Christmas in the Alps!

Well, this year we were truly fortunate to get to spend Christmas with Maria's family in Verbier... After an epic journey via Brisbane, Hong Kong (twice!), Tel Aviv & Geneva, we finally made it. We stayed in a lovely chalet right by la rouge lift and we started off with a great snow base for this time of year with plenty of sunshine. We grew accustomed to waking up to this view!

As Christmas approached, so did a storm system so we were treated to buckets of fresh snow over a few days and managed to score lots of fresh pow, not too many action shots from that as we were too busy & cold to stage & snap the shots so you'll just have to believe me!
Here's some shots from the top of Mont Fort - 3330m, about a 400m tram ride up from the Col Du Gentianes.

... And just past halfway down from the Col Du Gentianes to La Chaux is my favorite spot for lunch, la Cabine du Mont Fort! Not a bad spot, squeezed in between Bec de Rosses & Mont Gele, looking down to La Chaux below. The tram line in the pics is the 'jumbo' from La Chaux to the col - about 850m vert.

The Mont Fort tram dock!

Over the other side of the near ridge is Verbier (village)

and then it was Christmas (eve) - woke up to a gloomy pow day in the village, that was clear & deep at the top! Once things up there were tracked out we headed back below where it was still snowing - so we had freshies all the way to the door! We then gorged ourselves on the Jul Bord! 

Christmas day dawned with more fresh snow!

After Christmas, the temps plummeted and we spent a couple of days skiing from hut to hut downing vin chaude to stay warm!

We also rolled around to Chamonix to check out a few things, here's a couple of shots from around town...

yes, I'll have one wheel thanks!

Back in Verb, we decided to explore the 4 Valleys a bit and made it around to Veysonnaz for lunch, pics below. Unfortunately, due to epic crowds we spent more time in lift lines than anywhere else and got stuck in Siviez, making for a looong trip home! I've gotta say, the lift system for getting around on that side of the resort truly sucks! But the lunch spot didn't!

As the New Year approached, I went fireworks shopping to bring out the pyro in me! The fireworks were going off all over the Verbier Valley from about 5pm with an amazing amount of $$$ going up in smoke!

Here is a few extra shots from around town...

Well, I'm heading out for a paddle to try and combat the jet lag - not much swell but the water is warm! Ciao.

Brissie & Hong Kong

With Christmas rolling around, I'd jagged a little leave so we headed to Europe to spend Christmas with Maria's family - but on the way we stopped in Brisbane to see my family and then Hong Kong (twice) on our epic saga to get to Verbier for Christmas!

We left after saying good-bye to Serge & Nadine - thanks for the AWESOME time at the U2 concert the night before guys!!

We stayed with Nic for a few nights in her wonderful (almost!) restored qld'er with Xena & Lucy...

We also headed out to Mum & Dad's where the weather was a little unsettled!

It was great to see the family for a Christmas dinner at Tania's too, although it was in the dark due to the above mentioned weather! We then tried to launch London, but got nowhere... After spending another night at Nicole's we relauched out trip and made it to Hong Kong! It had been about 7 years since I'd been last and Maria had never visited so we stayed in a tiny room in Wan Chai and saw a few sights around town, namely the Night Markets over on Kowloon and we took a stroll around Lan Kwai Fong...

We were to late to make it too the peak so we had a few beers and headed to bead late. It was great to feel the hustle & bustle of hkg again, it was even better to be on the QF 29 bound for a snowy London! That was until 4 hours into the flight, when we turned around to go back to hkg! Bloody Heathrow couldn't get their act together & deal with a little snow so they closed & we had to go back. Weird. With nothing improved the next morning, we found some cheap tickets with El Al to Geneva via Tel Aviv which worked quite well for us so we finally made it!