vita pelle: Heaven meets Earth in Chamonix.

"The human mind thirsts after immensity and immutability and duration without bounds but it needs some tangible object as a point of rest from which to take its flight something present to lead to futurity something bounded from whence to rise to the infinite. This vault of the heavens over our heads sinking all terrestrial objects into absolute nothingness might seem best fitted to awaken the creative powers of the mind but mere space is not a perceptible object to which we can readily apply a scale, while the Alps seen at a glance between heaven and earth as it were on the confines of the regions of fancy and of sober reality are there like written characters traced by a divine hand suggesting thoughts such as human language never reached."

-Simond, Narrative of an Ascent to the Summit of Mt. Blanc on the 8th and 9th of August, 1827.

This is exactly what you want to see when you open your eyes at 6AM. Countless centimeters of fresh snow, and the cafe and pain au chocolat that followed shortly thereafter. Unfortunately the 20+cm made for a very grey day with litle visibility, but when the sun came through the clouds the following day we were in heaven. Literally. You will see what I mean momentarily.

In the meantime I will take this opportunity to demonstrate just one of the many reasons why riding is better in Europe. Salads served in a jar. Apres ski with vin chaud is another... and oh yeah, the Alps.

View from our house in the hills of St. Gervais, and the day the sun decided to grace us with its presence so we could actually see and appreciate where we were.

View from my Neversummer which has tracked as many miles as I have.

View from the top of the Telepherique Les Grands Montets.

Photo courtesy of Agatha Wasilewska, hostess and guide.

Here we are, about to make our descent into the clouds.

My first harness. The harness allows ski patrol to air lift you out of something you might fall into while riding off-piste. Thankfully, I did not need this, nor did I need to activate the avalanche device in my pocket. If you want to know more about avalanches I know a guy who can tell you all about his three experiences with them within a 24 hour period (Hi Willy!)

View from the summit of Grand Montets, elevation 3,295 meters.

Our descent towards the glaacier.

As you can see it was a gorgeous, perfect day. The snow was still light and we had this part of the mountain to ourselves. This allowed me to scream "wooooooooo!!!" at the top of my lungs nearly all the way down the mountain.