What a welcome into 2012

A belated happy new year to you guys! I hope you saw in the night in the greatest of style and you got to spend time with the people that made your year exciting. It was an odd experience celebrating Christmas and new year here away from family, but luckily I've a couple of really good friends out here that really have made me feel more at home. I started off in the Crepu for a quick meet up with some folk, then ended up in a bar called Cafe Chaud and it was absolutely packed out but the music was great! We really wanted to go to Le Tremplin because this is currently the favourite hang out spot for me and my friends, but sfor some strange reason it was closed.....I still haven't found out why that is yet but it rattled us a bit. The night ended shortly after midnight hit because I was very aware I was on breakfast duty the next morning and didn't want to push my luck!

I had a heavy night out last night, I went from the Crepu to the Cavern and then over to Operafrom where I crawled into my chalet with Alice at 5am. I'm my disorientated state this morning I somehow forgot to take my lift pass out with me and decided instead of wasting another hour going to get it I'd just buy a day pass around Avoriaz for 30.50 euros. That's something I'll never do again GRRR!!

The snow has been unbelievable for these first few days of 2012 here in Morzine, there is a really solid base down so all we need now is a bit of sun. We have had at least another 20cm from yesterday, and tomorrow may be a right off for riding on the hills as 50cm and super strong winds are heading our way. Today was a powder wonderland up in Avoriaz and once the mist cleared by about 1pm the runs over at the top of Tour were absolutely stunning. I headed up Lac-Interets with Alice and tried heading down the Bleue d'Arare, however the mist was very bad and visibility was so poor we thought we'd try the other side to Avoriaz and hope the cloud didn't follow us. Alice and I headed down to the bottom of the Prolays lift and went from Crete, to Combe a Floret, but then turned off onto the red run Les Tannes We did this a couple of times as nobody seemed to want to take on the red section. It was littered with moguls but at least we had it to ourselves so bouncing around the width of the piste was no problem at all. I went up the Chaux Fleurie for the first time later that afternoon and there was a beautiful piece of off piste near the top of the lift Alice showed me, which then led into a tree run. I got extremely stuck in the powder and need more practise for sure but it was wicked fun.

I haven't been over to Chatel, Switzerland or Les Gets yet but I'm very much looking forward to when I do, I'm hoping to make more of a trip of it with friends.