Days 17, 18 & 19: Cemetry & Snow

It is finally snowing and whenever it snows, my world turns into something magical; noises make space for silence and everything, including myself, becomes peaceful. Even though most days are very hectic, and I don't get to go to bed until 2 am,  now that it snows, it seems like time stands still and for the first time since we departed, I have some peace of mind. While I am watching the snow fall, my mind takes me back to when I was 12 years old. My father took me on my first ski holiday in a very small village (like this one) called Niedersill in the Austrian Alps. I remember we had a small room in the attic of a small family hotel facing the church and the cemetery. During the day it was just a normal local cemetery, but in the evening this little cemetery turned into something magical; every grave was lit with one or two red tealights (probably put there by family members), making it nearly look like a place that you would want to go and visit. 

One evening it started snowing and from underneath the snow, the little red lights were still visible. It seemed somehow unreal and although my father was already deep asleep - he had discovered a drink called 'Teufelskrauter'  (munition of the devil, 50% alcohol) - I sneaked out of the bed, left the hotel and wandered around the cemetery on the virgin snow, wearing my pajamas. I passed by every grave and wondered what lives people had lived and whether they'd been happy.      

So we are in Gressoney, also a very small and picturesque village in Valle d'Aosta, but I am not visiting any graveyards today. I am thinking back about the last few days and again, we had all sorts of weather and snow conditions, that any decent skier would hope to avoid. We skied in Torgnon, a place known for having a relatively easy and (from a nature point of view) stunning piste. And all of that was true. However, it had snowed and there was a storm, which meant that the 15 km long piste was not only not prepared (there is not much sense, if there is a storm), there was also 20 cm fresh snow on top. We went regardless, it was hard work, it took us 4 hours in which we didn't meet anyone, but it was very worthwhile. 

Piste in Torgnon

Claudia, a lovely lady who manages the piste (her husband prepares the slopes when there is no storm) offered us a warm lunch and the ticket to the slope and called around to find out where we could best go skiing next. We planned to go to Val Ferret, on the Monte Bianca (Mont Blanc), but made a phonecall and was told it was closed due to the storm. The chalet, used to sell the tickets, apparently had been blown away...  so she called around and decided that the next day, we were going to ski in Arpy instead. 




     Claudia, thanks to whom we discovered Arpy (at Torgnon)

Everything was organised by Claudia and Enrico and thanks to Claudia, we discovered these fully prepared, amazing slopes, hidden away from the rest of the world. Unknown to most, and yet not to all...  Pope Wojtyla used to come and ski here, and now the Italian Army learns how to shoot, just 20 meters away from my slope. One soldier was given the task to say 'be careful, there is activity' and I wondered....  what an odd thing to say... what does he expect me to do when his colleagues accidentally fire in my direction... should I try to avoid the bullet, skiing slalom perhaps? 

There was also a polar wind that blew us off our feet. We had never been this cold in the entire journey but were happy to have discovered this piste, because at some point, we noticed a gate and after a bit of research we realised that we were skiing on an old anthracite mine. The few houses around were part of an old miners village and the only hostal, which is there, was also part of the mine. It's hard to think that not too long ago, people had a very tough life in a place that is only 8 km away from what is now, one of the poshest ski resorts in Italy. It is here where we reached our 500th kilometer. 

 Entrance to an old mineOld minders village

The lovely people of the hostel who work at piste Arpy and offered us fuel to continue skiing. 

And so today we could finally ski in Val Ferret, on the Monte Bianca (Mont Blanc). A really stunning slope, very easy and I am sure the view would have been stunning if it wouldn't have been snowing.....

My frozen head

The lovely people who work at Val Ferret and who offered the ski pass to us. 









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