Fire Alarms and Funiculars

As forecast we opened the curtains to bright sunshine. Breakfast was at 8.30 again and vegetarianism wasn’t mentioned once. Eventually TWPA had got themselves together enough to leave and this time I watched them ski away from the right exit.

Can you pick out TWPA?

It had been decided that Vicky and Ian would stay down and try some of the easier runs while the rest went up the mountain to see if they would be suitable

Vicky and Ian ready for off

I was going to relax, read and blog, all under my lovely furry blankie. Part way through the relaxing bit the fire alarm went off. On the first day our leader had said that if the alarm went off we had to evacuate. Damn. I grabbed my hat and coat, no sense freezing if the fire turned out to be a small one, and pulled the door too. The handle came off in my hand! I pocketed it and headed for the car park, the designated meeting place. There was me, a guy in a T-shirt, and two skiers just returning. Two mins later a lady came out, and a guy wearing towels who had hurried out of the shower. No sign of any staff. Five mins after that they started dribbling out. Five mins after THAT our leader came out to tell us it was all a terrible mistake, there was no fire. Mr Towel was not happy. Neither was I, I don’t have much confidence in the ‘trained’ staff in the event of a real emergency. Waving my door handle I re-entered the Hotel. Luckily the maintenance man was at reception and he soon had it reattached.

Meanwhile, vicky had successfully negotiated the lower slopes, Gone up to the top of diable, and successfully negotiated that. Good girl.

Half way up the mountain. You can see me in the hotel, wrapped in a furry blankie, in the background.

After that it was lunchtime so we all met on the Hotel terrace. It is at this point in the blog that I have begun to have problems again. I cannot get the photos in the correct order. So I’ll just tell the tale and you’ll have to sort them out into the correct order yourselves!

Lunch on the terrace

Alex and I had had a big breakfast (as had everyone else but that didn’t bother them) so we didn’t order food, we just grazed off everyone else’s leftovers. Now was the time for TWPA minus Me and Vicky (TWPAMJV) to go off with a Neilsson ski expert who would show them the runs. Ian and Chis were looking forward to it. Alex and Kathy weren’t. Kathy was afraid of them and Alex just didn’t want to talk to them. But they all went off anyway. Vicky and I had big plans to go a viewpoint right at the top of the mountain. We headed for Jandri 1, a cablecar, where the queues had been horrendous early in the morning. They weren’t bad at all, and when we got close to the front a man beckoned us forward, undid a little rope, and ushered us to the front of the queue. Nice. We got in the bubble with a load of german skiers. It was a long ride, but lovely views. We reached the end, where we needed to transfer to the Jandri 2 lift. It looked like you had to go outside and join a long queue there. I approached a man stood by the ‘ski school only’ entrance and asked ‘funicular?". With no further ado he undid the rope and ushered us to the front of the queue. The Germans tried to follow but no dice, they had to go outside with the rest of the unwashed. Ha.

At the top of Jandri a sign pointed us to ‘Funicula Pietons’. We entered a narrow corridor and at the end was a button. Push to call. We pushed And a tiny funicular came up. We got in and rode it down. There were some steps then a door that said ‘wait for green light’. Just us in a dark tunnel, no noise. We were a little nervous but eventually the light turned green and the door opened. It was like a tube station with us arriving from one side and a crowd of skiers from the other. This funicular was totally underground till we arrived at the very top of the glacier. A short walk across the snow took us to the viewpoint. Spectacular.

We reversed the process on the way down, but this time we had to press a button to start the little funicular. I am now a fully qualified funicular driver.

We met up with TWPAMJV at afternoon tea where it transpired they had all enjoyed their guided tour. Unfortunately none of them had much idea where they had been despite that being the idea of the class. Oh well. After baths etc we met in the bar to play yatzee. I was so lucky and got almost everything, and felt sure I would be leading after round one. But due to some witchcraft Alex is in front. We’ll see what happens tomorrow with that one. I am Sunday champion once more, the theme being actresses that have appeared in coronation street. Vicky was so close as we all thought it was forts till the very end. Unlucky. Tea was the same as usual, and as usual we retired soon after.