…snowboarding! I managed to wangle a free pass and kit hire for Tignes and Val d’Isere courtesy of Chris, one of the regional managers. Who, incidentally, rocks. And who I now owe beer to. I spent the day by myself as the rest of the group I was with were all skiers and therefore tootled [...]

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Snow. In Scotland. Indoors. There’s an Xscape which has opened recently in a place called Braehead to the west of Glasgow and it took very little convincing for my uncle to pack my little cousin’s wellies and waterproofs in a rucksack and take us there. It’s not the cheapest day out, especially outside of term [...]

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And on to number 14 – Dubai, another one-night stop. You know, I’m not sure if this is a country, a state or a region. It’s one of the United Arab Emirates, a group of recently-rich oil states which are spending their money predominantly on property development to try and entice tourists in. I arrived [...]

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 Much better weather today with excellent visibility. However, this was partly due to less snow the night before so the snow blowers were on on the lower slopes. Lou didn’t bother getting the bus up today – her knee was still rather banged up and she was limping – so I handed her board and [...]

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Another day on the mountain, though the visibility was “poor” according to the rather polite board on arrival. The signpost which went up later in the day to say that the Greengates area was closed due to “Poopy Visibility” was closer to the mark. We set off later than yesterday as we both only had [...]

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 Today I froze my beard. Solid. It’s a very weird sensation. You can sort of feel the hairs tightening as the ice forms on each hair and they join together. Winding back the clock, the day had started early as we went to the nearest pub (“47″) to watch the England game. Sod’s Law dictated [...]

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 Rob comandeered the car keys from me (some excuse about “knowing the way” or something) and we loaded it up. Rucksacks. Chocolate. Coats. Shirts. Jumpers. More jumpers. Helmets. Snowboards. Mount Dobson had opened its skifields a week earlier than normal as there’d been some snowfall and we decided to make the most of it. The [...]

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