Tuesday, April 04, 2006

the crazy journey to "les2Alpes"

A day it would have been wiser to stay "sous la couette bien au chaud".

Ricardo and i (MadMax) decided to go to the mountains again, the end of the season 2006 being very close we realised it was difficult to expect fresh snow at low altitude. After a flash decision from the both of us we bough the tickets to "Les 2 Alpes".
As i am not supersticious i did not pay attention to the weather forecasts from the crystal bowl...
We discovered very soon that the day was not completely going to happen as usual.
To begin the rain was very present in the bottom of the station. Trustfull we took the eggs (telecabines) to the top of the mountain: first to 2200m then 3200m and then the underground funiculaire to 3400m.
the first impression: the panel found at intermediate level was right, -5°C at the top. An interrogation was also present in our minds: were is the way down? should we include a radar in our standard equipment?
One thing we could not complain about was the quality of the snow: powder.

we were resting on the snow in a kind of crevasse between big rock walls of the mountain where the path is passing by. The weak visibility in the snowstorm makes some of the geographical details of the story uncertain.
i almost did not distinguish Ricardo. he was localised just as a light shadow in the white fog of the snowstorm. At least i was almost sure it is him because i could hear his screams, heeuuuu finally it could have been the Yeti as well...
For some obscure reason i did not remember when was the last time i saw somebody passing nearby ...
What could be then the worst thing happening? if you forget about the snow that is buming to your frozen face and hurting like hundreds of needles.(some people call it "chili")
...a lightning... followed +/- 1 second later by thunder...and its echo... but was it really its echo? and not an ava...avava...avavalanche???
Suddenly energy came back in our legs and we did not think too much about something else than going away...





and finally the clothes winging:

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