Waiting for snow can be hard to do.

The last week or so we've been enjoying gorgeous, bluebird days and great skiing. No new snow though. We decided to make some huge sacrifices for the snow gods at the local "establishments". This weekend the gods were happy with our sacrifices and granted us another foot of fresh pow.

Mikey Hovey is back from Vars, where he had been working for the last month on the Red Bull Lincatchers comp. His girlfriend Gretchen has also arrived for the winter. It's great to have some english speaking folks around to ski and socialize with.

On Saturday we (Mikey, Gretchen, and I) skied around Montchavin. The Glacier and Roche de Mio were both closed because of snow and high winds, so we stuck to the trees where we found great untracked pow. Mikey and Gretchen are great skiers and I think we all had a great time exploring some new areas around the resort. We all agreed that the lines we skied are worthy of putting into the regular rotation.

Saturday evening we skied down to Champagny for the Gorzderette. The Gorzderette is a weekend long ice climbing event in the upper village of Champagny. For the last seven years this event takes place on Champagny's 22 meter ice tower. The weekend is full of competitions, bands, and plenty of warm wine to keep the -15c chill away.

After watching the top 3 men and women in the world climb the tower we started back for Champagny proper for drinks, dinner, and the after party. We stopped at a friend's bar for some Richard and beers before dinner. I kind of lost track of time but I do know that dinner was over around midnight and we hadn't even been to the party yet.
We were being hosted by Quick all night. Champagny is Quick's home and I'm sure that there isn't anyone in town that doesn't know him. So I wasn't surprised when we just walked in the back door to the venue, crawled under the crowded bar, and walked out the floor to have a great time. Quick was working the bar and the beer flowed like the salmon of Capistrano.

Both bands were good and LOUD. Holy shit! They love their music turned up to 11 for sure. The reggae was rocking and the crowd was dancing and having a great time. We meet tons of great people and enjoyed the music until 3am.
Quick was now headed to the "Disco Tech" to hear his son play music. I don't think he was to0 surprised when Mikey, Gretchen and I said we were ready for some sleep. We thought we'd walk back to Quick's house, good thing we didn't. We would still be walking around trying to find the house. Quick graciously gave us a ride home and we called it a night as the snow kept falling.
I'm looking forward to the next couple of weeks. Next weekend the Colts play the Saints for the Super Bowl. I'm hoping to watch it live here in France. Even if it does start at midnight. Go COLTS! Heidi is just days away from making her second of three trips out here. Can't wait to see her. She'll be here a few days before Mikey, Devito, and Charlie arrive. And while those four are there from the U.S., Rob and Kelly Parish are coming from Italy to ski for the weekend. Good times!