Not a recent trip but when was in Northern Norway I seem to recall that early in the year some ski areas only opened in evenings due to the cold during the day - Bardufoss is where i am thinking of. If you get there early enough you could get some good runs round the back before it got dark, then it was floodlight front slope. Scary when you get the timing wrong and realise you are inside the Artic Circle, its dark and you really don't know where you are. Tromso I just kept to daylight skiing.

On the 7th February, I went night skiing starting from my doorstep to visit my Welsh friend Bryn at his chalet, a mile away from my home. The temperature was extremely cold (minus 20°C) but I enjoyed the slide from my village, Le Linage, down to les Lanchettes, in the dark, in light powder snow. Hiking back up to my home was much easier after a nice 12 year old single malt ! I also met our neighbours' donkey Santino and I also took my dog out for a night walk.

Here is a short Animoto video of the slide :

[animoto.com]

After being ill about 10 days, I was back on the planks for a fantastic ski tour at the foot of Roc d'Enfer (Hell's rock) with my Irish friend Sue and her tiny dog. We enjoyed sunshine, blue sky and great powder snow that made a perfect outing; We skied up to the Brevon spring, a place forgotten by ski-tourers but a place that gets very big dumps of snow because it's located just under the high cliffs of Roc d'Enfer (2243 m). Then we managed to head through the woods towards the Grand Souvroz ski run, which is a 5 km long ski run in a beautiful valley. So it was good to practice some telemark on the lower part of that run. That is one of my favourite places in the area.

Here is the link to the slideshow :

[www.flickr.com]

and some pics of the "sources du Brevon" :

Hell's Rock (2243 m)



Sue is skiing across the snow-covered summer bridge

We're in the dolomites at the moment. Great weather but without the snowmaking it'd be really bare low down.


Mike in Edinburgh
Assorted scottish pics - www.prog99.com

So warm today the pistes were getting slushy by 11am! It does not feel like february but its cooling down enough to run the snow cannons at night.
Marmolada tomorrow in an attempt to escape the heat.

Mike in Edinburgh
Assorted scottish pics - www.prog99.com

23c in the village at Canazei today!

Mike in Edinburgh
Assorted scottish pics - www.prog99.com

I'm away to Les Arcs in the morning.

Was worried about the extremely warm temperatures but its now pretty much nailed on for a cool down and decent dump of snow Sunday Monday Tuesday I see. I seem to carry a bit of luck with my alpine weeks. I think its deserved for putting up with all that Scotland has to throw at you for over 20 years...

Sitting in my digs on my last night in Sweden relaxing before the long journey home in the morning here is a link to my pictures, Had a fantastic week [www.facebook.com]

Downhill skiing and mogul competitions here made the end of the week quite busy but interesting to see, However I must admit most of my spectating of these events was done from the chairlifts going up for another run

Hey naefearjustbeer, im heading up to Are at the end of the month. Anything you would suggest skiing when up there? It looks a great place but we ar not sure which village to ski first



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 21.54hrs Sat 10 Mar 12 by Yuppie.

[www.youtube.com]

Chamonix heather skiing 2 mins in ... also check the skills of the hovering Pilot at the beginning.

Yuppie We were staying in a ski in ski out apartment in Are itself, Straight out of the door and a blue or red run down to the Chairlifts or Gondola, I covered most of the main runs in Are, Went over towards Bjornen one day and found the runs to be nice flowing blues, Unfortunately they were all T Bars and I as a snowboarder I prefer chairs and Gondolas. RodKullen is a great area for families with safe kids slopes and and where the snow parks were so if you like jumps and rails etc take a look over there. We didnt venture over to Duved as one of our group had been before and said although the slopes were nice it could be very busy with lots of mixed ability family groups and difficult to make your way through them. Apres Ski is lively immediately after the skiing but then the town appeared fairly quiet until very late on. Tried a few of the on mountain cafes and found them to be good, We were self catering so had evening meals in the apartment every night. We quite often found ourselves in Fjällgården for Apres Ski as it was nearest and slightly uphill from our digs so we could go there then board back to the apartment for shower and sauna then dinner before heading to Broken bar in the town square in the evening for drinks.

And so it did! We could have done with a bit more but it certainly refreshed the place nicely! We were in Arc 2000 last week. Hope you enjoyed the week as much as we did.

Yeah JanA it all came together nicely. The pistes were perfect after the snow but it was still hard underneath with the cool down, as my burst ribs will testify. We were very lucky as that's the only snow they've had since mid Feb.

We happened to head up to the Bellecote glacier at La Plagne on the Monday and it was snowing really heavily up there. The French don't seem to head high (or even come out at all!) when it snows and we were the only idiots on the mountain. It suddenly cleared on the way back down and we had 2 or 3 runs unbelievable powder runs off the Chalet de Bellecote lift. Will have to go down as some of my most memorable boarding ever. Not one other person on the runs or the lift. Funnily enough we headed back there after the Thursday snow and it was still untracked

I liked the look of 1950 and 2000 but they are really far away from the front side resorts. A cheek to call them the same place really. 1800 was a bit soulless but definitely cheap. The place is massive. All in all it is a cracking ski area.

I am just back from a morning telemark slide in Les Brasses ! The snow was very good. Then it was cloudy, suddenly there was no visibility and there came a snow storm. So I am back home. I had a good time and it's great to get some fresh snow for the season to continue.

[www.lesbrasses.com]

We had some sunshine before the snow came... but it lasted for only 20 minutes.





Edited 1 times. Last edit at 12.56hrs Sun 18 Mar 12 by Lionel.

On February 8th and 9th, my friends Jean-François, Christine, my nephew Florian and I went ski-touring in Switzerland, in Evolène located in the Valais area, near Sion. We spent the week-end touring and at night we enjoyed the highlights of the famous Evolene carnival where young men in scary carnival costumes chase tourists to scare them and to let them smell the horrible goat smell that they've got on the furs that hide their bodies. The ski-touring was quite good on the Saturday as we hiked up to Arbey (1824 m) and then skied down through pastures and along forestry tracks to reach the village at altitude 1372 m. Afterwards we enjoyed a fantastic meal with raclette and fondue washed down with dry Valais Fendant wine.

[www.flickr.com]

La Dent Blanche, (the White Tooth) 4357 m



Jean-François skiing down the Alpine pastures of Arbey - 1824 m



Scary monsters of Evolène



The Fendant white wine was excellent !





Edited 1 times. Last edit at 08.11hrs Thu 22 Mar 12 by Lionel.