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Yesterday Val took Shaun through the stuff he needs to know to survive a day out on skis. Today will put that to the test. Last night we had some surprise visitors too. So now in our little group we have Adrian, Steve, Edmond, Shaun, Ozzie and ourselves.

Snowing again this morning and freezing cold. Here are Shaun & Val first thing this morning on Mannlichen.

The weather improved as the day wore on. We sauntered round to Scheidegg for lunch.

After lunch we skied on the Lauberhorn and made our way back to the village. The day ended with some really nice sunshine.

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Got up this morning feeling a bit weary. Maybe it was the B52s in the Tanne Bar. Shaun and Ozzy have arrived.

Anyhow, it’s been snowing all night and it’s minus 20 at the top. We head up anyway. Here’s Ozzy blasting through the powder.

We ski down towards Grindelwald. Some of the farmers are letting the animals out for their first bit of sunshine this year.

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Foggy when we woke up, so had an extra couple of hours sleep. Started to snow this afternoon and it’s getting heavier. Shaun has arrived, so we’ll be up tomorrow whatever the weather. A couple of shots of the village..

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Forecast today was for gloomy weather and snow. We decided to go up anyway and guess what – a lovely day. The kids have a race to do.

We have a pit-stop at an open-air bar at a place called Lager.

Just cruising..

Dazzling sun as we ski down the meadows on the way to Mary’s Cafe. This is the spot where that French guy clocked 101mph in the race in January. We’re not quite that fast.

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The kids have their own train to get them up to Scheidegg. ‘Miss’ puts the skis in the truck at the front.

All aboard! Most of the children are back at school now, so the instructors almost outnumber them.

Up at Scheidegg it’s snowing and you can’t see a thing. The kids don’t care though.

The snow gets heavier so we head into the trees where the visibility will be better.

We head downhill towards Grindelwald. The snow gets even heavier. As you can see, we’re the only ones daft enough to be doing this!

Lower down the snow turned to drizzle. Val got a rare shot of me emerging from the trees.

Eventually we make it back to Wengen. My Mum asked for some pics of the village as a reminder of our summer holiday here. Here you go Mum.

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Conundrum.

Every morning at home I wake up feeling like death and wishing I didn’t have to get up. Today should have been one of those, considering that we did all that travelling yesterday, lugged our possessions down to the apartment, and drank my own weight in beer last night. Strange then, that I felt great this morning, sprang out of bed and headed for the hills feeling like I was 21 again. Go figure.

Up at Mannlichen there’s a big race, sponsored by you-know-who.

Skied round to Scheidegg after a coffee. Nice quiet pistes.

And down to Brandegg for lunch.

Back at Scheidegg it was absolutely heaving with people, but we had a nice run back to the village and a drink at the Figeller bar on the nursery slope.

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.. With my birthday candles