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.

My guides scoping out our next move.

Glacier d'Argentiere.

Further admiration of the glacier.

Our lines in fresh powder, courtesy of Agatha.

Mi first zipper... and my first big mistake.

Here are the new pattern pieces for my next handbag. This style is slightly more structured than the previous style, and I will also complete three of the same. While making three of the same style might sound daunting, it allows me to work with different materials to familiarize myself with the behaviour of different types of leather. For this particular style I chose black leather (again), black suede (again), and red lambskin. When I use suede or a garment weight leather like the lambskin, I have to cut two of each pattern piece and glue an additional layer to each to give it more substance. This allows the leathers to pass through the machines without getting "mangiato = eaten" as I like to say. 

The first stage of inserting a zipper is gluing the zipper to the salpa. I honestly had no idea how much "mastice," or glue, was involved in the process. Every single seam has glue on both parts. So for example, I will describe the seam where I apply the zipper. First I put mastice on the salpa and the fodera (lining) and glue them together. Then, I put mastice on the zipper and the salpa, and glue them together. You can see above there is a very specific angle in which you must turn the zipper in order to prevent it from being too visible when you open the pocket. In order to do this I had to re-mastice the zipper, applying glue to the end of the zipper tape and the salpa. I will add more photos later so you can see the final product of the zippered pocket.

And here we have it, my very first mistake. I think my head was elsewhere when my instructor Mao was walking me through this part of the process. Each bag has 2 of each of the pattern piece you see above, which make the "fianco," gusset, for the bags. Each piece required me to do the following: Cut 2 in leather, which actually meant 10 pieces in total, since the lamb and suede require that I cut double. Cut 2 of each in fodera (lining), 6 total. The suede and lamb requiring double thickness must be glued together with the "lattice" (spray glue machine). Then, all of the leather pieces must pass through the spaccatrice (to make them thinner and more pliable), then the scarnatrice (to trim the edges to prepare for rimbocare, wrapping). Then, the fodera and leather component must be glued together (with the mastice, not to be confused with the lattice spray glue). Finally I would cut the CORNER EDGES of the fodera and leather "preciso preciso" in order to prepare these pieces to properly attach to the other pieces of the bag.

Before I continue with the devastating turn of events, I want to pause to explain why the term "preciso preciso" is very important. When we begin to cut pattern pieces the patterns have a small margin of error built into them. Some of the pieces have two pattern pieces, the first to cut the materials, and the second to cut "preciso preciso". While all of the pattern pieces are cut from the same modello, there is a chance that after cutting the leather or the salpa of one of the bags, my hand or the material might slip caushing a 1mm, or 0.5mm deviation from the original. At each stage of the process, you begin to work more directly with the pieces you are cutting, rather than the pattern. As the bag progresses, you might make minor adjustments to the piece upon which you are working, while referring back to the modello only as a guide. When Mao tells me to cut "preciso preciso" it means to pay great attention to the pieces to make sure that the lining and leather, for example, are exactly the same, that there is no room for error and I have to take care to not make a mistake. 

Well. Wouldn't you know it, while my head was in orbit, I accidentally cut the entire perimeter of every piece of the fianco, (which in hindsight, makes no sense, as this leaves no material to connect these pieces to the other components), instead of the CORNER EDGES ONLY. This meant that I had to repeat the entire process I outlined above. This was an entire half day of work and I was absolutely miserable, but this is my (second, if you've been following my blog regularly) gentle reminder to always focus on what I am doing. I promised myself I will not make the same mistake twice... or 12 times, as the case may be. 

ACCIDENTI!

Planes, trains, and crossing borders.

Last week I logged some serious mileage on my journey to meet my friends in Chamonix to go snowboarding. I took an overnight train from Firenze, and what you see in these photos is the ride through Martigny, Les Marecottes, Chatelard, Vallorcine, and Argentiere. The greatest thing about these trains is that everyone on them is a skiier (with the occasional snowboarder). It's the French version of the MTA to service the mountain towns.

The train ride is surreal, as it winds through the mountains it feels like you are going through a simulator.

The photos below are for those of you who have not had the unforgettable experience of flying over the Alps during a daytime flight, or for those of you who, like me, are on a connection from NY and at this point are either sleepwalking or sleeping. As beautiful as the ride was through the Alps by train, after a long week of riding I was anxious to get back home and the 1 hour flight (as opposed to the 10+ hours by train) was simply irresistible.

View from starboard.

View from port side.

Now that you've seen how I got there and back, check the next post to see how I spent my time there. For the record, for the first time in history, I was scanned in at the airport in Firenze. There is a one in a bazillion chance that it will happen, and it happened to me. I handed over my passport and smiled widely as the man behind the window asked if I had a visa, and if I was a resident of Firenze, to which I proudly answered yes to both questions.  It is now time for me to once again give my heartfelt gratitude to the woman at the NY Consulate.