We have had our fair share of weather over the past week. I guess it started a week ago when we flew out for the ISPO trade fair in Munich. The snow had hit the south on the day we were to fly out. Despite being able to drive from Nottingham to Stansted without encountering difficulties all the flights had been cancelled. Apparently 1 in 5 people didn’t make it into work that day so maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised.
5 days later I was in Italy visiting friends in Lecco. The weather wasn’t much better and a valuable climbing day was lost through rain. The bonus was that this rain was falling as snow high up, I kept my fingers crossed.
Sunday was a beautiful day, 2.5 metres of snow had been dumped across the region, enough to close several mountain roads. It was a powder day and I didn’t let my lack of skiing experience get in the way with that.
The trip ended too soon and I was back in the UK and at the mercy of the worst snow in umpteen years. So I was back on my bike riding into work with the Chunk and being challenged by new terrain.. slippery roads and icy toe paths littered with the remnants of snow men.
So why a gnarly picture of my ride home instead of clear blue skies and deep powder runs? As the snow continues to fall in flurries and slurries there is one item I have become inseparable from this winter.. my jaffa Gourdon 20. Of course it works well in the powder, but when the sun is shining and a hot chocolate is never more than a few minutes away it doesn’t really matter. What is important for me now are the day to day mundane trips in fowl weather to and fro from work, that’s when I appreciate my kit the most!