Cross Coutry Skiing

After significant snow fall in Bellinzona, getting out on the bike was going to be tricky, so after a short bus trip into the mountains I spent the day cross country skiing....Its very hard work.

Not much riding going on today.
Although not much on the road, you can see
where the snow plough has been busy

Follow this sign for the next 20 miles

Seems I have the place to myself again

Up we go

And a bit more up...

Phew....still going up...

Well, it was worth it :-)

Tea stop at Nufenen  in the distance

This pic was taken in December.
Note the level of the snow in relation to the top of the gaurd rail....

4 weeks later, same bridge, same gaurd rail, more snow

20 miles later and rid of 3000 callories its time to call it a day and head for the bus

Skiing with the Indians

With snow all about, our Indian colleagues were very excited about a day out in the mountains and a few lessons in the art of skiing on snow....but first...

..."How do my trousers work?"...

Venkat, Sandesh, Shamveel and Andy stood around
waiting for something to happen in Bellinzona

Fast Forward to Splugen Sport in Splugen
Andy with Shamveel getting used to the first time in ski boots

Andy, Cristian and Venkat.
In order for Cristian to get his passout stamped for
the day, he had to agree to a visit from his mother in law.
Dedication that.

Shamveel and Cristian

Venkat and Sandesh on the slopes waiting
for their turn to crash into the pretty instructor



..."How do these things work exactly"...
..."Dunno, maybe the pretty Swiss lady will tell us"...
..." Maybe, but stopped crashing into her, I think she's getting annoyed"...



...THUMP...
..."Oh hello, the names Shamveel, do you come here often?"...

..."Now lets try this again, standing up"...

Shamveel celebrates reaching the bottom
without crashing into anything pretty and Swiss

Meanwhile on the other side of the mountain Cristian looses
both his "white" skis after crashing in deep "white" snow.

For these guys, lunch took 2.5 hours

Restaurant with a view

After a failry rough start to the day, by
11.00am the cloud lifted and showed us the view.

Paolos stopping needs a little more practice,
relying on the landscape to do it for you is not the way to go

Beer then home

Ah chocolate, thanks

Splugen Valley just before sunset

Homeward bound