The Beginning of Winter

Posted on February 2, 2013 by skinnylegsphoto

December and January seem to have flown by at an alarming rate! In between snow clearing, cooking and other work type things we have managed to squeeze a couple of cold, snowy, sliding, mountainy adventures!

Early morning tours round the forest to get our legs back into shape, Dan got an evening out on a sledge to whoosh down a ski piste, early season Vallee Blanche with a unexpected absail out of the bottom of a couloir, mellow touring with friends, their doggy and an awesome picnic, terrifying ice climbing, a visit and a ski with friends in Saas Fee and a more mellow vallee blanche with no absail required!

Irish Adventures!

Posted on January 16, 2013 by skinnylegsphoto

It now seems like forever ago now but in November we wandered off to Ireland! A real holiday, exploring somewhere new before the winter season mayhem kicked off. It was awesome! We whizzed around in our free upgraded-massive-super-fancy-hire car and visited Dublin, Greystones, Cliffs of Mohar, Doolin, Galway, Silgo, Portstuart, the Rope Bridge, the Giants Causeway and then back to Dublin. We hooked up with loads of friends, stayed with their families, got really well looked after with loads of yummy food! Went bouldering, sight seeing, dog walking on the beach, picked muscles and oysters straight out of the bay and then cooked an amazing Moules Marinieres, ate ice-cream by the sea (despite the rain!) and drank Guinness!

Then it was back to Chamonix to get our heads down for Staff training, Christmas and New years, the busiest month of our year! We hope you all have a fun, adventure filled 2013!!

Tea for Two

Posted on December 18, 2012 by skinnylegsphoto

After Italy we flew back to England for about 48 hours to have ‘Christmas’ with our parents. We had toad in the hole with Dan’s parents and a curry with Georgie’s parents! Georgie needed an Englishness fix so she took Dan out for an afternoon tea! Rather wonderful.

Trains, Pizza and Midnight Skinny Dipping

Posted on December 16, 2012 by skinnylegsphoto

A little while ago now,we went on a little adventure. We left a chilly Chamonix to explore the Italian Rivera in flip flops. It was a jam packed, random weekend with friends; we spent a night in Genova in an apartment that used to be an aqueduct, had a massive Italian feast, found a bar with a library in it, saw a real pirate ship, visited an aquarium and found Nemo! Then cruised down the Italian Rivera to the Cinque Terre. The steep, cliffy coast line reminded usof Amalfi.

We explored the beautiful, coloured towns with boats parked on the streets, narrow streets with rainbows of drying washing decorating the sides of buildings. We saw trees held up with scaffolding, old men fishing with grandchildren, swam under spectacular sunsets (well Dan didn’t, he thought it was too cold!)

We drank a lot a lot of prosseco, had fantastic food, picnics on the beach, caught trains, drank coffee, ate ice cream and pizza, we went walking, midnight skinny dipping and acquired the cuts and bruises to prove it!

Stanley and Dave

Posted on November 20, 2012 by skinnylegsphoto

Recently we have been bimbling around taking pictures, making Stanley the snow horse with friends, riding bouncy bikes, running, walking, swimming, eating, getting ready for winter, work and a few adventures in glorious autumn sunshine with a touch of snow that came and went.

We took out our road bikes to test Georgie’s bike repair skills – she didn’t die, the bike didn’t fall apart and she actually thinks it feels smoother! Yay! Whilst out walking we met a new friend – Dave the Ibex, he was a bit smelly so we didnt want to take him home.

Fixing and Drifting

Posted on October 28, 2012 by skinnylegsphoto

Due to bad weather Georgie decided she should get around to replacing the cracked headset on her bike. When she came home with a bag of borrowed massive spanners, a huge tub of grease, a hammer and a book, Dan ran away until he was needed as a track stand! It wasn’t quite as simple as the book made it look, bits were very stuck! After a lot of banging, swearing, spannering, confused looks, a broken broom handle and with just one sore toe! her bike now has a shiny new headset!

The rain turned to snow! As soon as it stopped snowing we jumped into to car to get a feel for how Trudy handled the snow! We trundled around and found a natural skid-pan

to learn how to….errrm… powerslide….no no…control skidding…. Although there seemed to be lots of snow, there wasn’t quite enough to go sledging! Next time! Winter is coming!

Peaks, Sea, Mountains

Posted on October 24, 2012 by skinnylegsphoto

Straight after our wedding we disappeared off on honeymoon. We had a little cottage in the Peak district, the first place we ever went on holiday together! Although it rained a fair bit we had some lovely romantic picnics in the car, ate pie, met fluffy cows, drank English beer, finished off the wedding cheese and bubbles, did some climbing, marvelled at hard grit climbs, visited a cave and got used to being married. After the heat of the previous weeks a damp, windy English 10°c felt VERY cold and both Dan and Georgie have worn less clothes when ice climbing than they did rock climbing that week!

After a week back in Cham Georgie left Dan for 2 weeks working on the south west coast of France. She got to stay in a rock star villa with sea views and a swimming pool, went running, swimming, had a go at surfing, ate lots of gateaux Basque and came home via Paris! Dan stayed in Cham where the weather was rubbish and he worked a lot!

Now happily back together in a very autumnal Chamonix, all set to make the most of the quiet time before the winter season starts!!

Georgie and Dan Got Married!

Posted on September 30, 2012 by skinnylegsphoto

Dan and Georgie got married! We spent all summer planning and organising! We decided not to have any staff and get everyone helping out! We gave everyone a job, from bringing a salad, the cheese to furniture moving, laying the table, clearing up and taking photos! Zena (our humanist celebrant) wrote us a fantastic, moving, personal, romantic ceremony. The day ran like clockwork, it was so awesome! As planned we had a fantastically sunny day! Blue skies and not a cloud in sight!

Georgie’s dress was fantastically colourful! The bridesmaids Becky and Lucy were beautiful in green and super high heels! Dan looked very dashing! Bags, Gav and Will, the best man, all looked very sharp in there suits. Will managed to buy his 12 hours before the wedding! In fact everyone was beautiful and colourful!

A big thank you to everybody who was involved couldn’t have done it without you all! We had a faboulous, colourful day, smiling, talking, eating spit roasted pig and cheese, dancing, playing on the swings, laughing, smiling and getting married, celebrating with our friends and family! We hope that everyone who was there had fun too!

Here is a selection of photos from our amazing photographer friend Ben Potter. To see more click on the wedding tab! If you would like us to email you a full resolution file please give us a shout!

One Hell of a Summer!

Posted on September 18, 2012 by skinnylegsphoto

Georgie and Dan have had a bit of a crazy summer! With an amazing ending, which we suppose is also a beginning! We got married on the 7th September!

We’ve been up to the normal things like climbing, mountain adventures, bivving, pizza eating, running away from storms, walking, biking, being visited by friends and a fair bit of work! We’ve also been up to some different things… day trips to Aosta and Annecy, mushroom picking (not the funky type!) Wedding planning, cake making, extreme hammocking, watched the tour du France, Georgie ran an ultra marathon and Dan went sailing in the Med!

We are now back from honeymoon and very chilled out! Here are some photos that we took on our adventures over the summer. We will put up some photos from our wedding and honeymoon as soon as we are back in Cham!