Duncan and Michelle

October 2009

2009-10-28T21:00:00.001+01:00

We actually manage a week off work, not during winter. Duncan has accumulated considerable over time this year. So we decided to go to the UK for 6 days. We flew from Geneva to Bristol because we thought it would save us time, wrong, Michelle took so long to get though immigration that Duncan has already collected the luggage and had been waiting for a quarter of an hour. This meant we going the back of the queue at the car hire place. We called Duncan's Mum to explain the delay, and then called again to explain the time on the GPS was still Swiss time not UK time. So we were not as late arriving as we though we would be. The Sunday was a grey foggy day, so we spent the time reminiscing, looking a old photos from Duncan's childhood. It was a lovely day. We ended the Day with Kirstie and Logan coming over for dinner. It was the first time Michelle has seen Logan, Duncan saw him when he was about 9 month old. The weather improved to we did get to go to the coast, for some fantastic views. We also managed to catch up with Mandy between regular business trips all through Europe and the UK. Then we spent a lovely day catching up with Meg at Salton House, and a fantastic walk through the gardens and along the estuary before continuing on to Duncan's Dads for the last couple of days. We missed seeing Jake the newest family member, he arrived at 7.20 am on the morning we flew back. We had to check in a 7am so visiting was not possible.

May 2009

2009-10-28T20:55:00.002+01:00

The 2nd and 3rd of May and it is finally the end of a really long but great ski season. After the excitement of last weekend St. Anton is now a ghost town. A lot of the lifts are closed, no more Gampen, Kappal and Rendl. Just Galzig is open. We skied in the rain on the Saturday before giving up and partying the rest of the day away in St Christoph, We met up with Üli (Schwab), he was in a better state than we were. We have quite a bit of trouble skiing back to St. Anton where we were to have dinner with Toni and Rosi, Duncan fell asleep after his shower and almost missed dinner. The Sunday was a real surprise, there was about 10cm of fresh snow on the Piste. We had the place to ourselves, we skied until after lunch then had to pack up the apartment for the end of season, then drive home feeling tired but satisfied.

March 2009

2009-10-28T20:54:00.000+01:00

Week 11 and what a great week of skiing, probably for the best snow of the season. It snowed a lot at the beginning of the week, big fluffy flakes too. We also had enough sun to ski Maienwasen and Maienplatt in bottomless powder with great visibility if you could keep your head above the plumes of snow. We didn't ski with Alois, we just did our own thing. Which meant we could also go partying in Piccadilly with Kim and Sonja. We even got Bill up on the dance floor. Towards the end of the week the snow had settled, and was becoming very heavy in the afternoons. Week 12 saw us looking at an apartment to buy, the prices are scandalous. We definitely won't be paying what they are asking for. We are certainly making the most of the weekends. We haven't missed a single one since the opening (which Michelle missed because of exams). We skied with a Friend of Adrian's for a day, we wore him out. Week 14 was the start of the Firn

2009-10-28T20:47:00.002+01:00

September 2009

2009-10-01T20:59:00.000+02:00

September is fitness month with hikes, very long bicycle rides and the first skiing for the coming season. It started with the SHG hike, a very interesting day , it was a hike with various stops on route to explain the food pyramid and nutrition. After walking for a couple of hours we all blew it at Karin's because she had put on the most amazing dessert buffet. The 13th was the slow up though the Emmental, we hire flyers again, this certainly helps against those hills. We kept on bumping into people we know, so although we went on our own, it was definitely not lonely. Duncan wanted to test the battery capacity on the 40km route, so we didn't change batteries half way round this time, he also used the electric assistance the whole day, unfortunately just before the last hill up to Sumiswald his battery gave out. Michelle went on the flyers again 3 days later on the Heart Route from Willisau to Hasle Ruegsau, a total of 70km. She was pretty tired come the end of the day in spite of the electrical assistance. The weather was good on both days luckily. The weekend after saw us giving in to our wish to start skiing again, it has been 4 and a half months since we last skied. So we packed the car and headed of to Saas Fee for the weekend. We were not the only crazy people on the mountain, as usual, most of the ski area was reserved for racers. This is our main complaint about summer skiing in Saas Fee, not only do they have a majority of the Pistes closed for them, they are incapable of queuing in a reasonable manner for the lift back up again. They push in at the front, refused to go up with anyone else and a generally arrogant beyond words. We did meet a nice couple from Lausanne though, he was from Western Australia and she was from England, we skied a couple of runs with them. Saas Fee had been in the newspapers this week because of a huge ice avalanche. It was really visible from the village, it was amazing just how blue with broken edge of the glacier was.

August 2009

2009-09-01T20:58:00.000+02:00

We decided to do something new for Swiss National day. We went to the Rheinfall, along with about 1 million other tourists. The falls themselves are very impressive, the volume of water is incredible, and the noise it makes gushing its way down is deafening. We did the boot tour out to the middle and climbed up the time cliff in the middle of the Falls. After that we needed a break from the crowds so walked up the Rhein, after about 15minutes of walking suddenly we were all alone it was incredible tranquil. Even the River although flowing fast was much calmer. The 8th of August was the SHG BBQ, we were up on the Kaltacker, luckily the Farmhouse has very wide eaves, as the weather again was not the best. On the 15th we did our favourite motorbike tour, along the north side of the Thunersee, then up through Sigriswil, Justiztal over Hapkern down to Meringen before returning over the Brünigpass and Panoramastrasse through Sörenberg then home again. As usual breathtaking scenery. There was a traffic jam on the Brünigpasse so we went for a short side trip up the Axalp as well. The following day was a much more relaxing day, we went from Murten to Biel by boat. This trip involves three different lakes which are connected by canals. It takes over 5 hours one way. We stopped at a Microbrewery in Biel, and bumped into Duncan's work colleague Ivan with Wife and son. On top of all this we also managed to completely spring clean the loft, we put loads of stuff out on the driveway for people to take, It was amazing what went and what stayed. There sure is a lot more room up in the loft now.

July 2009

2009-08-01T20:57:00.000+02:00

Michelle has taken some holiday and went to Bad Zurzach for a couple of days of pampering, Thermal pools, Massages, Fitness training and Sauna. Three days of luxury. Duncan was really busy working at night, it was a very hard week for him, he could have used a couple of days of pampering as well. The weather hasn't been great on the weekends so we went to the Papillorama near Bern for the Day. A day of tropical warmth and humidity and thousands of Butterflies in all size shapes and colours. You almost forget you are in Switzerland. Middle of July and the weather is improving so we use the opportunity to go for a couple of day tours on the motorbikes. Michelle surprised Duncan on his birthday with a trip to a microbrewery in Langenthal. What a fantastic place,, it turns out the manager comes from England. He gave Duncan a special beer for his birthday, they actually distil beer to make a very nice schnapps. We talked for ages, then he gave Duncan a bottle of schnapps to round off the day.

June 2009

2009-07-01T20:56:00.000+02:00

June was a bit of an anti climax, the skiing is over. The 27th of June was the Hospital motorbike day. We had special permission to ride over the Grosse Scheidegg. It was a fantastic ride, very challenging with lots of hairpin turns. We started in Burgdorf then went to Meilisalp the geographical middle point of Switzerland, then on to Meiringen where it started to drizzle up over the grosse Scheidegg in the direction of Grindelwald. We had a lunch stop at the top amongst some really incredible scenery, very dramatic with the clouds and fog. The weather wasn't great for the rest of the day, it drizzled most of the time. By the end when we stopped for a afternoon coffee, most people gave up and went off to do their own thing. It is Hans Pete's last year at the hospital, but we were able to talk him into organising the "Töfftag" again next year. We gave him a voucher for a balloon flight so he can choose a route from the air. We did manage a Trip to Kandersteg up to the Oschensee, cool but dry the following day. We are enjoying our balcony in the evenings, Duncan has become a very proficient BBQ master. We can observe the new housing development going up on the other side of the street, after long nothing seeming to happen there are a couple of houses now going up in what seems to be record time.

April 2009

2009-05-01T20:55:00.000+02:00

Easter in St. Anton, and you guessed it skiing. We met up with Netty from Holland for a great couple of days of spring snow. Some of the track out of Maroi is getting challenging, but for almost the middle of April it is ok. Timing is really important, otherwise what should be easy becomes breakable crust, yuck. We started early and usually stopped a bit earlier than normal. Week 16 and St. Anton is deserted. Probably just as well as we are now skiing on Piste. The snow is hard in the mornings and really slushy in the afternoon. We did ski a run with Peter though, he struggled in the slush and stopped at lunch time. Week 17 and it is the crazy "Weisse Rausch" ski race. It never ceases to amaze us how quick the first one are down, and how exhausted they look. Not only is the ski race extremely long but at the end there is an obstacle course to manoeuvre. St Anton really comes back to life for this weekend.

February 2009

2009-02-25T21:20:00.001+01:00

Week 8 saw Duncan back in St. Anton whilst Michelle had to work. It has continued to snow regularly so the conditions are great for off Piste, Duncan reports there being about 1.5 m of new snow. Duncan, Henrik (thanks for some great Photos), Jens and Ueli skied with Alois, whilst Johny Sonia and Kim skied with Patrick for a change. The bad news of the week was Johny tearing his ACL on Tuesday. He was operated on the Wednesday and was getting up to playing practical jokes on Friday. Duncan spent several night visiting Johny so no Piccadilly dancing this week. Michelle joined them on the weekend for some really great snow, and we even managed to ski a couple of runs with Jürgen and Uli.

Powered by Qumana

January 2009

2009-02-03T20:56:00.001+01:00

New Year saw us back in St. Anton after just a short work break. It was really noticeable how the number of tourist had increased in just a few days. The New Years eve brought with a good dump of snow, little did we know that this was to be the only really good dump of snow for January. Duncan stayed on for week 2, but Michelle had to return to work because she had 2 new members of staff starting. Duncan skied with Alois for a couple of days. Michelle joined him on the weekend for another couple of sunny days. Then week 5 we both went for the whole week. It was Johny weeks so lots of partying too. Alois had 22 people wanting to ski with him on the Sunday, so we split into 2 groups. We skied with Florian for a change. What a great decision, not only was he a really nice guy, but he really taught some great techniques, and we skied some different runs to normal. We did an average amount of walking and only one big climb up the Maroikopf (1 Hour) this was surprising as there was very little fresh snow. We skied with lots of familiar faces such as Jenny, Heinz, Per, Joko to mention just a few. We even danced at the Picadilly twice. Michelle was up to her usual tricks of undressing people on the dance floor. Jenny celebrated her Birthday, we all enjoyed the yummy Sachertorte. The only sad note was Heinz getting injured on the last 500m down to the village. Get well soon Heinz.

Powered by Qumana

November 2008

2009-02-03T20:52:00.003+01:00

What a busy month. Michelle is in the end spurt of her exams, she spends most night cramming. The first weekend saw us helping Karin to move. There was loads of willing helpers as she is still hobbling about from breaking her leg late in summer. We sort of got in each other way, and definitely too many bosses, but all in all we achieved loads. Back the weekend after to help with the cleaning of the old apartment. On Michelle's Birthday we went to the electric bike factory who were selling their old rental bike off. The prices were ridiculous though. We went to St. Anton the week before the opening to get the apartment ready. We were surprised by about 2 foot of snow overnight. We even had to put on the snow chains to leave the village. Duncan went the following weekend for the season opening whilst Michelle had her final exam. She did really well even though she was so nervous she fell of the treatment couch.

Powered by Qumana

December 2008

2009-02-03T20:52:00.001+01:00

No exams to study for and Michelle is lost for thing to do. Not really, we have spent every weekend in St. Anton, Leading up to Christmas the snow was fantastic, light and powdery and almost no-one around. Come Christmas it start to fill up, but it wasn't until the new year that things got really busy. We celebrated Christmas with Olav and Petra who where also in St. Anton. We had a fondue, this seems to be becoming a tradition now having done it 2 years in a row. Duncan has a couple of new toys to play with, a helmet mounted video camera, and a GPS that tracks where your photos were taken. The He insists the Helmet is just a camera mount, as we are still both against wearing them. We haven't used it much, and one of the first bits of footage was a summersault in the deep snow, so we didn't get to see much at all.

Powered by Qumana

October 2008

2008-11-17T16:31:00.001+01:00

The Professionals have come into action in the renovations now. The painter has come and gone and the wooden floor has been repaired sanded and resealed. The Apartment is looking really good. The new appliances arrived but the Oven door exploded when Michelle opened it. It appears to be a manufacturing fault with too much tension in the glass, so it is yet another delay. We just couldn't wait any longer for the first skiing of the season. We went to Sass Fee and were surprised just how good the snow was. There was a little dusting of reasonable fresh snow on the Piste. It was great, but as usual the legs got tired, we really need to start training. Winter seems to be on its way in a hurry we even had the first snow fall in Lützelflüh. Everyone in Switzerland was a bit caught out with the about of snow, we had about 20 cm at 600m asl. In the mountains they had over 50 cm in places. The trains were seriously delay because a lot of broken tree branches ( they hadn't lost there leaves yet).

Powered by Qumana

September 2008

2008-11-17T16:30:00.003+01:00

Time really flies. It seems incredible but Simons has celebrated his first birthday. We went around for dinner, he didn't understand what was going on with so many people there, but loved ripping the wrapping paper and was fascinated by the candle on his cake. The other highlight of the month was Thelma's and Alan's holiday in the Berner Oberland. We took the opportunity to travel there in the evenings to spend some time with them. They had a really great time listening to what the did each day. Their week in Switzerland was certainly filled. Petra and Olav came to visit. The renovations have changed from the destructive phase into the constructive phase. The new wall is going it and we have ordered the new kitchen appliances, it looks a bit tight for renting on the first of November.

Powered by Qumana

August 2008

2008-11-17T16:30:00.001+01:00

Swiss National day was a rather dreary start to the month. You never knew if it was going to rain or not. We risked it and went walking in Sörenberg, we are scouting out some potential off piste routes for the coming winter. It is about this time of year winter seems such along way away in spite of the cold temperatures we are having. The ground floor apartment is now empty so we have started the renovations. We are doing quite a bit ourselves, its fun to be able to rip out the old wall. The new insulation was a very messy job with Bitumen sealer, Michelle was in her element getting dirty. Its a much bigger job than we anticipated. Come the middle of August the weather has improved considerably we had a Brunch up on the Marbachegg with Karin, Res and family. We walked down to help burn off some of the calories consumed. It was definitely a month for hiking, at the end of the month we went with the SHG from Burgdorf (a group Michelle helps run). We visited an Ostrich farm, we had an interesting tour, it was amazing to see an 80kg man standing on an egg and it not break.

Powered by Qumana

July 2008

2008-11-17T16:29:00.001+01:00

Where hast the summer gone? It is the season of thunderstorms and rainy shower weekends, you never quite know what to wear at the moment, or know if you can go out on the motorbike. Duncan celebrated his 50th Birthday on his own by going to the Sumiswald motorbike meet was on again this year. It only happens every 2 years. Duncan had to go on his own as Michelle was off in Germany on a course. Really bad timing. She gave him a beer seminar, where you learn about beer and get to brew your own in the Micro Brewery we discovered in Langnau last month. The date is still to be arranged.

Powered by Qumana

June 2008

2008-07-14T20:38:00.001+02:00

The summer has arrived, what a hot month June was. We spent most of the month at home but had quite a few visitors in that time. Alexandra came over to sew with Michelle, her cats hat partially destroyed her curtains. We have bought the wii fit game and been having lots laughs at our attempts of yoga, hoola hooping and other fun games. Not really that taxing but lots of fun. Priska came over for a fun WII evening, there was lots of laughing during the boxing match. Olav came over for a BBQ, we are certainly using the balcony a lot with this great weather. We have discovered a new micro brewery in Langnau, it is in an old factory complex combined with indoor mini golf, bowling, cocktail bars and an ice-cream parlar. We had fun on the mini golf, mmm maybe next time we should play before drinking the beer. June is the month of the Le Mans 24 hour race. It has become tradition to try stay awake for most of it. Duncan did really well but Michelle gave up at about 2am. She said she was going to nap for an hour, but didn't resurface until 5 hours later. As usual we each picked one car in the four different categories. Poor Duncan though his cars kept on crashing or blowing up. The last Monday in June is a bank holiday in Burgdorf, Michelle had the day off, but Duncan had to work. Michelle did a long motorbike tour with Rüdi and Silvia. The tour went through the Jura region down as far as Yverdon before returning home. The weather was ok, it kept on threatening to rain but never did. After 300 km on one day she was pleased to stop.

Powered by Qumana

May 2008

2008-07-14T20:34:00.001+02:00

The end of the skiing season and not really weather for Motor biking. May is a month where we normally catch up on all the chores that get behind in winter. The highlight of this month was our trip to Vienna. We stayed with Sonia, Kim was visiting from Denmark this weekend too. We had a great evening in a really nice beer garden and lazy morning brunch. We went for a Spencer Tunick photo shooting, the idea was 2008 people in the football stadium where the Euro 2008 final was to be played this coming June. We didn't quite make the number though about 1840 people turned up. It was a pretty amazing atmosphere, with people of all ages and Nationalities taking part. It took a long time and as we were in the shade we left after about 4 hours. We met a lady from Zürich on the night train home, she said it went on for at least another 2 hours, and even she left before it was finished. The Photos are really artistic. On the 30th of May we went to the Paul Klee Museum in Bern to see the exhibition of the photo shooting on the Aletsch Glacier last year in which Duncan took part. He received photo signed by the artist. Spence Tunick was a very interesting person, although there were many people there he took time to talk to most people.

Powered by Qumana

April 2008

2008-05-01T06:00:00.001+02:00

We went to the Griabli open air in the beginning of April, the weather wasn't fantastic but it stayed dry for a great afternoon of Rock music. Goto http://www.duncanguy.dyndns.org/StAnton0807/index.htm for the pictures.
The skiing looked like it was coming to an end, so we followed that weekend with a weekend at home. We even dusted off the motorbikes for our first tour of the season. We did a short tour up over the Moosegg, we were surprised at how much snow was lying in the shady parts, so we stayed low after that. The following weekend we went back to St. Anton believing it was our last opportunity to ski. Saturday the weather turned bad just before lunch, fog and heavy rain, we thought about giving up but then the sun came out and we had some fantastic skiing, a light dusting of new snow on freshly prepared pistes and no one around. We ended the day watching the infamous "weisse Rausch" a crazy ski race of over 500 skiers starting groups of over 100 at a time. It is an 8.5km race track down the pistes, that have been skied on that day, no extra prep for these racers, that means the slush is sometimes knee deep and the moguls are pretty big. If that wasn't exhausting enough about 70 m from the end they build a obstacle course out of snow, so they have to take off their skis and run and climb the last bit. The amazing thing is the guy who won did it in just over 8.5 minutes. Incredible to watch but we don't think we are crazy enough to join in. Again pictures can be found at http://www.duncanguy.dyndns.org/StAnton0806/index.htm
Sunday we skied with Olav and Petra. We had a lovely lunch sitting outside at Griabli not realising just how burnt we were getting. We went back the last weekend in April to clear out the apartment, we managed to get in 2 last days of skiing, it is amazing how fantastic the conditions are, and the pistes are really empty in spite of half the mountains having closed the previous weekend. What a great way to finish the season. Pictures at http://www.duncanguy.dyndns.org/StAnton0808/index.htm This bought our total of ski days up to 63.We enjoyed a nice meal with Toni and Rosi too. Clearing our the apartment made us realise just how much stuff we had collected there, it is time to start reviewing the packing list for next winter.

Powered by Qumana

Easter 2008

2008-03-30T10:40:00.001+02:00

Easter was so much better than we thought it would be, loads of new snow meant fantastic off Piste. We skied with Alois again, we just couldn't resist with the great snow conditions. We got some great Photos on Friday, the snow was so fluffy, great plumes of snow going in all directions. Saturday we needed to pick the slopes carefully as the south facing slopes had become heavy in the sun. Sunday was so funny, there such a thing as too much snow, we skied the Schindler Hang twice and there was 1m of new snow on it. You just had to point your skis down the hill to even keep moving. There were loads of wipe-outs but that is part of the fun.

We are planning to go back for the Griabli open air in the beginning of April, which will then bring our skiing days total for this winter to 60.

You can find our pictures at: http://www.duncanguy.dyndns.org/StAnton0805/index.htm

Powered by Qumana

March 2008

2008-03-17T21:22:00.001+01:00

A stormy weekend at home so start the month, it is very wet and blow out so that makes it a good weekend for catching up at home before heading of to St. Anton at the end of the week. The good news is they are forecasting a week of snow falls so we may have some fresh powder to ski in March, if the temperatures are low enough. The weather really is unpredictable with warm weather in January and February and hopefully a good dump of snow in March. The week in St Anton was certainly a mix of all weather conditions, from rain to snow to beautiful cloudless sunny days. The snow did greatly improved condition, this also meant a lot less hiking too. We were disappointed to hear that Harold had hurt his leg, he was able to ski, but not with Alois. This meant that Peter had a ski partner for most of the week. He has not the only one to collect injuries, Mike was unable to ski for 3 days with and injured back, Duncan hurt his shoulder in a wipe-out and Michelle collected a black eye after she and Duncan collided on an almost empty off Piste run. We had one particularly fantastic day skiing the old back of Rendl. We managed a couple of really nice carpets of ski tracks. Ron and Susanne were back, these guys are unstoppable, the y ski both before and after ski school and never seem to get tired. Ueli was also back but left early because it started to rain. The Rain didn't stop us from skiing and the mood in the group was cheerful almost amused at the variability in the weather. Jürg had us in fits of laughter with a mean Pink Floyd Ski guitar solo. We met up with a nice Kiwi couple Graham and Julie who skied a couple of days with us, and another Kiwi couple Grant and Joya who we skied with before but were in a different group this year. We are back home for a very short 4 day work break before returning for Easter, hopefully our legs and shoulders and eyes recover by then.

Pictures at http://www.duncanguy.dyndns.org/StAnton0804/index.htm

Powered by Qumana

February 2008

2008-03-03T20:32:00.001+01:00

The winter is really flying past quickly, we could really do with some more snow. Other than the big snowfall in December, there has been just a few days of light snow. It is like skiing at the end of the season with "firn" snow and some very warm days. Week 8 saw us back in St. Anton again skiing with some familiar faces. Anything within 1 hour of the pistes is completely skied to death so it meant lots of walking and even touring. Duncan did a tour were they walked up for 2.5 hours before skiing down the other side. It is a side of Rendl we have never skied before. Michelle decided it was too far for her so she had a nice day on Piste with Peter (Canadian), Harold (South African) and Harold's son Michael. Duncan had a lot of problems with his Bindings so the next day we spent testing the touring skis after they had been repaired. The fact is that the skis are just too soft for him, so we are looking for new skis for him. We joked for most of the week that the Tyrolean dialect has no word for clouds, the weather was perfect. On the Thursday we had one day of fog and snow we tried to get above it but couldn't so we skied near the forest. It little bit of snow we got really improved conditions of piste. We had a lovely dinner with John and Steffi, Harold and Peter and Johny at the Fahner, the food here is special but the service was run off its feet so was inattentive. It was Johny's last week for the season so we skied on the Saturday together, it was starting to get really warm so we needed to stop for a beer in St. Christoph on a sunny terrace. The Temperatures on the last day were really crazy we had 14C at 1850m and 8C in the village, this made the snow very heavy so we decided to call it a day at lunchtime, it is not worth getting injured. It was a great but tiring week so we were glad to catch the earlier train home. Work is really crazy in Winter, with being away every 3rd week things pile up.

Powered by Qumana

January 2008

2008-03-03T20:29:00.001+01:00

Week 2 saw us back in St. Anton, this time we skied with Alois for 6 days. On the Monday it rained so the snow became crusty and stayed that way for the week on the lower slopes, no one was really motivated after a soaking in the morning and an extended lunch break to dry off, but the afternoon saw us doing exercises on ski routes and on piste which actually turned out to be great experience for later in the week. To find the good and untracked snow we had to climb. After a evening of dancing in the Piccadilly we climbed the Maroikopf. It took a bit over an hour with skis being carried on the shoulder. The snow was like sugar making the climb even harder. It was definitely worth it though, we had some fantastic untracked powder and amazing scenery of mountains valleys and frozen waterfalls down through the Maroi valley. We laughed about this being our punishment for having too much energy left over to dance the previous day. Duncan even got to push Michelle off a cliff. There was no way she was going to jump on her own. We bought ourselves new rucksacks the following day so we can attach the skis to them to make the climbing easier. Little did we know when we said "we would collect them in the evening", that Alois had the same climb in mind. The climb the second time was better as the steps in the snow were compacter. This time we skied down the other side to Langen. Before we skied off we watched an amazing film shoot of some very extreme skiing. These guys jumped off a 5m drop and then skied a couple of turns before doing a back flip of another rocky cliff. Very impressive but very scary too. The day we left the snow came by lunch time there was a good 3 cm of new snow and it seemed to be snowing harder, it was difficult to leave. The Sunday was Simon's christening, Michelle is now a Godmother, the church where it was held was celebrating mass for the Gospel choir. It is the only time we have seen a 5 piece band in a church including drums and electric guitars . The music was fantastic and the atmosphere really relaxed, dancing and applauding allowed. Then it was a great lunch, afternoon walk and an evening meal. Duncan didn't even complain about having to visit two churches in one day - although he did whinge a bit about the kids! Then we had our first whole weekend at home since November, that was relaxing. The last week in January saw us.....you guessed it back in St. Anton. We didn't arrive until late because Michelle missed her train connection. This week is a classic for meeting up with long lost friends, well those who we haven't seen since this time last year. (Johny, Per, Jenny and Peter etc.) We are back skiing with Alois with some fantastic sunny weather. We even got to ski some firn snow which we don't normally get until spring. Just to keep us on our toes it did snow about 20 to 30 cm of the fresh stuff. The next day saw us skiing like crazy with 2 runs to Langen and a trip down the Maroi valley, about 1.5x the amount we normally ski, it left us really tired. The last day was so great we decided to catch the late train home.

Powered by Qumana

December 2007

2008-01-01T11:43:00.001+01:00

The beginning of the month saw us in St. Anton for the season opening. It has been a long time since the snow has been this good this early in the winter, lets hope it stays that way. We moved into the apartment and spent the Friday night putting things in place and generally sorting stuff out, we did a good job preparing this time and only forgot a few item. We were surprised to see how much has changed in the village in just one summer. We hardly recognised the Jennewein ski depot. We bumped into several people we knew. We skied for 2 days before driving home in the rain. The following weekend and we are back in St Anton, it has snowed quite a lot in the last week, so we were able to even ski off-piste. Olav joined us on some test skis, judging by the whoops of joy, he liked them. The powder was light and fluffy on Sunday and the visibility a bit better than the day before so we skied considerably more, thank goodness we travelled by train because we were both tired after two exhilarating days. The third weekend in a row and we are back in St. Anton, the snow is fantastic this year. We had some really great untracked powder on the Saturday. We met up with Heinz, Willy Jürgen und Ueli, its great to see all the familiar faces again, and to ski with them too. The fourth weekend in a row saw us yet again in St. Anton, this time we stayed for the whole week. The snow was fantastic, but after Christmas things really started to fill up. We decided to escape the crowds by doing a ski tour, we walked up the mountain for about and hour and a half to the Putzenalm, enjoyed a picnic in the sun before skiing down. Thanks Heinz for the tuition and coaching. We were both really tired the following day though. We are now up to a total of 19 ski days for this season. We both had to work the last day of the year, so we spent new years eve at home, enjoying some great music.

Powered by Qumana

November 2007

2008-01-01T09:18:00.001+01:00

Duncan spent the start of November on a business trip to Wales and England. He stayed on for the weekend to visit his parents, and out great nephew Logan. Michelle went to Ursula's 50th Birthday party. Michelle has bought a kick board and is zooming everywhere like a teenager. Happy Birthday Michelle, she has hit the big 40!!! She had a very nice day starting with Brunch and several Bunches of flowers before being taken out for dinner. On the 9th of November we had our first snow in Lützelflüh. The weekend after Sörenberg opened early for skiing. Talk about perfect ski days, we had blue skies and sunshine fresh powder snow and no people, the Sunday was busier than Saturday, but not really what you can call crowded. Olav came with us on the Sunday when we told him how fantastic it was. We decided to repeat the following weekend, but the Saturday was foggy, the snow had been rained on. After lunch it started to rain lightly which did improve the snow conditions so we actually skied quite a bit after all.

Powered by Qumana

October 2007

2008-01-01T09:17:00.003+01:00

It looks like the years is going to continue being busy, aside from Working Michelle has done her last weekend course for the year. Unfortunately one of the other courses has been cancelled so she won't be doing her exam until next year. Judging by how stressed the other were on the course, this is probably a good thing. The following weekend saw her and Ursula in Zurich to see the Queen Musical. The story, costuming, acting and singing was fantastic, definitely worth the trip. We were getting impatient waiting for the snow to arrive so we spent a Sunday up on Les Diableret Glacier doing our attempt at cross country skiing, after about 12km and quite few wipe outs we decided to call it a day. Poor Duncan falls a long way when he does. It was surprisingly cold because it was extremely windy. Normal skiing is much safer! We has an unexpected visitor during the week, Gunnar from St. Anton (skier not singer) called to say he would be in Bern. We had a very pleasant evening reminiscing about skiing and catching up on his news. Congratulations to Gunnar and his Girlfriend on their engagement. The following weekend out waiting came to an end. Engelberg opened its glacier lifts. We survived the day with out any bruises. It was a lot more strenuous than expected, we really need to get some more practice in before St. Anton!

Powered by Qumana

September 2007

2008-01-01T09:17:00.001+01:00

Well the fun part is over and it is back to work for Michelle, after a long break, it takes some getting used to. Back to work at home too with some serious gardening and Duncan doing a mean Tarzan impersonation climbing around the trees chopping off branches. The 10th saw us doing the Emmental Slow-up, this is were they close a street circuit for skaters, cyclists and people generally who want to have fun. According to the papers there was 23000 of us out there having fun. We hired some Flyers (electrically assisted bicycles) for the 38 km circuit. It was a party in each village we went through, sometimes it was very difficult to even continue cycling. The day concluded with a nice train ride on an old steam train. Duncan had an interesting evening at the Raubtier Park in Solothurn. He saw Tigers, Pumas, Jaguars, Lions and Polar Bears. The Owner hat the cats perform various tricks, it was the size of the animals that was the most impressive though, particularly the Polar bear. The last weekend in September saw us meeting up with Karin for dinner and a film at the Cinema, we saw the Bourne Ultimatum, other than that the focus was slightly off, it was a good film. Sunday we visited Olav and Petra und Zurich, we went for a nice walk around the Katzensee, Duncan got to show off with his new GPS Watch. The interesting thing is being able to import the track of were you have been into Google earth, and even do a virtual fly over. We had so much fun doing the Slow-up through the Emmental we decided to do the Slow-up along the Lake of Zurich. Olav came on his Inline skates, Duncan and Michelle had a definite advantage with the Flyers. We only lost him once. Olav is pretty fit though, because he didn't even ache the following day.

Powered by Qumana

August 2007

2008-01-01T09:16:00.001+01:00

Swiss National day and Duncan spent the day still working trying to restore all our digital Photos, he did a fantastic job, but it took him well over a week to do it. Michelle flew out to Australia on the 6th, unfortunately Duncan had to stay home in Switzerland working. She was able to stay at Jenny's place, she really enjoyed having cats to spoil. The next day Michelle went to Fremantle to meet Dan after his morning classes. They had fish and chips at Ciserellos just for old time sake. It was nice to see where Dan studies at the Notre Dame University we used their computers to plan their 4 day trip round the southwest. The drive down to Pemberton on the Friday was very wet, but every time we go out of the car to see or do something it stopped raining. It was cold at night about 1C but the day time temperatures ok. The trees down this way are huge, we were going to climb Diamond tree, but the ladder up to the top of the look out was very slippery. Saturday we did the Valley of the Giants and the Treetop walk at Walpole, a suspended walkway through the forest about 40m up in the air. The scenery was fantastic once Michelle stopped looking down. We Continued on to Augusta, but not the shortest route as a wrong turn involved a 60km detour. We arrived at dusk so settled into a pub next to the fireplace for a pleasant evening. Sunday was exercise day, we started the morning with a tour of the Cape Leewin lighthouse (all 11 stories) the Lighthouse keeper who did the tour was a really interesting and told story after story, we could have listened for hours. Next stop was the Lake cave with 14 flights of stairs, again an amazing tour guide and fantastic things to see. The continued our way up to Busselton stopping at lots of places on route, including Canal Rocks Dunsborough, Hamelton Bay and Cape Naturaliste lighthouse . We watched and amazing sunset at the lighthouse, because we were there so late, we even saw a Kangaroo in the wild. Monday morning was the 140-year-old Busselton Jetty, measured at 1841 metres, and is the longest wooden jetty (pier) in the southern hemisphere. We hopped our way up the coast and back to Perth, Dan had classes the following day so couldn't be too late getting back. Michelle cat and House Sat for Jenny whilst she was in Melbourne visiting her Mum. Michelle took the opportunity to catch up with some old friends, She surprised Kylie by just turning up on the doorstep unannounced, then got lucky with the Phone book and found Amanda on her first try. She had lunch and a pleasant afternoon in South Perth with Jacqui and Tess, and a lovely day with Gisella and Peter. Then she visited her Aunties and Uncles living in Perth. Duncan was up to something really interesting back home. He walked up to a glacier in Valais to be a part of the Spencer Tunick and Greenpeace event. He was one of over 600 people who posed naked on the glacier to raise awareness about global warming. The Photos are really amazing, he said the atmosphere amongst the people taking part was really special. It was a very long day, as he left home before 6am and didn't get home again till later at night, but from what he has told well worth the effort. Dan and Michelle did a great tasting day through the swan valley including tasting at 3 wineries, 2 breweries, a chocolate and a cheese tasting, the day should have also included ice cream and nougat but they were closed. Michelle went up to visit Aunty Glen and Uncle Ray, plus the kids and grandkids. Its amazing to meet a whole new generation. The last weekend in Australia was really busy, with Michelle joining Jenny for a cycle ride then followed by an amazing vegetarian cooking class, followed by a big family get together. Sunday was spent in luxury up at the Revolving restaurant for lunch followed by a fantastic Circus evening. Monday was spent packing and a leisurely day at various beaches before a nice last evening meal of Thai Takeaway with Jenny and Dan. The flight home was uneventful. Duncan surprised Michelle by meeting her at the airport.

Powered by Qumana

July 2007

2008-01-01T09:15:00.001+01:00

July was rather busy again. We finally dusted off the motorbikes for our first tour of the season. We did a fantastic day trip going over the Schallenberg (a small pass that is a favourite amongst those on motorbikes and crazy cyclists) Then along the north side of Lake Thun. It was unusual to be riding to up on Duncan's motorbike but we wanted to see how Michelle's knee would hold up. The weather has been very mixed so we took the opportunity on the 15th to go up the Rothorn Mountain. The views from up there were fantastic you could see from the Emmental to the mountains , looking down on lake Brienz and Interlaken. There was a sky show on in Interlaken so we where able to look down on the plane acrobatics. On the Sunday we did another short tour over the Moosegg on two bikes. The middle of July is Duncan's Birthday, we celebrated with a nice dinner. Michelle managed to surprise him with a voucher to hire a Goldwing for a weekend. It is the Motorbike Duncan has always dreamed of. The last weekend saw us off on a 2 day Motorbike tour. On the Saturday we did from Thun along the North side of the lake, up through the Justiztal down to Interlaken over the Brunig pass, the Panoramastrasse with lots of hair pin turns then through the Emmental for a late but well earned lunch. Poor Duncan had to work quite hard on the hairpins whilst Michelle enjoyed the very comfortable armchair they call the passenger seat. It is certainly a different sort of Motor biking. It is a sofa on wheels with a great sound system The evening Duncan studied the Manual that came with the bike, or should we say encyclopaedia. Sunday morning saw him installing the MP3 player. Then we headed of in a different direction, towards the Jura this time on two bikes. There are some great tours in this region, but we don't go there much we're not really sure why maybe because it is French speaking. We headed off with cloudy skies, but it never actually rained, it just threatened to. We started the tour near Solothurn going over the Weissstein, this is a lovely curvy mountain. The road keeps on crossing under the chair lift that goes to the top. Then we headed of to Moutier then down to lake Biel, because the weather further west looked dodgy. The we cut cross country through the Seeland area, a surprisingly flat part of Switzerland. We went over the Lueg in the Emmental before returning the bike to Thun. It was sad that the weekend was over but it was a fun 482 kms. If you add the trip to and from Thun on our own bikes then we did over 550km in two days. Duncan said the seat on the Gold wing is much more comfortable than on his bike, and that it didn't really feel like we had travelled this far. Disaster stuck at the end of the month, we wanted to update the webpage and discovered the hard disk with all our digital photos had broken. It took Duncan several days of hard work to restore all the data. Thank goodness he knows about such things. Michelle was back at the Orthopaedic surgeon for the next check up, he is very pleased with her progress with her knee. She is now cycling for 1 hour at a time and is in the weight room twice a week, she also has to do lots of balance exercises, all good practice for skiing. There was bad news on the hip pain though, she has torn the edge of the hip socket, so will need surgery to fix it. She is now waiting for an appointment with a specialist. Looks like with the time scales here that it probably wont happen until after the ski season.

Powered by Qumana

June 2007

2008-01-01T09:14:00.001+01:00

We had been really looking forward to Petra's visit. Although it was cut bit short we had a great evening. We are hoping next time that she can stay a bit longer, but she was on her way to a course in Italy. Olav came as well so we had an evening of making Crepes on the table after a short walk through Lützelflüh. The middle of June saw us buying some touring skis, second hand but with all the accessories and in good condition, we have already discussed with Alexandra possible early tours for October or November. We have seen quite a lot of Alexandra lately, she is keeping Michelle supplied with books. We spent the weekend after that following Le Mans 24 Hour endurance car race on the radio, it was disappointing that no one had in televised. The Radio is good but it is not the same, an definitely not as good as being there, as in 2005. Midsummer day has come and gone so winter is on its way again. The last weekend in June saw us in the mountains south of Bern. We were invited to a summer festival, we stayed up really late after a BBQ, the had brunch on the terrace in the morning with an incredible view.

Powered by Qumana

August

2007-09-02T10:46:00.001+02:00

Swiss National day and Duncan spent the day still working trying to restore all our digital Photos, he did a fantastic job, but it took him well over a week to do it. Michelle flew out to Australia on the 6th, unfortunately Duncan had to stay home in Switzerland working. She was able to stay at Jenny's place, she really enjoyed having cats to spoil. The next day Michelle went to Fremantle to meet Dan after his morning classes. They had fish and chips at Ciserellos just for old time sake. It was nice to see where Dan studies at the Notre Dame University we used their computers to plan their 4 day trip round the southwest. The drive down to Pemberton on the Friday was very wet, but every time we go out of the car to see or do something it stopped raining. It was cold at night about 1C but the day time temperatures ok. The trees down this way are huge, we were going to climb Diamond tree, but the ladder up to the top of the look out was very slippery. Saturday we did the Valley of the Giants and the Treetop walk at Walpole, a suspended walkway through the forest about 40m up in the air. The scenery was fantastic once Michelle stopped looking down. We Continued on to Augusta, but not the shortest route as a wrong turn involved a 60km detour. We arrived at dusk so settled into a pub next to the fireplace for a pleasant evening. Sunday was exercise day, we started the morning with a tour of the Cape Leewin lighthouse (all 11 stories) the Lighthouse keeper who did the tour was a really interesting and told story after story, we could have listened for hours. Next stop was the Lake cave with 14 flights of stairs, again an amazing tour guide and fantastic things to see. The continued our way up to Busselton stopping at lots of places on route, including Canal Rocks Dunsborough, Hamelton Bay and Cape Naturaliste lighthouse . We watched and amazing sunset at the lighthouse, because we were there so late, we even saw a Kangaroo in the wild. Monday morning was the 140-year-old Busselton Jetty, measured at 1841 metres, and is the longest wooden jetty (pier) in the southern hemisphere. We hopped our way up the coast and back to Perth, Dan had classes the following day so couldn't be too late getting back. Michelle cat and House Sat for Jenny whilst she was in Melbourne visiting her Mum. Michelle took the opportunity to catch up with some old friends, She surprised Kylie by just turning up on the doorstep unannounced, then got lucky with the Phone book and found Amanda on her first try. She had lunch and a pleasant afternoon in South Perth with Jacqui and Tess, and a lovely day with Gisella and Peter. Then she visited her Auntys and Uncles living in Perth. Duncan was up to something really interesting back home. He walked up to a glacier in Valais to be a part of the Spencer Tunick and Greenpeace event. He was one of over 600 people who posed naked on the glacier to raise awareness about global warming. The Photos are really amazing, he said the atmosphere amongst the people taking part was really special. It was a very long day, as he left home before 6am and didn't get home again till later at night, but from what he has told well worth the effort. Dan and Michelle did a great tasting day through the swan valley including tastings at 3 wineries, 2 breweries, a chocolate and a cheese tasting, the day should have also included ice cream and nougat but they were closed. Michelle went up to visit Aunty Glen and Uncle Ray, plus the kids and grandkids. Its amazing to meet a whole new generation. The last weekend in Australia was really busy, with Michelle joining Jenny for a cycle ride then followed by an amazing vegetarian cooking class, followed by a big family get together. Sunday was spent in luxury up at the Revolving restaurant for lunch followed by a fantastic Circus evening. Monday was spent packing and a leisurely day at various beaches before a nice last evening meal of Thai Takeaway with Jenny and Dan. The flight home was uneventful. Duncan surprised Michelle by meeting her at the airport.

Powered by Qumana

July

2007-09-02T10:44:00.001+02:00

This month has been rather busy again. We finally dusted off the motorbikes for our first tour of the season. We did a fantastic day trip going over the Schallenberg (a small pass that is a favourite amongst those on motorbikes and crazy cyclists) Then along the north side of Lake Thun. It was unusual to be riding to up on Duncan's motorbike but we wanted to see how Michelle's knee would hold up. The weather has been very mixed so we took the opportunity on the 15th to go up the Rothorn Mountain. The views from up there were fantastic you could see from the Emmental to the mountains , looking down on lake Brienz and Interlaken. There was a sky show on in Interlaken so we where able to look down on the plane acrobatics. On the Sunday we did another short tour over the Moosegg on two bikes. The middle of July is Duncan's Birthday, we celebrated with a nice dinner. Michelle managed to surprise him with a voucher to hire a Goldwing for a weekend. It is the Motorbike Duncan has always dreamed of. The last weekend saw us off on a 2 day Motorbike tour. On the Saturday we did from Thun along the North side of the lake, up through the Justiztal down to Interlaken over the Brunig pass, the Panoramastrasse with lots of hair pin turns then through the Emmental for a late but well earned lunch. Poor Duncan had to work quite hard on the hairpins whilst Michelle enjoyed the very comfortable armchair they call the passenger seat. It is certainly a different sort of Motor biking. It is a sofa on wheels with a great sound system The evening Duncan studied the Manual that came with the bike, or should we say encyclopaedia. Sunday morning saw him installing the MP3 player. Then we headed of in a different direction, towards the Jura this time on two bikes. There are some great tours in this region, but we don't go there much we're not really sure why maybe because it is French speaking. We headed off with cloudy skies, but it never actually rained, it just threatened to. We started the tour near Solothurn going over the Weissstein, this is a lovely curvy mountain. The road keeps on crossing under the chair lift that goes to the top. Then we headed of to Moutier then down to lake Biel, because the weather further west looked dodgy. The we cut cross country through the Seeland area, a surprisingly flat part of Switzerland. We went over the Leug in the Emmental before returning the bike to Thun. It was sad that the weekend was over but it was a fun 482 kms. If you add the trip to and from Thun on our own bikes then we did over 550km in two days. Duncan said the seat on the Gold wing is much more comfortable than on his bike, and that it didn't really feel like we had travelled this far. Disaster stuck at the end of the month, we wanted to update the webpage and discovered the hard disk with all our digital photos had broken. It took Duncan several days of hard work to restore all the data. Thank goodness he knows about such things. Michelle was back at the Orthopaedic surgeon for the next check up, he is very pleased with her progress with her knee. She is now cycling for 1 hour at a time and is in the weight room twice a week, she also has to do lots of balance exercises, all good practice for skiing. There was bad news on the hip pain though, she has torn the edge of the hip socket, so will need surgery to fix it. She is now waiting for an appointment with a specialist. Looks like with the time scales here that it probably wont happen until after the ski season.

Powered by Qumana

June

2007-09-02T10:43:00.001+02:00

Powered by Qumana

Google and Blogger

2007-06-09T08:16:00.000+02:00

It’s been trying since google took hold of Blogger to get RSS posts working but they seem to be working OK now. However most of the tools I used to use don’t workL But we’ll get ontop of that problem eventually…

May

2007-06-01T08:31:00.000+02:00

Michelle is not very mobile on her crutches so to prevent her from getting bored we bought a Wii, for those that don't know it it is a computer game where by you make the actions necessary. On the first weekend we did so much 10 pin bowling and tennis that both of us had sore muscles in the shoulders. No more saying computer games are passive. This is very active, but Michelle can sit to play. May is the month of Visitors. Rosi came for dinner on one weekend, unfortunately it was a very wet and grey day. So we played with the Wii. Olav seems to have settled into Zurich ok and came for a BBQ, the weather was much better. The ascension day holiday was grey and wet again, Karin came over for an indoor BBQ an a mammoth 7 hour Wii session. On the 20th it was our Wedding anniversary. We spent the day taking a 5 hour boat trip from Thun to Interlaken and back again. We had a great lunch on board, the weather was great, even a bit too warm in the sun. Michelle visited Duncan in Biel for the day, she said it was a shopping paradise and definitely wants to go back when she is fully mobile.

April

2007-05-01T08:30:00.000+02:00

A short four day work break and then we were back in St. Anton for Easter. We decided not to ski in a ski school group because Alois had private lessons. We know enough of the area to ski on our own, but with a group is more fun. We met up with Olav, who didn't really have a good first day but the following days improved. We even managed to catch up with Edelgard (who was conspicuously missing all season) and Doris. We had some great firn snow in the mornings and some great spring snow in the afternoons. On the last day it was plus 11 C in the village at 11am so we stopped for lunch and stayed on the sun terrace for the rest of the afternoon. Duncan wasn't really well on that day so a gentle day was really needed. The following weekend saw us going back to pack up the apartment, a sad event as it means the end of the season. Michelle got in about 50 ski days this year, but Duncan only managed about 35 because of his new job. The end of April saw Michelle in hospital to get her knee fixed. She got a new cruciate ligament she spent a week in hospital before coming home on crutches.

March

2007-04-01T08:29:00.000+02:00

We were busy watching the St. Anton website, so when we saw it had snowed 70 cm we packed our bags and headed back the very next weekend. We found some really great snow, but also hundreds of other people with the same idea, the queues were horrendous. We had underestimated how warm it had been so had to be careful picking which slopes to ski as the avalanche warning was level 4. The shady slopes were the best. We only made the mistake of skiing Mattun once (sunny slope) it was deep porridge from mid way down, a real leg killer. We both needed a beer after surviving that! Michelle did part three of her course, she is still really enthusiastic about it. She received the information about her exam in December and the homework she has to deliver a month before, suddenly she is a little freaked about the whole thing. The 17th we spent Heli-skiing in the Jungfrau region. We left Lauterbrunnen about 8 AM and headed up through the mountains over amazing scenery of glaciers, mountains, crevasses. By the time we landed for the first we had already had a fantastic day! The first run was from 3800m down to 2400m then another flight took us up to 3200m for a run down to1700. During the first run we stopped at a mountain hut for a "coffee". Those 2 runs took us all morning, the scenery was amazing, we even saw the wreckage of the mountain hut destroyed by an avalanche 2 weeks ago, that was a bit worrying. The snow was very mixed from really nice slightly slushy snow, to crusty and very hard snow. We started the day in the Canton of Bern and ended up on the other side of the alps in the Canton of Wallis. Last week in March saw us back in St. Anton, we stayed out in Pettneu with Alois. The snow was surprisingly good, we were a bit concerned after the heavy snow at the beginning of the month. The Saturday was probably the best day of the season, it had snowed on Friday and we had untracked deep powder to play in. It was fantastic. The week was fun with some happy familiar faces and some great new people. Alois also found some fantastic snow (firn and powder), including the hike up to Rendlsharte. Michelle has done this hike up before this year, and made it up in just under one hour, a new personal best. We also spent a great evening up at Wurgl Alois's hunting hut. We had a traditional meal of pork knuckles and sauerkraut with lots of beer and schnapps. The sunset from up there was beautiful. Unfortunately Michelle got Bronchitis and had to miss ski school on a couple of days. Petra a Pharmacist in our group, kept on supplying Michelle with all sorts of cures. Petra was a lot of fun, we are hoping to get up to Hamburg over the summer months to visit her. On the last day we free skied with Olaf Petra and Brigitte.

February

2007-03-01T08:28:00.000+01:00

Jenny spent a couple of days with us in Switzerland before flying home. Michelle was back of to Germany for the second part of her course. The course will take the whole year with one weekend a month. It makes this winter very busy with working skiing and studying she doesn't really have any time just to relax and do nothing. This is a really bad year for shoulders, we heard from Peter before we left, he has injured his shoulder and can't ski. A real shame because his son is in St. Anton to ski with him. The middle of February came and saw Michelle back in St. Anton skiing. Duncan was only able to get a couple of days off so joined her mid week. We finally got to meet Peter's son Duff, great guy, lots of fun, he struggled in the deep snow because it was his first time, but he learnt really quick, and by the end of the week was putting in some really nice tracks. As usual fantastic snow, Alois had to work hard to find it though, and we had to do lots of walking. We started the week doing Kalteck, not a good sign as he usually saves that for the end of the week when everything else is tracked out. We then did the hour hike up to Rendlscharte. Poor Michelle really struggles on this because it is an hour of steep steps kicked into the snow carrying your skis on your shoulder. We did the run from Kappl (near Ischgl) down through the Malfontal, we even found a nice sheltered spot and celebrated the run with Champagne that Michelle had carried with her all day. She was a bit concerned with the mornings crusty snow, all the vibration and falls that the champers might explode. Alexandra managed to join us for a weekend of skiing, as we haven't skied together for a couple of years she has greatly improved. Its nice to see her so happy again.

January

2007-02-01T08:24:00.000+01:00

Duncan is very busy at work. The deregulation went well on New years eve at midnight, but there is still loads to do. The poor boy is exhausted come the weekend. Michelle made it back to St. Anton for a weeks skiing from the 5th of January, Duncan came for the weekend. Sonia, Kim, Gunnar and loads of familiar faces. Michelle partied hard in the Piccadilly, because there was not a lot of skiing. She skied with Alois, and met some nice new people. The off-piste was crusty or slushy so it was very strenuous. The wind has blown most of the snow off the tops of the mountains, an lower down it is a case of pick your way through the rocks and grass. They desperately need snow. Michelle headed directly off to Germany where she has begun a course in Manuel Therapy. Travelling through Basel she picked up Peter (Canadian) who was on his way to St. Anton. It was great to have him come and stay. We talked late into the night, and saw lots of Photos. We headed back to St. Anton on the 26th for our traditional week 5. After the reports from Peter about warm wet weather, we were pleasantly surprised with the great snow. WE had all sorts of weather with some great sunny days, some foggy days but Alois found mostly fantastic snow. We skied Langen 3 times, once we managed to get lost in the forest so that involved a very strenuous walk up. We had a very late lunch that day, but the group moral was great. We skied with lots of familiar faces, Jenny, Jürgen, Johny Per, Gunter Joko etc etc. St. Anton really like being a part of a huge family. Joko hasn't really changed she is still good for excitement, she was very lucky this time as she nearly fell of a 20 m cliff, thanks to Alois's amazing strength he was able to pull her back up with just one hand! Jenny is her amazing tough self. The week before we arrive she broke and dislocated her shoulder, she had 2 Titanium screws and was back skiing with Alois 4 days later. She decided to stop skiing early to prevent falling.

New year, New news

2007-01-21T14:56:00.000+01:00

Welcome to 2007. All our latest news can be found at Our Latest News

Powered By Qumana

St Anton 2007

2007-01-21T14:54:00.000+01:00

We couldn't resist it. We went back again. Once again the snow wasn't great but the atmosphere was just as good as it always is. Checkout the pictures at St Anton 07 Wk 2

Powered By Qumana

St Anton at last

2007-01-21T14:52:00.000+01:00

Even though the snow isn't too great off piste we did go to St Anton for Christmas. checkout the pictures at St Anton Xmas 06

Powered By Qumana

Skiing at Sörenberg

2007-01-21T14:51:00.000+01:00

The ski opening in St Anton was cancelled. We quite disapointed but Finally we have enough snow to ski on locally. Checkout a few pictures at Sörenberg Dec06

Powered By Qumana

Zermatt 2006

2006-10-16T17:00:00.000+02:00

Finally! The ski season has (sort of) started again! We decided that 4 months away from the skis was long enough. We had ourselves a long weekend in Zermatt. The weather the first day was really very good but the snow was not really what we lusted for. Saturday night it snowed and although the sun wasn't so visible Sunday the snow was incredible.

Jürgen we're up to 2 days. How far are you?

Pictures at Zermatt 2006

Powered By Qumana

Bonn 2006

2006-10-16T16:56:00.000+02:00

Michelle attended a congress in Sendenhorst in Germany. Although she took loads of pictures they are not appropriate here. Boring too! However, she was able to visit some friends of ours in Bonn. We know Olav and Christine from St Anton. They all enjoyed a Brunch together in Bonn. Pictures at Bonn 2006

Powered By Qumana

Vist to Pilatus with Rosi

2006-10-16T16:53:00.000+02:00

It has been a while since we did anything with Rosi so we are pleased to be able to tell you that we talked her into going up the mountain Pilatus. It didn't take much to be fair. We had a great day. You can find ther pictures at Pilatus 2006

Powered By Qumana

Mum's Visit to St Anton

2006-10-16T16:51:00.000+02:00

It seems to have worked! We have been talking about St Anton for many years now and finally my Mother couldn't resist any longer. She had to go and visit. OK it wasn't in winter but at least she can now understand when we tell her thigns about the place. Pictures at St Anton 06 Wk35

Powered By Qumana

Our Latest News

2006-08-14T20:14:00.000+02:00

The news page has been updated.

All the details about our trip to St Anton, the Bikertreff, Michelle's operation and lots more at Our Latest News

Powered By Qumana

Motorbike Tour to St Anton

2006-08-08T18:38:00.000+02:00

For several years we have been talking about taking a motorbike tour around some of the interesting passes in the Arlberg. This year we finally made it! We had a superb time riding the Silvreta Nova and the Lechtal passes. The weather was also mostly kind to us. You can see some of the pictures at: MB Tour St Anton 06

Powered By Qumana

Sumiswald 2006

2006-08-08T18:32:00.000+02:00

Once again we visited the Bikerfest in Summiswald. This time we went on our own. Two years ago we went with Helen, but we had a great time anyway.

They had a superb wheely contest that we really enjoyed.

Checkout the pictures here: Sumiswald 2006

Powered By Qumana

The Grimsel Pass

2006-06-28T12:50:00.000+02:00

We went for a super motorcycle ride over the Grimsel Pass with Rüdi & Sylvia. Checkout the pictures at:The Grimsel Pass 2006

Powered By Qumana

Crepes

2006-06-16T21:44:00.000+02:00

Michelle invited 10 of her female colleagues for crepes. Duncan took flight and spent the evening... elseware. Michelle was kind enough to take some photos that you can see at Krepp Abend.

Powered By Qumana

Duncan visits the UK

2006-06-16T10:31:00.000+02:00

Duncan decided to take advantage of one of the cheap flights to the UK and try to get his parents up to speed on their respective computers. The proof of the pudding is in the eating so we'll see how they manage to use it after they leave. we all know that he can use one!

Michelle was unable to go too due to work commitments, so she spoilt herself with a long wellness weekend. She felt really pampered and relaxed after.

Powered By Qumana

We made it! 80 Days skiing!

2006-06-16T10:21:00.000+02:00

Our original target was 70 days but we made that so easily that we decided to try for 80 days. This target proved quite challenging and we thought that after St Anton closed we wouldn't make it. However we couldn't resist going back to Pitztal after thay had new snow and we managed to make 80 day. You can see the pictures at the following link: Pitztal 2006 Wk21

Powered By Qumana

We visit BEA Nights 2006

2006-05-08T09:24:00.000+02:00

We went to see 3 "Oldies" bands at Bea Nights. They were Alan Parsons Project, Jethro Tull and Barclay James Harvest. All three were superb. We also were able to meet up with Valentino and Manuela again. It has been a very long time since we saw them last. Photos available in the above links.

Powered By Qumana

End of Season

2006-05-02T07:43:00.000+02:00

Yesterday was the end of the season in St Anton. The Galzigbahn is now going to be replaced after nearly 70 years of service. There is a good video about the new Galzigbahn. To see it click this link "Galzig".

Powered By Qumana

The News page is updated.

2006-04-30T10:56:00.000+02:00

Michelle has updated the news page at Our Latest News. It looks like we are not going to make 80 days skiing after all. Tomorrow is the end of the season in St Anton.

Powered By Qumana

Easter 2006 in St Anton

2006-04-18T20:21:00.000+02:00

The new photos are available atSt Anton 06 Wk15. The pictures are not at full camera resolution but reduced to speed up internet loading. If you want any photo at full resolution, send us an email stating which picture you want.

Powered By Qumana

Looks like we'll be skiing with Bertrum for Easter

2006-04-12T22:03:00.000+02:00

Wednesday we received a call from Johny, the mad Dane, He was awfully excited (or drunk) about the fantastic snow they were getting in St Anton and clearly wanted us to ski with him and Bertrum over Easter. Needless to say the invitaion to ski more fantastic snow was too much for us...

So tomorrow we'llbe there!

Powered By Qumana

Our Latest News

2006-04-11T20:21:00.000+02:00

Our News page has been updated by Michelle. Click "Our Latest News" to read.

Powered By Qumana

St Anton 06 Wk14

2006-04-11T15:37:00.000+02:00

New pictures at St Anton 06 Wk14

Powered By Qumana

Start of RSS feed.

2006-04-11T15:16:00.000+02:00

OK the old blog got a bit stale so we're starting a new one. All the out of date stuff has been deleted, mostly so you can't tell how badly it's been maintained. This one is driven by an RCC feed which you can pickup from our web site.

If you haven't yet got yourself a RSS client, do so. It saves you having to go to web sites (like ours) "just in case" it's been updated. 10 minutes googleing will find you one.

Powered By Qumana

Opening of the Blog

2004-10-14T10:48:00.000+02:00

Today we opened our blog site. We will try to keep this site brief and up to date. You can see our pictures all at http://www.family-guy.netfirms.com so we'll keep the picture content, and hence the size of this blog down to a minimum.

Winter is coming, the ski season approaches. Lets hope for a cold, snowy winter...