Quick link to Winter 2004/5 report: [1]
[2] [3]
[4] [5]
[6] [7]
02 Jan 2005
SNOW AND CHALET REPORTS
Chamonix
While some unfortunate housemates have
spent weeks here staring at brown hillsides wondering
when or whether the snow would come, most exhibited
impeccable timing, braving hurricaines and hangovers
to turn up in the days immediately following the first
serious snowfall of the season. Since then we’ve
had fresh lines for everyone, including one rare morning
of champagne powder for those willing to risk close
encounters with rocks, and powder burial – the
upshot, a tantalising preview of the best Chamonix has
to offer! Of course, now we’ve had it all and we’re
skidding on ice, squinting our way through whiteouts
and once more wondering, grumpily, when we’re going
to get the dump we need. However, we can now officially
declare the 2004/2005 Planetsubzero Chamonix season
open for business!
This year sees a satisfyingly peculiar and diverse
collection of fugitives and layabouts (many of whom
are called Jim or John). Having said that, for some
of us the most important decision of the day is not
which bus to get on, and we have hard-working transfer
drivers, bar workers, underwater ceramic technicians,
doorknob polishers and more DJs than you can shake a
stick at. Snowboarders currently rule, although, like
on Planet of the Apes, this strange balance may shift
yet.
Christmas was an interesting, liquid affair (although
see, courtesy of Johnny, pic 1 of Kate’s epic Christmas
dinner). John Dearnley wowed us with his truly staggering
capacity for alcohol. It must be all the pies he eats
(he ranks lifts by how many sandwiches he can eat before
he has to get off). We lost him around 4pm on Christmas
Eve, only to find him again at approximately midnight
(he claims, only 12 pints later) wearing a pointy hat
(see pic 2). He made it back to the house some hours
later with an enormous sandwich from Poco Loco and unexpectedly
able to string a sentence together (the same cannot
be said of Alan from Argentiere, however – Dearnley’s
unwitting partner in crime that night – who for
humanitarian reasons had to be allowed to crash on the
cold, stony floor of the Cham house after having been
found, lost and wandering the back streets of Chamonix
looking for a warm place to die). Les Arcs Planetsubzero
veteran Rob Corfield also deserves a special mention
for this glorious fashion sense (see pic 3).
The battle for best festive decorations, in the Blue
Peter subcategory, has been decisively won by the Argentiere
house, not least because their Christmas tree (which
is well worth the 95 euros somebody ought to have paid
for it) is not yet bald like the one in Cham. But mainly
because of their extraordinary ingenuity in creating
tree decorations from tea bags (see pic 4). Is there
no end to Rich’s creative talents? The Argentiere
house also wins the double-hard-bastard award for outlandish
solutions to late-night transport dilemmas – Ed
and Si, soon to be RAF helicopter pilots – walked
back from Chamonix to Argentiere (in 2-and-a-half hours).
A feat people often discuss but never actually attempt!
Tignes
This week the Tignes guys have mostly
been celebrating New Year and spending a suitable number
of days recovering from it. All our photos apart from
the mad moon one are from NYE. We started the evening
enjoying a very nice mexican meal prepared by Kirsty
(our new flat mate) and Amelia. After a few beverages,
a number of visitors to the flat, numerous drinking
games and plenty of cheesy television theme tunes later
everyone headed for the local to get the night really
under way.
Midnight down in the sqaure in Tignes
was wicked, with plenty o fireworks going off and plenty
more drinks being consumed (see pics). Raymondo, in
typical style, donned his snowboard at about 2am and
disappeared into the night. Unlike xmas eve we did't
find him sprawled out in the church and he safely made
his way home (he did annoy a few chefs on the way mind
you!).
The big news this week is that one of
the guys (Mr Pete Hampshire) saw the light when he changed
his single tray for two fine planks and a pair of sticks.
Yes, he is now a skier and loving it, one down, eight
more to go! It looks like Rich will have to run the
Slim, Blonde, Young Girls Snowboard School alone from
now on.
There may or may not have been an "incident"
between two of the housemates at midnight on NYE, please
review the photographs and see if you can guess!!!
This week we said goodbye to our first
flatmates. Lucinda has now joined the new guys in Vallandry,
Les Arcs, Ray....sorry Scott has moved to a new flat
in Tignes and Amelia has gone to Val D'Isere to start
her instructor course. The place will certainly be less
gassy without the Yeovil stalwart. Four new ones are
arriving today though. Jess and Gareth got here a few
hours ago and Neil and Wayne arrive this evening.
Due to not writing about myself in the
last report please see a blurry photo of me in the photos
section (aka short pete).
Les Arcs
Over in Les Arcs, after a considerably
messy one for new year, most of the new Planet Subzero
crew have just arrived. Watch this space for news and
reports from the people's republic of Vallandry.
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