Angus

Getting back to Aosta Valley, IKON announced today... IKON Pass holders will now have access to Courmayeur Mont Blanc, Cervino Ski Paradise, La Thuile Espace San Bernardo, Monterosa Ski, and Pila, all of which are located in the Valle d’Aosta region. I skied Courmayeur, Pila, La Thuile (& the connected French resort) and Cervino which is the Italian side of Zermatt and interconnected. All were outstanding.

That's a good deal for NYC Metro folks.

On my bucket list.

renewed both my IndyPass and Ikon. Planning maybe two trips out west - Palisades again for a week and ?. And then another trip to Europe with a tour maybe this time along the Austrian-Swiss border - Silvretta Alps Traverse. I need to get my back situation under control, re-injured it in early June and was in bed for almost a week.

IndyPass just posted they have added Pila!

Have driven by the affected area a couple of times over the past few days and the damage is quite impressive. Lots of mature oak trees broken 30-40' above the ground.

Ripping good now. Dog is a basket case!

Yup. sitting on the shores of Thompson Lake and the dog is panting and becoming dishevelled! Can hear the the approaching booms!

On my ski trip, we did Aosta Valley, Chamonix and Zermatt. Fell in love with Aosta Valley. Beautiful valley with middle age ruins and vineyards. Friends are mountain biking there next month. I've been thinking of going back at some point and renting an apartment for a few months. By car, you can hit 15 or so ski areas within 90 minutes or less.

I'm pretty familiar with the Texas Hill country. Frankly, a spectacular area with rivers, springs, rolling hills and limestone cliffs. The area is home to many summer camps which families attend generationally. The storms that build up in this area are crazy. When I lived in Austin in the 80's there were a # of times when I would look west and thought the end of the world was coming due to the approaching storm intensity.

yeah, that's why no one goes there in the summer and coastal property is so cheap.

Retired in December and it's great. Entered the water today at Winnisquam for the first time (other than put the dock in on Memorial Day which was miserable) and it was actually quite - surprisingly - comfortable.

Put the dock in yesterday on Winnisquam. Been doing it for 40 years, took me 3 hours to warm up afterwards. About the worst anyone could remember.

Dreading putting the dock into the lake this weekend. Looking like upper 40's water temperature. Painful.

On Day 5, after skinning up the serpentine wall, we crossed a glacier, did another technical climb, and then skinned up the Pigne d'Arolla which had views of the Italian and Swiss Alps (you can see the French Alps from there too). This photo (bottom photo) looks east towards the Matterhorn. Frankly, one of the most spectacular spots imaginable (even when shared with 20-30 others!) The other photo (middle) is day #6, looking at the 'west' side of the Matterhorn. It took us 2+ hours to descend from the Col de Valpeline (3,500m) past the Matterhorn to reach the outskirts of the Zermatt ski area where we stopped had one of the best beers of my life. The Matterhorn looks very different from the different sides - not surprisingly but we are so use to seeing the photo below from the village of Zermatt.