Seriously Sub-Zero Sunny Skiing

More involving in large ("L").

Yay, sun; what a brilliant day!
Today was our first truly sunny morning; it was not cloudless by any means (and it became cloudy in the afternoon), but it was certainly cloudless enough to be spectacularly cold... It was -23C when we reached Roche de Mio this morning. Eep. We did one run, then stopped to buy hand-warmers... This lift was totally glazed with ice when we first saw it this morning, but had shed its ice creating a glittery carpet of crystals underneath it by the time we used it in the early afternoon.

I took loads of photographs today: the conditions were fantastic, and everything looked wonderful. I narrowed my selection down to 20 (...), and my parents chose this one as the most dynamic. The sun (and sharp shadows) created excellent contrast that highlighted the beautiful contours of the landscape, and the trails in the snow. I've uploaded a landscape photograph to Blipfolio here; the mountains are so vast that the other skiers look like ant people...

We also saw another "new" bird today: we saw first one, and then a whole flock of white-winged snowfinches. They're not actually finches but sparrows, and are very striking; they're rather large for sparrows, and look buff and brown when they perch (with orange beaks), but in the air have dramatic white patches on their wings and tail. I got a cute photo of one crouching on a snow ridge, but it wasn't short-listed.

We return home tomorrow evening (boo), and although I'll get to ski all day, we will have to relinquish our flat in the morning so I doubt I'll be able to post my blip tomorrow.