kandersteg

It was a long drive from Morzine to Kandersteg on 2nd January - a journey that was exasperated by claims from Claire and Beth that I had eaten more than my fair share of prince biscuits. This may have been true, but I believe that as driver I needed the extra energy to ensure that I was alert. And they taste nice.

Anyhow, we arrived at Kandersteg International Scout Centre (KISC) just as they closed reception for lunch. This gave us plenty of time to sit and wait for the "Can you pick us up from the station..." texts to come flooding in. Nuff respect must be given to Phil; the only person who walked from the station in -5 blizzard like conditions. And if that wasn't hard enough by itself, he chose to ignore the road and walk up the river instead.

Kandersteg is quite a small German speaking village in the Swiss Alps. It's a very popular spot amongst climbers both in the summer and winter, and it was unfortunate that we were due to leave just as the annual ice-climbing festival was to begin.

There was, of course, plenty of jungle speed action. We had our first 11 person game - with Rob picking up the rules as quickly as he picked up the skiing. Claire's mafia game was also rather popular - although I'm not quite convinced that Gareth was closing his eyes properly!

Thanks have to go to Phil for the provision of Port and Cheese for the holiday.

We all found a new friend in Yujie Du (Alias Jared/Jerry) - even though he nearly killed a few of us with his high-speed entry mid way into the lift queue. I know some people don't like queuing but....

He's very upset that we think Jackie Chan is the height of Chinese filmography, and so he's sent me some reccommendations for film viewing:

• Beijing Bicycle - Shi Qi Shui De Dan Che (2001)
• Farewell, My Concubine - Ba Wang Bie Ji (1994)
• Fist of Legend - Jing Wu Ying Xiong (1994)
• Ke Ke Xi Li (2004)

...so get yourself over to Amazon and get buying!

Photos and video are below. Click to enlarge. You really need sound to appreciate the video.

pictures

Matt and Beth work on their JungleSpeed faces

The coolest guy on the slopes (and published here as punishment for not sending me his photos!)

Everyone rather tired after a hard days skiing

Kandersteg's hockey team in action

I just can't stand people who kiss in public...arggghhh!!

video

The holiday video (Windows media player).