Hi everyone, just got back from our yearly trip to the alps skiing, and here's our little story.

We'd not driven there for at least 15 years, always flown since our last car trip, and this year, for some reason decided to drive there in the 110. The idea of being able to just chuck stuff in the back and not worry about luggage weight restrictions (a right pain when you have your own ski boots) was somewhat tempting. Also, with three of us, the cost of driving was a little lower than flying, so, on Friday 13th Feb we set off in before the sun was up, yes friday 13th, in a defender with 650miles to go, who said we didn't like a challenge !!!

Reached the ferry in dover in plenty of time, then straight through France from Calais, to Reims, Dijon, Geneva (near enough), and finally Cluses where we were to stay the night.
Having got off the boat at lunch time, we were quite pleased to have made it by 21:00 and relieved to see plenty of snow in the valley... looking promising already :)

07:00 following morning, everyone (mrsFrog, our niece Zoe and myself) is up and raring to go, and having breakfast half an hour later. By 08:00, we were off again. Kicking the 200tdi engine into life, it sounded a little sluggish but soon got into its usual idle, nothing to worry about, only 25 or so steep mountain miles to go.

Going up in third was ok most of the time, sometimes dropping into second when the going got slow behind the manu busses making it up the mountain. I guess the 1.44 transfer box makes climbing uphill a little harder for our laden 110 defender.
Oh, yeah, did I mention that even though there was only three of us, the back of the 110 was full up to just about seat height (a few soft things like blankets and pillows above that), and only one seat in the middle row was truly available to sit on ! We were full to the brim !

09:00, we're there, parked. 10:00 the skis are hired and lift passes sorted. 11:30, final bit of food shopping is done. 12:30, we've moved into the chalet, 14:00 we've had lunch and we're hitting the slopes.

It was approximately 30 hours since we'd left home and it was might pleasant to be having fun when most were still on their way to the resort :)



It all went smoothly, niece at ski school in the morning while we hit the slopes, lunch back at the chalet, then ski in the afternoon all together, couldn't ask for more, particularly considering the snow and weather were just perfect.

Then, tuesday morning, a few snowflakes started to come down...
at 07:52


at 13:48


at 16:39



Two days later, the snow is sliding from the top like icing on a cake !


Following that dump of fresh snow, we had beautiful sunshine while the temperature was hovering between -11 and -3 Centigrade.

The return trip was without incident, left the resort at 08:00 got to calais at 19:30, and that was including a 1h30 shopping spree at the supermarket for some french goodies.

Back home just before midnight, our defender had done us proud again, covering 1300 miles on more or less three fill-ups !

A few gratuitous spottings... quite a few defenders out there, and on the roads...

Were you the 03 110 with a Foley spare wheel cover on the A40 (I think) by any chance (no pics) ?
Or the red E reg 110  (no pics) ?






Big boys toys - piste basher - up close and personal, check out the winch on top ? Full 360deg rotation around it, the basher can come down steep slopes supported by the winch cable, then spin on the spot at the bottom and use the winch to help itself back up !!!


My niece creating her own steering wheel to drive the 110 onto the boat with



A couple of views from the chalet to finish off



Definitely would do the drive there and back again