Just us.......

After the Christmas holidays things get quiet around here. The small village ski resorts we go to don't get very busy except during the February school holidays and they don't have enough beds for huge numbers of tourists. So our first week of skiing has been without any queues for tows or chairlifts and some gorgeous well-groomed slopes. The weather has been kind too. Blue sky and sunshine......

{Saturday afternoon at Molines - coffee time}

Most of the resorts now have at least a couple of snow cannon to augment the natural snow fall. There was a  reasonably big dump of snow in December and the temperatures have been quite low - so a good base is there.

{From the top at Arvieux}

The advantage of skiing on an empty piste is the freedom to turn or stop whenever and wherever you like - it's a great privilege! My arm/shoulder has been reasonably ok with the extra exercise. Just a bit of an ache in the evening. There are two major worries - if I fall or get bumped and getting on and off the poma lifts. I can do the lifts with my left arm (just) although I've had to adjust my balance a little.

{Last run - down another empty slope!}

The biggest pleasure has been the prevalence of  DAYLGHT which was sadly lacking in Scotland.