Neither of us felt like a full day on the slopes after our drive from Austria yesterday so we had a lazy morning, for me cooking a rabbit casserole and some Taco mix to see us through the next few nights whilst Mike sorted out our touring kit.

Had a very early lunch and then could put it off no longer, time to climb the mountain up to the top of Tracouet. Last year after we came back from The Pyrenees it felt like a walk in the park. This year it felt like a mountain! The start was okay up to the upper Bisse, however, when we got into the trees above that some sections of the trail proved quite challenging. In parts the snow had been swept off leaving an icy base that was difficult to get grip on. In one such area I had decided to do a kick turn to avoid a nasty brushed off section and lost my balance. Fell down the slope and then had my skis pointing in opposite directions. Felt precarious and could not get the leverage to unclip a ski in order to right myself. Fortunately Mike was at hand and climbed back down the slope to help me out. That fortunately was the last nasty section and from then on it was a pleasant skin to the top and a hot chocolate in the cafe before skiing back home down the piste.

One other point to note I had taken my hat off as I was hot and was not wearing a head band. My goggles (it was snowing) steamed up probably because my hair was wet and was letting moisture in, much like a diving mask. Drying the googles only resulted in short term relief. Eventually I just took them off. Need to be more careful of that in the future as it made it quite challenging to see where I was going!

A successful day which we celebrated with one of Mike’s really nice bottles of wine, the store of which is diminishing.