Archive For April 7, 2013

Mid-April and it’s hot.  Very, very hot.  The snow is like liquid cement and wet slides are running to the valley.  We had to sit in the Montenvers train for 40 minutes as an avalanche cut the track and on arriving in the Val d’Aoste we couldn’t get an espresso anywhere as the power had been completely cut, again by avalanche. I do like my coffee, particularly in Italy.

The Gran Paradiso is one of the great ski peaks of the Alps.  It deserves its popularity as it gives a wonderful day out particularly with the glorious weather that we had.  We took our time, enjoying every moment.  Lemon sodas and, at last, a perfect coffee in the sun at Pont rounded things off nicely.

There are lots of great ski peaks in Eastern Turkey. 5137m Mt Ararat is not one of them unless you happen to be exceptionally lucky with conditions.  I’ve seen photos of people skiing from the top, but I can’t help feeling that this must be a rare achievement.

We’d had good snow conditions on a previous trip but the weather had been awful.  This time the snow was poor and it was hot, but the weather was stunning.  The views from the top to Mt Aragats, the highest in Armenia and to the mountains of Iran and the mysterious Nakhchivan made the considerable effort worthwhile.