When I look at my Facebook memories pretty much every other year this time I have griped about the worst possible winter ever. And this year is no exception. According to our exercise log there have been just a handful of not rainy and cloudy days in February. It has not been particularly cold, though, but the rain, occasionally quite heavy, has severely interfered with our marathon training program. I almost dread the upcoming race, and do not feel at all ready to run from four to five hours in two months. Furthermore, our training program is not ideal; it eels way too easy. Just recently we started to make the runs, especially long runs and interval runs, longer.

In early January we got a little snow; it barely dusted the ground around our house, but about 100 meters higher it looked like a full-blown Winter — for one weekend. Thereafter we have received a lot of rain. Luckily we have been spared from flooding that had severely plagued Western France. The water we have received has fallen as snow at higher altitudes, which on the one hand is a blessing, since ski resorts have now enough snow to continue the season, but also creates a paradox, since access to many higher altitude ski resorts has been blocked because of hazardous driving conditions. And there is always the heightened avalanche risk …

We have already booked a week in Vallée de la Clarée, where we spent Christmas time (no snow, no skiing), and a few days in January (enough snow for some skiing). Now there is about 105cm of snow. In another Nordic skiing place deeper in the same valley there is almost two meters of snow.

The gloomy weather has not encouraged photography either, so I post here some picture I have taken on those rare beautiful days.