Quit your day job. Go on. I dare you.

My mate Andy McCrampons and 5 of his buddies have been making it a habit this season to hire a guide every Tuesday and go out t find the best snow that the valley can offer that day.

One of the lads couldn’t make it today, so I filled the space and went on my first big Ski Tour. I’ve been ready for this for ages, and just waiting for the right opportunity.

So 8:30 am we’re in Flegere car park, and half an hour later we’re at the top of the highest lift in the flegere ski area where we put the skins on the skis and started the first climb to the top of a very steep pass before dropping over the other side of the col to an area of the Aiguilles Rouges I’ve never seen before.

We skied into the bowl and through to the second climb, which was much longer – maybe 2 hours of slogging up hill on skis with a fairly hefty amount of equipment on our backs. I was struggling by this point. Ski touring has got to be the most brutal fitness of a sport I’ve ever done. I was sweating like a cornered virgin by the time I’d got half way.

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After stopping for lunch for 20 mins in the most beautiful spot you can imagine we climbed the last pitch on foot through this tiny rock window and looked down the valley at a perfect, steep powder field. There were tracks, but plenty of room for fresh ones.

The decent is what ski touring is all about. Getting out into areas of the mountain where the lifts don’t reach gives you access to amazing off-piste descents in the back country. The slog up the hill is hard, but the decent is worth every calorie burned.

We skied down to Vallorcine. Probably about 10km. The first, steep part was amazing with steep powder loveliness all the way. The exit of from the valley was hairy at times too – crossing rivers on skis, branches all other the place and a little track through the terrain that was so narrow you couldn’t even snowplough. It was like a toboggan run really – just careering down it waiting to crash.

Then from Vallorcine, we had a quick beer and jumped on the train back down the valley to pick up our cars.

Amazing. Just Amazing.

And of course…. The obligatory flickr photo set…..

I moved out of my flat over the last few days and recombobulated my life. I stashed a load of stuff (mostly my diving gear) up at the the farm where the Andy & the boys live. The office now has my clothes & ski gear in it. I also converted the bathroom (which had been converted into a kitchen) back into a bathroom, and got everything stowed away nicely.

I thought it would take me longer than it did to move and had a bit of time to chill out and have a lazy day on Sunday. So I went skiing for a bit and had a short nap afterwards about 4pm. Was quite surprised to wake up at 9am this morning. Must’ve needed it.

I’m quite happy about moving. It feels good to be back in front of the computers and to have all my stuff in the one place. It also reduces my monthly outgoings by about 65% and makes me much more able to get out of Chamonix for a while when interseason comes around.

So as I got in the car this morning I noticed that there were stones underneath the wheels of the car. Someone had chocked the tires. Interesting. Also the handbrake was off and the gear stick was in neutral. Hmmmm, the plot thickened. Then on closer inspection I saw a bloody great dent in the driver’s door that wasn’t there yesterday…

And a nice note unter the wipers telling me that whomever it was was very sorry about the accident and a name and mobile number to call to sort out the insurance thing.

Amazingly it bothered me not a jot. I think the golf carries it’s new bruise very well and looks even more double ‘ard than it did. I have noticed that people in nice new motors give me a wide berth on the roads, and long may it continue!

I wrote the geezer the following text in French. I had a little help, but was quite proud of my language skillz:

Bonjour. C’etait ma golf que vous avez battre, mais c’est pas grave. La voiture est presque mort. Je nais vais pas elle repare, mais merci comme meme

It snowed in the valley for about a week, and studying the weather forecasts Mark and I planned ahead and cleared the diary so that we could have a proper, full day’s skiing yesterday. Blue skies and plenty of fresh snow were predicted.

We were on the Grande Montets by 9am and the sky was indeed blue. Trouble was it was a bit windy, so both the high altitude lifts were closed. We had a couple of runs on the Herse before they closed that one too and left us with the lower portion of the area to ski.

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The couloirs and some other runs were fun, but around lunchtime we decided to switch mountains and headed over to the other side of the valley – Flegere - for the afternoon. A two mountain day is unusually mustard, but because it turned out to be a great move and Sarah joined us for an amazing afternoon of steep powder before the sun made the snow too heavy to ski and we called it a day and skied the bar around 4pm.

It was only when we were on our second pitcher of beer at a bar in town that I realised it was the 15th February – exactly one year since I first moved to Chamonix. A small celebration was in order. After changing clothes etc we were back in town in the evening for a few drinks and some dinner at the Bistrot des Sports. In short – it was a day to remember.

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It’s been the best year of my life. Only a few others even come close – I’ve met more great people, got my Listings Lab business well underway, learned to fly, hugely improved my skiing and had more fun that I can ever remember. And best of all…. I met Sarah :)