It took half a day at the Unicat workshop to find the problem with the generator. Then about two minutes to fix the loose wire that was the cause of all the trouble. With that sorted we set off for Northern Italy.
Two days later we were crossing the Julier pass. Heading south towards St Moritz. We stopped at the little village of Bivio at 1800m. There are a couple of drag lifts here and a small camping area for motorhomes. We had passed the place several times previously. Many of the mountain roads in Switzerland are closed in the winter so the total number of routes though the country is quite limited. The road on the Julier pass is often snow covered and requires care but a gang of people with a range of snow clearing machines manage to keep it open most of the time.
The drag lift opposite the camp area is only open at the weekend. It was Friday afternoon. Every time we had passed here, I thought it would be a great place to ski for a couple of days. This seemed like too much of a good opportunity so, despite the slightly dodgy looking weather, we parked up.
Next day the weather was truly terrible. Misty, cold, snowing and windy. We took a walk down to the village and found some goats in a shed.
Sunday dawned very cold but clear. The entire ski area consists of just three drag lifts. They are very long. Each one takes about ten minutes. At the top of the highest lift you are way above the valley with wide open vistas of the surrounding mountains. This area is very popular for ski mountaineering. Small groups of people were working their way up the slopes in every direction I looked. A sunny Sunday and fresh snow was an irresistible lure. The skiers fit self-adhesive climbing skins to their skis, walk up a mountain, remove the skins and then ski down making elegant patterns in the virgin snow. By the evening, just about every slope and couloir I could see was covered in wiggly ski tracks. I confined myself to areas accessible from the ski lifts but still had a great day. Lots of space, not many people and some fantastic views. Diane has never liked drag lifts so she was happy to walk with Cent and take a few photographs.
Next day we carried on towards Italy.