Happy Birthday Nathan!

A morning on Skis on the Saanenmoser ski area, snow was in good condition considering it had been rained on for 4 days and the area was very quiet for a Sunday. Off to pick up Nathan for 2 weeks of skiing and boarding in France and Italy. The SatNav said 3.5 hours from Gstaad to Turin Airport, it took exactly 3.5 hours (how did it know how long I would stop for toilet breaks?) An incredible drive through the Swiss Alps and then up through the famous switchbacks and hairpins to the Grand St. Bernard tunnel, once through the tunnel its an hour down the Aosta valley to Torino. It was a balmy winters dusk, the thermometer on the car read 22.5 degree centigrade and I started to worry about the state of the snow up in resort. As the sun set over the western Alps, the pinnacle of Monte Rosa was glowing pink through the low cloud, I was minded of the view from my apartment 15 years earlier when I was at university in Turin and we lived in the foot hills of the alps above the city.

I picked up Nathan and we shot up to the French resort of Montgenevre, checked into our Boutique hotel (1 Star!), and now have balcony facing the slopes. The first task of the day was to purchase Nathan a brain bucket (helmet!) and hire some snowboard boots for him. We promised each other that as we had 2 weeks together boarding and skiing we would take the first day easy.....well we are now in the room and Nathan can't lift is head off the pillow from whiplash and everytime I move my shoulder it sounds like the gearbox on my 1984 Mini Metro, hmmm only 13 days left to go – I wonder if we can make it through with out injury, and I have another 3 weeks after that – need to look after the aging body. We are both pretty dehydrated and the altitude is not helping, I too now have a sore neck from a head plant on the last run down from the hill, Nathan shouted as he rode past, “doesn't matter how deep you plant it, it wont grow!” thanks mate!

Oh I nearly forgot it was Nathan's birthday today, he is now 36 and so has moved out of his early 30's and into the late 30's zone....early night tonight then for the old man!