Geoff Jones

Here in Les Gets there are always lots of happenings, rather reminds me of a huge Club Med. Today when the pistes had shut down we were entertained in the newly constructed area by the ice rink (patinore) with the Marabunta drummers’ fiendish rhythms:

Rather reminded me of David’s Drummin Divas group in Cambridge although from what I remember there group doesn’t have such sexy dancers 🙁

To mark the end of today’s SNOW CARNIVAL GRAND PARADE we also had fireworks on the slopes.

Tomorrow its love all the way:-

Thursday 14th February
Traditional market in the morning
VALENTINE’S DAY ON MONT CHERY
Celebrate St Valentine’s Day on Mont Chery, a location to love! Activities and surprises to enjoy; meet at the Mont Chery ticket office.
From 3pm : Come and buy a flaming torch from the ESF in aid of « l’Opération Pièces Jaunes » for 5€ each. These torches will light the instructors’ way in the special descent at 6.30pm.
3pm:    ESF Junior Giant Slalom on Mont Chéry. Information and registration at the ESF chalet by Wednesday evening please. Prizegiving is at 5.30pm on the ESF podium, conditions permitting.
4pm-5pm: Free Milka snacks for all, entertainment and competition with lots of prizes to win (meet at the foot of the slopes).
4pm-7pm: Carnavallissimo ice party in conjunction with the 15th Snow Carnival. Dance and have fun on the open-air rink. Lots of goodies to win…bonne chance!
5.30pm: Goat farm tour at the Sarre farm (on the Sarre road). Please book on
+33 (0)4 50 79 71 62 – Prices €5 per person, max 20 pers.
6.30pm: Take part in a torchlit descent with the ESF – with mulled wine and hot chocolate afterwards. You can buy a flaming torch at the ESF chalet for 5€ in aid of  l’Opération Pièces Jaunes. Open to 2eme étoile, 2eme classe skiers. Meet at the Chavannes cable car.

One of the great finds today in my feeds was this post on the Google Earth blog discussing Wikiloc.

Wikiloc is a free wiki that allows you to upload your GPS traces to their site as GPX files. You then get detailed statistics on your trail complete with map and aerial photo overlay.

As a confirmed GPS addict I couldn’t resist, especially as I strap my Garmin Etrex to the helmet I wear whilst boarding. This way I can gather a whole days activity and then upload the days tracks to my PC using memory map. Here is my favourite day from my apartment in Les Gets displayed. Fresh powder empty pistes bright sunshine – one day out of 30 🙂

Clicking on the image takes you to my page on the wikiloc site.

As you can read I travelled 29miles with a total descent of 15,446 feet in just under 4 hours (from memory map I know my peak speed was 55kph.

Pretty neat application except that wordpress seems to have a bug that doesn’t allow me to post iframe links that wikiloc gives you 🙁

Apart from that an excellent application for my long walks.