of last week, still decided to go on a little outing, and for some mad reason got on the chairlift that I have always avoided due to the off putting signage! 'Piste difficile' only for 'Bons Skieurs' - not me shurely. Wondered why there was no one else on it -then got off at a bleak spot on a ridge in a howling gale 

Where is everyone else?

Oh, it was also snowing really hard, and visibility was poor to nonexistent. Would that be 100m or less then? (perhaps it is only me who remembers Met-Man Mooney). Pottered around for a while, looking at my map and trying to decide which way to go. It's such a crazy thing to be doing, I mean it was seriously cold up there, gale force winds, if you were on a mountain in Scotland you'd have spare clothes, food, survival bag etc etc and of course a trusty flask, Bill! but to be up there alone with no emergency supplies seems mad. You can tell I still haven't quite 'got' this skiing thing. And everyone else apart from me is wearing fashion clothing, where the fur trim and how good you look seem to be the most important factors (better go shopping methinks .... praps that's where I am going wrong).

This seemed like the best way down - I quite like it when you can't see how steep the slope is... it helps me over my little vertigo problem.

Ended up having quite an exhilarating time, found a whole new area, a lovely snowy bowl, with just no people at all, wonder why Chatel is not such a popular resort. Spose it just could have been the weather. It's pretty wintry still.

Looking back down to Chatel, on the last piste leading back down to the chalet. I have to drop off the edge of it at just the right place to traverse across back to the chalet, if I am not brave enough and go too low it is a real slog across the field. Too high and it is too steep and deep and I keep trying to turn and chickening out til I run out of slope altogether...

Snow like wet cement

And the other thing about the first of March is that the avalanche warning siren will go off at midday, as does on the first of every month. I always forget and it always makes me jump. And then I always wonder what you are supposed to do when it goes off for real. Where would you run to and how would you know which direction it was coming from? I'm looking forward already to wondering that again on the first of April, unless I have been better informed about avalanche procedure in the meantime.

Avalanche risk 2 here these days - it was up to category 4 in January at times (max is 5). Apparently things get rather exciting at level 5, roads are closed, villages evacuated. We have had a few really warm days recently, the last two days it has been raining and I haven't been out of the house at all apart from the dawn trip to the boulangerie. Today was dry so thought I ought to have a little ski again to keep my hand in. Also thought it would be a good experience for me to find out what it was like skiing in really wet old snow! Well, it's very hard! and hurts alot when you fall over. I fell three times, silly falls, just catching edges, the ridges of snow so dense and unforgiving. Also very poor contrast so totally unable to see where the lumps and bumps of carved up piste were. It's great being able to ski over to the piste from the chalet, but not so easy coming back because the last section of piste that you come down is a steep (well I think so!) narrow run, that has been carved out into a kind of half pipe by everybody turning. And today it was carnage! bodies all over the place, heaps of snow and people everywhere, it took me such a frustratingly long time to get down the last short section because I didn't dare turn that I came off the piste a bit higher up than usual, and then found I couldn't turn at all in the deep snow off piste. So I sat down a few times (unintentionally), skis came off a few times, and then I gave up and walked down the last 100m - sinking in up to mid-thigh at every step. Wish I felt I was getting a bit better at this lark, but it still feels nearly as difficult and scary as it did a month ago. That's not true of course, I am getting better, but not nearly fast enough. 

Oh well, quick shower, back to work now. Just remembered that the crew at Port Lockroy are leaving today! locking up, end of another season. I think none of them are particularly looking forward to coming home. They have been much more diligent than we were about updating the official UKAHT blog - there is a link on the right here. Sounds like they have had a lot of fun - and with an extra member of staff and fewer visitors they must have had a bit more leisure too!

Leeks and daffodils

Was trying hard to remember what the 1st of March signified ..... of course, it's St David's Day. Shame Wales got trounced by France in the 6 Nations on Friday - no, not really, it's about time they were beaten. And Scotland won, hoorah! I haven't really just been a couch potato watching sport, honest. But you have to lie on the sofa with a cup of tea some of the time.

Yesterday was just the most glorious weather, we have had some wonderful spring-like sunshine this week, and I had myself organised to finish work early and go for a ski. Was v brave and decided to go back to do a run that I had cried in terror all the way down the last time I did it. Slightly nervous, and it took me a while to get down, but I got there in the end! Well, once you have started there really isn't a lot of choice - though there was one bail out option of a button lift that would take me back to the top and the telecabine back down to safety (which is what I did last time). I have discovered what it is that makes some runs terrifying for me - it's not even necessarily the steepness, it's the view! If I can't see the run bottoming out, if it is a convex slope and you are looking straight down to the valley floor a looooong way down, then I go to pieces and have to start taking deep breaths and closing my eyes! 

This is scary!

And this.

This is not.

It's all in the head. And partly in the legs. Have discovered that now I can ski a bit it is really hard work, a couple of hours, even minutes sometimes, and my thighs are jelly! It has been a good year or so since I have done much sustained exercise, so am pretty wibbly and weak.

A new group are arriving today and tomorrow, am just about to commence lengthy session in the kitchen  - planning to make creme caramels for the first time (prob a mistake not to have practised, will end up eating them all myself), meringues, lasagne, maybe a sticky toffee pudding, have already done a couple of cakes...... it gives me an excuse not to go skiing again! 

D'oh!

Just checked the score before setting off to catch the second half and
the game is over! Of course it was _in_ France so no need to add an
hour on to the kick-off time. Durrr.
Oh well, back to the ironing then.

Peripatetic again, but not a postmistress ...

So I'm not still up a mountain in Argentina. Sorry to those of you that were wondering! However I'm still being drawn by the lure of snow and mountains and adventure and have ended up running away again, this time to spend a season in the French Alps. OK, so ironing and cleaning is not sooo adventurous, but I don't ski or speak French so there are some new learning opportunities to be had!
Have been meaning to resurrect the blog for some time now. And here is the beginning ... but the Scotland - France game has just got underway, and I thought I might wander off to the bar, should be a good atmosphere! Might help me meet some fellow local workers, should be easy to spot the Scots! I suspect we will be heavily outnumbered, will have to cheer quietly (assuming there is anything to cheer about). A bientot!

Fitzroy

So, one day shopping, one day working and frying my brain with spreadsheets and lists of stock and stamps, and one day walking and that was Ushuaia. We took the first half of our flight to Buenos Aires, and arranged to get off in El Calafate, before getting the bus to El Chalten. It´s a long way to anywhere here, takes a while to get your mind around how big this country is. a two hour flight and 5 hour bus journey and we have hardly moved on the map.
This is the jumping off point for some of the most spectacular Andean mountain scenery, Mount Fitzroy and Cerro Torre. We´ve been incredibly lucky with the weather, two days hiking, one in glorious sunshine with fantastic views of the peaks. Although the practice day walking in Tierro del Fuego must have have done some good, I feel totally exhausted on our first day here. We walk for 6 hours up a good trail through forest to the Torre glacier, and I can´t talk, can only put one foot in front of the other with a huge effort. I think I hadn´t truly realised how tired I am, and I really need a rest, a day off from doing anything.
But another good steak and a night´s rest and we go off to see Fitzroy the next day. One of the most stunning days walking you could ever have. The trees are just beginning to turn, and the sun and blue sky remind me of a great day in the mountains in Japan when I visited James and Jules.
An evening in the microbrewery with some home-made muscle relaxant (aka beer) and tomorrow we must make plans for the next few days.

Empanadas

¡Hola amigos! Three days in Ushuaia, bought some jeans (too tight, but I must be going to lose weight now of course), and some Merrell´s for hiking, and headed off to the Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego to learn how to walk again. Ten miles up and down hill, and along the coast of the Beagle Channel, and I´ve never had such sore quads! my goodness, I knew I must have got unfit living on a small rock for 4 months, but still... It´s a bit worrying. Not as shell shocked as I thought I would be, but perhaps it just hasn´t hit yet. The first sight of greenery was quite wonderful but I seem to have got used to it again pretty quickly. Beautiful beech forest, notofagus, huge variation in leaf size depending on quite how tough the particular location is. And new birds! great grebes, ibis, a different sort of caracara, a huge bird of prey that we didn´t know at all. But I still miss the baby penguins.
Oh, and the food! cafe con leche and empanadas on our first morning. King crab and calamare, home made ice creams, huge steaks, oh dear, what was that about losing some of the antarctic flab?

Drake Lake or Drake Shake?

Wonderful sights on the way home on Explorer II.

Basking leopard seals, and endless ice

Yes, it really was it! Not without a few extra hurdles to overcome through. At the last minute the ship decided not to land passengers at 7am but to pick us up quickly at 6.30 and head on north to make a landing at Cuverville Island instead. There really wouldn't have been time to do both. So we put all the shop away, carried on counting left-over stock, in bed at 10 ish, up at 4.30am! Pitch dark of course, it was like your worst nightmare of getting up in the winter dark to catch a train, and still having pack up the last bits of waste to take with us, pour out all liquids that might freeze, disconnect the batteries etc etc. Thank goodness Rick had rigged up an electric light in the bunkroom this season so we didn't have to do it all by torchlight. Explorer II had arrived the evening before and it was comforting to see her lights circling in the bay all night, and know that we really did have a lift home.
And here we are then - a luxurious cabin each, as many hot showers as we can bear, fabulous food pressed on us several times a day, along with cocktails, wine, Irish coffees, hot chocolate laced with rum - you name it, you can have it. I was apprehensive to say the least about crossing the Drake, and dosed myself with pills yesterday. It's a very flat drake apparently, which means swell of only 4 to 5 metres. Rick and I even managed an interesting game of ping pong in the gym yesterday afternoon! Hard to keep your eye on the ball when sometimes it appears to stop in midair and even go backwards. We are anticipating arrival in Ushuaia late tonight/early tomorrow morning. So need to make the most of our last day here. We held a small post office on board yesterday morning, and I still have to do the final accounts, and stamp counting. It's great that this ship is going on to Stanley so we can just leave the mail with them for delivery. Well, I think it is elevenses time now, hmm what little treat shall I have next? yet to try out the sauna.
Rachal and I did the landing on Cuverville on Sunday, while Rick succumbed to the lure of a warm bed with clean sheets (after five months in a sleeping bag!). We were allowed to climb part way up the steep rocky little island. What a pleasure it was! just to be able to walk somewhere in a straight line for half an hour! and uphill too! Was quite pleased to manage it at all. And once back in the zodiacs we were met by another boat laden with glasses and champagne! A celebratory drink to say good bye to Antarctica, in the brilliant sunshine surrounded by gleaming icebergs and porpoising penguins. What a way to finish our time here! I can't think of anything better.