Life is not a Practice

It wasn't perfect snow but any snow is better than none.
Took Max to work (ski teacher) and then skied a few hours myself.



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A few hours next to the piste on a Sunday morning.



A few days ago they had to rescue some one out of an avalanche so I was carfeul not to leave the piste too far behind.

I have nearly got the hang of carving on the slopes so this morning Jon took me off piste between the trees.



Nesselwang was still in cloud but we were above it. Freezing but beautiful. Thanks Jon!

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Up early this morning to join Jon in our traditional "buying tickets and freezing". This is when we beat every one else to be the first in the queue for tickets for the carnival ball. This morning it was "only" -14°C so after the recent temperatures, it felt like Spring.



This afternoon I was out on the Alpspitz. Met Max when he finished ski teaching for a mad half hour. Great fun applying the tips and tricks I have learned from Jon.

This week I managed 3 x spinning and one evening sport :-)

It is still really cold and there is an east wind to make it feel even colder. But with the sun shining, I could not resist an hours skiing here in Nesselwang.



Everything was perfect but the temperature was just too cold to stay out all day.

It is freezing but if you have the right clothes you can still go skiing. Rhiannon and I proved it this afternoon.



I raced Rhiannon for who was buying the drinks and lost - and not just by a bit either.



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Freezing cold but five of us went nicht skiing for an hour at the Alpspitzbahn. We were only out for an hour and hid in the gondola after each run but it was fun.

The next summer is surely going to come so four of us have started spinning at the fitness studio in Pfronten ( http://www.sauna-fitnessinsel.de/cms/ )



Great fun but you really sweat. We are going two nights running this week. Be interesting to see if we can still walk after the second session.

Another Sunday morning with Team Frenchie at Hahnenkamm. The cloud was so thick that we could see no further than 2-3m to start with - really strange ski experience cut off from the world.



Later it cleared a bit and we even had a bit of time above the clouds. Two and a half hours of great skiing.
Thanks Frenchies!

The following photo shows Jon jumping off a cliff. Crazy! And both his sons followed him.


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Jon's pictures are at https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/100547066824249637955/albums/5702751475932403297

Philip can now ski better than his Dad (after a week being taught by Jon), so today we had an "emergency ski lesson" to get Chris up to speed.



Amazing! Two hours from snow ploughing on the baby lift to skiing competently from the middle station.

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A morning at the Hahnenkamm ski area with the crazy Frenchie boys. Blue skies, perfect snow and when we had to wait longer than 5 minutes for a lift we went home.



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It snowed in the night so Max and I were stood waiting for the lifts to open in Oberjoch at 08:30. The piste bullys were still at work so we had to wait another quarter of an hour until we could hit the deep snow.



The snow was deep but very heavy - "leg breaker snow" as a local said. I fell over each time I went off piste. Max fell over only once but I had my camera out :-)



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Max and I out early. In to Tannheimertal and then up above the clouds. Perfect pistes with 10cm of new snow on top. A great two hours before the tourists woke up.

And then in the evening I walked up the local mountain with my friends, drank Glühwein and then sledged back down again in the dark.



It really is a tough life in the mountains.

Snow, sun and fun! Another morning out with the boys on our skis. This time we went to the Hahnenkamm ( http://www.reuttener-seilbahnen.at/ )



Max ran out of piste while moving at well over 60kmh. He flew a long way but eventually hit the ground and ended up laughing.



After the skiing some one drove in to the side of our (3 week old) car but no problems. He said sorry and gave a bottle of red wine :-)

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Christmas morning off piste in Austria. The "boys" were out playing. New powder and no people.



We went to the Füssener Jöchl http://lifte-graen.com/

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At last the snow is here so the bike is packed away in the garage and the snow board is out. Was on the slopes with my South African colleague - Grant - today.



Deep, fresh snow and no people. Great fun!

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