Continuing the theme of small is beautiful :Arolla.

Mt Collin seen through the fabled Arolla Pines

Charlie Di and Mike have been skiing around Argentire longer than I have. So at the end of their anual trip they were keen to go somewhere different.  So I suggested Arolla which is about as different as it possibly could be.  Situated at 2000meters at the end of a long valley it is a popular summer mountaineering destination.  In the spring it attracts lots of ski tourers and is best known because the Patrouilles des Glaciers ski mountaineering race passes througth the village on its way to its finish in Verbier. [Having started in Zermatt.] Yet for people in the know it also has brilliant lift accessed off-piste skiing. Well by lift accessed this actaully means two very long poma lifts, the second of which drags you to nearly 3000meters.  From where there are plenty of off piste ski descents.

I collected Di Charlie and Mike from Argentire and we drove to Evolne where we stayed at the Hotel Eden.  Charming and clean but had had no real upgrade in about a hundred years.

Dinner was in a restaurent down the main street which was good.  However the evening will be remembered for the charachters who par took in the Evolene festival.

This was some ancient festival which the villagers were determined to keep going.  It consisted of some blokes wearing scary wooden masks, dressed in dead sheep [ legs still attached] ringing cow bells , who took great pleasure in disrupting the traffic.  

My attempt to learn more about the tradition failed to glean anymore despite reading the glossy magazine which ws meant to give the history.

Anyway.  It snowed over night and we awoke to a cold clear day.  We drove upto Arolla.  The women selling the tickets was the retired guardian of the Vignettes Hut who I hadnt seen for 20 years.  We briefly reminist about a particular night when we were both blocked in the Hut for 3 days during a mega storm.-But thats another story.

Needless to say the combination of fresh snow, blue skies and effectively our own private ski resort meant we had exceptional skiing.

 

In fact Charlie [ who has done a lot of skiing in his life] said that it was one of the best dyas skiing he had ever had. 

Unfortunately the next day was possibly one of the worst... The weather changed, the foehn kicked in , it was windy and eventually the visibility disappeared. Life is timing.