With final insulation in place we were ready to take Skippy to the snow. Some sweet waves in North Devon delayed our departure by a day or so, but well worth it for the clean sets and blue sunny day.

Skippy was Christened the eve before departure... thanks to our housemates' artwork.

After final goodbyes in Bristol, we were off, on the 11pm overnight ferry from Portsmouth to La Harve, France. A good night sleep stretched out on our roll mates and sleeping bags on the ferry floor, and we were in France. What a hassle-free way to travel, didn't even have to show our passports!

France was, well, wet, cold and relatively uneventful, as we busted it down to the Pyrenees. Just before we were about to ascend the mountain pass to Spain, Dell (behind the wheel) calmly comments: 'I don't have any breaks'. With a quick lesson on how to slow the 3.5t of Van using gears and hand break, we managed to get Skippy into the Supermarche car park. Only a minor delay, with James under the bonnet fixing the breaks and the purchase of some snow chains for Skippy, and we are on our way again.

We arrived in Viella (a Jindabyne look-alike) in time for a cook up in the Van and a cozy night sleep (with full insulation we are toasty in the van even at sub-zero temperatures). Snow was forecast for the next day up the mountain!

We woke to pouring rain in Viella, which became sleet half way up the mountain, and then a full snow storm by the time we reached Baqueira car park. Within minutes Skippy was covered in fresh white stuff and a very excited James and Adelle headed for the slopes.

We couldn't have timed it better, first day on the hill with 6 inches of powder, a new resort to explore and best of all no lift lines!!! But we soon discovered we had been fooled by the lovely fresh snow, and that the base was less than to be desired. Our off piste ventures to look for fresh tracks caused more damage to our boards than we had hoped for on our first day. Never-the-less we had a lot of fun, which continued over the next few days of boarding until the snow got far to sparse for us to warrant 44Euro/day lift passes. So we took to the mountain passes on our bikes. And enjoyed a great sunny day riding switch backs up the mountain. James even tried his luck off piste on the bike... not to replace snowboarding!