Christmas Dinner

The Christmas party, no it's never to early, and this weekend ours was kindly hosted by Max of Brusson in his winter retreat high in the Val d'Ayas, an offshoot of the Aosta valley.

The most difficult part as with any trip was organising to get there. We left Milan at diverse hours and in three groups. The first, the 'early morning' party keen for some afternoon skiing leaving at 9.30, only to be found cueing to re-enter Milan at 10.00 to collect the forgotten snow chains. The 'afternooners', keen for some extra zzzz's left at 3ish, and the 'we would have left early but we were too busy' party left at 5.

The early morning party did indeed get their skiing at Champoluc, if you haven't been go because it's great. The lifts carry you deep deep deep into the mountains. You experience a complete loss of direction guided only by the lofty summits of Monta Rosa. Keep an eye on the time however as you have to go up to come down.

The afternoon parties arrived together, the afternooners were an unknown quantity arriving in a untested 1970's VW van with a driver barely acquainted with an engines requirements for fuel. It was fortunate that they did arrive because they had the food. So, there must have been 9 of us in total, all quietly satisfied with our relative personal achievements during the day. The meal was fantastic and the english introduced crackers to the unsuspecting Italians. Just when you couldn't thinks things could get even better The Pash introduced their own distinct brand of party games surprising even the unsuspecting english.

Sunday was the warm down and a bit of an anticlimax. With most of us skiing, it was not nearly as sunny as it was supposed to be. Fog enveloped the mountain at midday along with Alberto after he shot rather to enthusiastically down the wrong piste. We were reunited at 5 as he was spat back out. Naturally a beer followed.