Monday
October 30, 2006 Geneva 21:45 CET My days of riding for
this season and trip got stuck at 32 because I
didn't go up Saturday or Sunday. I got really freaked out about how
people who weren't very "accurate" skiers and snowboarders
were riding too fast through the T-Bar lift path on Friday afternoon.
So Saturday
I decided to have a chill and spa day and just swim and exercise at
the WasserWunderWelt. Some good Matterhorn shadow runs, but the constant
shadows of being in mountain villages in these tight valleys was
getting to
me, I need open spaces, Lake Geneva was a welcome sight from the
train window.
Now I am in Geneva/Geneve/Genf hanging out in my hotel room, ate some good
sashimi and some carrots and some Haribo gummi sour pretzels...I went out shopping
for
a little while late this afternoon. Lots of things to look at, design and architecture
things, fashion things, candy. Here are some
random Geneva pics:
Friday
October 27, 2006 Zermatt (Day 32 of riding this season) Rode
a little bit today, took 2 trams and a gondola down to Cervinia/Cervino,
Italy came back to the Switzerland side and
rode a few more runs. The snow was almost spring condiitons in places,
a bit icy underneath, took lots of good pictures. I liked the architecture
of the buildings over in Italy. I am having a problem with my web server,
I will get the new pictures uploaded asap so there aren't holes in
this page.
Thursday
October 26, 2006 Zermatt 23:16 CET Didn't go up today even
though everything was open, it just wasn't
the thing to do. Instead I did a little shopping in town, took
the cog-wheel train up to Gornergrat and back, went to the spa place
and swam and did the exercise bike and some yoga, and finally went
to a pub to get online and look at weather. All of the little excitement
of the new films coming out and new gear and the pre-season riding
has
all faded into the background and now it is all about the weather.
The Gornergrat thing was good, I was going to come right back down
after
I got up there and took a few pictures but the train pulled away just
as I got through the gate so I ended up going up to the main building
for a couple of hours where they have the "mall" and
a restaurant with a terrace...guess there is a hotel up there too.
Good views of the Matterhorn and all of the other mountains around
there and some big long glaciers. I'm trying to get myself pumped up
to go
up tomorrow and ride into Cervina, Italy if it is open to go there.
I am not wanting to get into the weekend crowd business that will probably
be up there Saturday and Sunday may have some weather issues so tomorrow
looks to be the day. I am really over crowds right now. A
selection of Zermatt pictures
so far are here.
Wednesday
October 25, 2006 Zermatt (Day 31 of riding this season) I
went up today and rode for about 2 and a
half hours. The snow surface conditions were pretty nice, kind of a
messy powder situation. 3 gondola/trams up then on the way down only
2 because
the "exit" from the summer ski area involves a long run down
toward the middle tram station riding alongside the Matterhorn followed
by a short hike across some neat-looking rocks and slushy snow to the
station entrance. That last run...I thought it was going to be like
some kind of crazy long traverse, some kind of a transportation event...it
turned out to be one of the more epic runs of my whole Switzerland
trip.
After I got down a little ways I saw how crusty and icy the piste was
so I veered over into this flat but finely wind sculpted snow field
that was on the Matterhorn side. There weren't any other people around
and
this stretch of snowfield seemed to go on forever and I had a fast
wax job and could pretty much throw any small trick I could think of
and
land it very crisply clean, it wasn't deep enough above the ice to
carve much in but it was soft underfoot...and the Matterhorn, this
huge perfect
mountain to end all mountains was right
there next
to me
the
whole time
it was
so good. As I neared the end there were some people and lots of sketchy
ice patches and solid ice lips, I even hit some of them before I decided
it was better to stop it because the people were too close...then I
just rode into the slush until I got to the rocks and that was it.
Today's runs were fun
because it was soft with lots of piles of choppy fresh snow everywhere, but
with ice
and weekend crowds those lanes aren't the super hotness. I go online and check
the weather for various places back home every single day.
Monday
October 23, 2006 Zermatt No riding
today as I spent most of the morning traveling from Saas-Fee to Zermatt
first via bus and then via the last leg of the Glacier Express train.
Nice town, nice enough hotel, really cool hotel pool with all mosaic
lining and trompe l'oeil Egyptian murals on the walls. Haven't seen the
Matterhorn yet, cloudy down to below snow level here all day and now
it is raining outside. They didn't have their ski area open today, tomorrow
is still up in the air due to weather, it is kind of okay because I could
use another day off after what happened on Saturday. The rest of my days
in Zermatt are supposed to be sunny. Today I went shopping a little bit,
I bought a swatch with squirrels on it. So nice to have a change of scenery,
I was content to look at anything. Also today I went exploring in a tunnel
that leads to this hotel I had considered staying at and the automatic
doors closed behind me and it took awhile before i could figure out how
to get out...it was such a weird little James Bond moment in there. (Eventually
I walked up a bit and then back down and it must have tripped the motion
detector or something or else some evil villain decided that it wasn't
the right dramatic moment to capture me. That's what I get for trespassing
in strange tunnels in the alps.) My hotel room has a mini bar with mostly
alcoholic beverages, may have to drink a few and tell them not to refill
it so I can put my healthy food in there. I rearranged everything so
I could put some stuff in there but it is, um, tentative.
Sunday October 22, 2006 Last Day Riding Saas-Fee (Day 30 of riding this season) Today I took a few quick runs and came back down to town because the weekend crowd was scaring me. It wasn't the ultimate last day in a place but at least I made it up and onto the snow. Yesterday on my last ride up the T-Bar for the day, the person riding the T-bar with me fell off right before we got to the top...they held on to the bar even though they fell off and I somehow got entangled in this mess and dragged up the ice in a not so good position...I tried to get off but their board edge was jabbing into my tibia while my leg was being hyper-flexed into the most severe double backward tweak ever performed, plus it was being twisted/rotated on a vertical axis. It was someone who had already acknowledged that they couldn't ride a T-Bar and they were friendly but it was so obvious that they weren't paying attention. I let them live...from what I could assess then and from how it feels now, nothing is acutely wrong, some outer structures have just been heavily strained. I think my yoga-doing saved my butt on this one. I still have a massive bone bruise on my tibia...I am extremely relieved that I am not ultra- damaged. It is going to suck dragging all of my gear and luggage to Zermatt tomorrow but I am glad to head to a new place and when I get there I can probably swim or lay in bed all evening if I want.
Friday
October 20, 2006 Saas-Fee (Day 28 of riding this season) Today
was a windblown powder day, cloudy early
then pcloudy w/ sun later, some spots filled in for some excellent
powder riding, exposed ice all over the place but once I could
memorize the
terrain and where the ice was and where the powder was I could stay
in the powder except when I wanted to use the ice for speed or
party decorations
or something. It was well textured ice too, so even when I got in
some dicey areas, control wasn't an issue. Delicate meringue micro
features
everywhere, no crowds, skiers were minimal (their sticks were done
before noon), most of the snowboarders were in the park...there
was some good
powder in the park but no one was riding in it so I was in that area
for that ......today was THE day of my time here. There were some
things that were at first
glance
visually
enticing and hittable in kind of sketchy crevasse areas that I didn't
do today, the powder on them wasn't very thick so it was kind of
better to stay on the edges of the runs and banks and stuff like
the cat track
down by the lift base. The cat track was the hotness today. Powder
filled in at its base and was mixed with bumpy ice up the side
of the thing
and then it was like a powder groomer on the track, then partially
a ledge onto the icier part of the glacier and up to a powdery
bank at
the end of the cat track. Lots of possible ways to play in that area
today. It was hard to decide which way to go as the powder filled
in and blanketed these nice, plump arcs of the run down semi-parallel
to the cat track by the lift base where it has typically been hard,
scoured
nasty ice. I kind of had the urge to bring my camcorder up today
but
I didn't - I just needed to ride today and explore.
Tuesday
October 17, 2006 Saas-Fee (Day 25 of riding this season) Massive
skier stick day on the mountain. There
are some things I like to hit that I can't hit until like 12:30 because
of the skier courses so progress is a little slow on nailing some moves
I feel like would be fun to do on certain things. Then I am like "I
am going to go and hit that pile/bank of snow over there and I am going
at good speed and as soon as I am there I see a skier casually standing
right where I am going to land taking pictures of something (probably
their skier sticks) and I am like "yeah, next run..." so I
ride down the tiny little steep part where it isn't bad icy but still
fast enough to get a full fast 360 around and maybe a little bonus trick
and then "Oh!" the Swiss ski team has the whole run closed
down because their course has to pass right across the only open run
on the mountain (our one tiny path that isn't full of skier sticks).
In the midst of all of this, the pleasure one gets from those
sporadic golden moments of finesse when the angles of the body and
all of the little nuances of terrain and movement all come together
and it
is
just
so right...it
makes it all worthwhile. Though the park kickers are a bit much of
a wait in line deal, the park crew has done a nice job of grooming
the
sides of the tables into transition that makes it possible to get a
flow of small tricks without having to do the wait in line thing. People
tell
me that these conditions are well above-average for Saas-Fee this time
of year...at least compared to the past few years. They have some runs
groomed down below the ones that are open and crews appear to be working
hard to get the glaciers in shape so they can open all the way down
to Morenia with an little bit more snow. It snowed naturally that low
the
last storm and they have been testing the snow guns down in front of
the Morenia station restaurant so it looks like there is almost a path
of
snow down to that level.
Monday
October 16, 2006 Saas-Fee (Day 24 of riding this season) With
clear skies and the fresh snow groomed into
shape (or out of shape, depending on how you see it), things were back
to normal up on the mountain. Crowds are much reduced from last week.
Headed down to the lower level of the glacier area early where the
snow is drier and the icy patches are fewer. Over on the concentrated
skier
side they were using a helicopter (all day) to bring water up to be
sprayed over the slope to make it ice (which is what ski racers seem
to prefer).
(Inside joke w/ Miguel in governator voice: "Get down, get to the
choppa!") Totally yelling at little kid ski racers "Get down,
get to the choppa!...they didn't speak English. I ran and swam after
the snowtime, skate park was kind of overrun with little local kids.
Really feeling like a caged animal with respect to
the park riding scene here, I can't stay over there and hit stuff very
much. I am not feeling
like doing
much of the halfpipe competition circuit this winter, someone says the word "training" in
front of me or I see people training and I want to get as far away from there
as possible. (I might feel different if it was more of a Tahoe/June kind of
a pipe, but I get annoyed by the training that goes on in there too.) It is
a
game
now of how much air and interesting fun I can have without hitting something
in the park...like the whole art bricolage thing of taking a limited set of
materials and seeing how much of the infinite you can make with them.
I am ready to move on to the next destination, heading to Zermatt
at the beginning of next week to check out the glacier area over there for
six days (and over
the mtn. into Italy) and then to Geneva for a couple of days before I fly back
to the States. Following a few days of rest and family visiting I fly across
the country to Reno to pick up my vehicle and stuff and begin the big drive
to my new winter location. I am so excited to get back out west again.
Sunday
October 15, 2006 (Day 23 of riding this season) Today was
hot. When I first rode onto the snow,
I thought
it was a little wet (not really powder, but "fresh snow")
but the more I rode, the more things I could do with it, in terms of
bunny
rabbit riding choppy little waves and bumps. And I landed a couple
of things on terrain (or off of terrain) I've never tried before...not
completely
new tricks, but more air and precision involved than when I'd last
had fresh snow situations last spring. The lower part of the ski area
had
some drier snow but I didn't make it down there 'til the end of the
day so I didn't get to fully explore things down there. No skier sticks,
considerably fewer people than any recent day, and fresh snow. The
sun
even came out this afternoon.
Friday
October 13, 2006 Saas-Fee (Day 21 of riding this season) The
weather that was previously predicted never
came, so two more sunny days. Lots of fast riding and fun on bumps
and curves in "the run", the pipe is good, the icy wall
doesn't like me so much today but that is how it has been for me
here, one day
good and fun in pipe the next day not so much. The run gets much more
fun when they take the skier sticks off of it around 12:30 and there
is plenty of space for wide open turns and enough space (away from
other skiers/boarders) to get acceleration for some non-park tricks.
Hyper-agressive
little kid skiers are still prevalent due to some kind of state holidays
(I was told this was the case by an older Swiss skier), but it felt
like there were far fewer ski clubs represented than earlier in the
week,
which is a good thing for lift lines. Internet now (posting this and
downloading the first half of the Project Runway finale), then grocery
shopping to get me through the weekend, later maybe some skateboarding,
swimming or running...I went swimming yesterday before skateboarding
and was super tired during both...my snowboard days are becoming more
non-stop and exhausting my muscle energy stores more thoroughly than
when I first got here and took more time to adjust boots and eat snacks
in the park. I am feeling that tonight will be a going out night, not
sure where or what is going on tonight.
Wednesday
October 11, 2006 Saas-Fee (Day 19 of riding this season) 4
straight days of beautiful weather, now it looks like a storm of
some kind is coming in and I am kind of glad because
I like riding in weather. On the mountain, I think the pipe is getting
better, the icy dark wall has a tiny bit of texture now. I like to feel
the texture because Mammoth icy pipes I learned to ride in usually have
some texture. The past couple of days I've gone skateboarding on the
little miniramp they have at the skate park here. Yesterday was kind
of touch and go, today was pretty damn good. I haven't been on a mini-ramp
since I was on one in North Carolina two + years ago. It is amazing what
a couple of years of solid snowboarding will do for the whole balance
thing. I can by no means kill it skating but it was FUN. Yesterday I
went skating, trail running AND swimming, then did yoga when I got
home.
Saturday
October 7, 2006 Saas-Fee (Day
15 of riding this season) This was the best day so far here in Saas-Fee,
light windblown and fresh powder on the hard surface, some nice powder-covered
banks to shred and lots of little windfeatures to play with...just the
most fun day possible for October 7th I can possibly imagine. Nightfall
brought the local premiere of the new Absinthe film More, nice atmosphere
in The Living Room bar at the Hotel Dom, kind of more laid back than
the previous week's showing of Standard Films' Draw the Line. Still later
in the evening (after a couple of uneventful beers down in the Popcorn
bar), I drank some actual absinthe back up in the Living Room. It was
really much more than I expected it to be, I expected to get sick a la
tequila shots or something mildy exotic like that. I wasn't planning
on cleansing the doors of perception but that is apparently how things
have unfolded. I didn't drink very much of it but the results are subtle
yet somehow pronounced...even 16 hours out I am now quite certain
that something is up with that beverage. Sunday's riding was only
a few runs for me as the crowds made the lines to get on the lifts
too much to endure.
Tuesday
October 3, 2006 Saas-Fee (Day 11 of riding this season) Today
was one of those foggy, cloudy, windy days where I was sure they wouldn't
open
the ski area but they did anyway. So about 9:30 it was declared open
for the day and I loaded up my stuff and headed down the path to the
Alpin-Express lift. I had some nice runs down the main run that isn't
full of skier sticks...then a big cloud came in and kind of stayed there
for awhile so I called it a day. The snow condition was mainly packed
wet with some lighter fresh snow along the edges of runs, almost powder.
Not very crowded. There were people in the park and pipe, I didn't even
go over there today because I don't like riding the pipe when I can't
even se the walls, but, whatever. Everything is much happier up there
for me now that I have boots that fit. Right now I am trying to download
American TV shows over the internet. I need something fun to balance
out the hundred channels of world news on the satellite tv.
Friday
September 29, 2006 I finally got
my new boots that actually fit...so happy.
Tuesday September 26, 2006 Saas-Fee Photos
of When the Goats Go Home
Monday
September 25, 2006 Saas-Fee (Weather Day) After six days
straight of snowboarding, a storm blew in yesterday evening shutting
everything down for the day. Cold rain in town and snow
higher up, just as before. After a lazy morning I headed up the Plattjen
gondola for an early lunch at the restaurant up there. French fries and
espresso, delicious (the best option on the menu if avoiding wurst and
kraut). Actually, I wasn't really meaning to eat up there but I forgot
that the gondola shuts down for an hour at lunchtime, so rather than
standing up there in the rain, the restaurant was a preferable option.
Fall colors are starting to turn higher up, at the level where there
are only a few small deciduous trees among the conifers. After coming
back down to town, I headed to the Saaser Museum. Lots of antiques, religious
art, and excellent documentation of the melting of the local glaciers
and other geological phenomena. I was going to go up the hill to the
exercise course and see if there were some of those cool-looking mushrooms
but it is just too cold and wet today for that adventure. The snow situation
for tomorrow is still up in the air...if this blows through quickly they
could open tomorrow, but likely there will be morning fog which will
mean another day off. Wednesday is supposed to be clear and nice, and
there are conflicting forecasts for Thursday (which is the day I am supposed
to move to a different apartment AND hopefully get my new boots that
may actually fit...so I may not make it up Thursday anyhow.)
Friday
September 22, 2006 6:30 pm Saas-Fee (Snowboard Season Day 4) The
boot saga continues, but at least the sun
has been out, the snow is pretty darn good for late September (it could
be mid-winter afternoon-type snow almost anywhere in the states on
a non-powder day, really!) and I got a nice swim today in an empty
pool
with a huge view straight up 7000 feet of the alps. A rainy phase is
supposed to come in sometime this weekend...meaning more fresh snow
up high and some time to wait for new boots to come without losing
out on
sunny days of "happy boot" riding...there is a cool parcours
course up the hill from where I am staying, like where you run and
then do specific exercises at different stations (e.g. pull ups on
an bar,
etc.) When I was up there the other day I saw one of those big red
mushrooms with the white spots on it (like in Alice in Wonderland...scientific
name Amanita muscaria, it may have been the false one too.) I didn't
have my camera with me, it is probably gone by now, but i will try
to
get a photo of it and some other nature stuff that is up there. I also
saw a deer like creature (I believe it is an Ibex) under the bridge
the other day on the way to go ride in the morning..and some mtn. goat
type
creatures under the gondola going up.
3500m (Allalin Station, Saas Fee) = 11482.94 feet (432 feet higher than
the top of Mammoth Mountain, 482 feet higher than the top of Snowbird Tram)
Tuesday
September 19, 2006 5:41 pm Saas-Fee...Snowboard Season 06-07 DAY 1...Finally
got to go up and ride today. My new boots
were killing me but otherwise it was a fun day. The pipe was mid-winter
fast, got to get some nice powder turns in in spite of the existence
of those "holes" (don't you mean crevasses?) I even went
swimming this afternoon. Basically
every national ski team from Europe is here right now. Those people
are pretty serious, all Downhill Racer...It is so crazy to ride in a fast
pipe again after Mammoth in June with the
slushy!
Here are a few pictures of the
ski area from today!
Monday
September 18, 2006 7:58 pm Saas-Fee So the mornings here
go like this: Get up around 6 and eat breakfast
and watch the Saas-Fee channel until 7:30 when they update the snow
report to say that the ski area is closed "for the moment" due
to fog or clouds or snow or wind or something...then watch the Saas-Fee
channel at 8:30 to find out that nothing has changed, then look outside
and see that the fog isn't going anywhere, then watch the report at
9:30
to confirm that the ski area is HEUTE GESCHLOSSEN (today closed), not
just closed for the moment. After being up there yesterday, I totally
understand. Not like there are tree runs to get one's bearings in in
zero visibility conditions.
So today I threw myself fully into the exercise thing, ran a couple
of miles or more up and down part of an alp, did the yoga thing, did
the
long distance
swimming thing. Now I am tired and ready to sleep. I kind of want to go out,
but when I get all "exercise happy tired" my mind can't always engage
enough to speak in foreign languages. I don't feel like speaking Spanish at
work after exercising all day, so I am really challenged by the kind of double
translation
situation that is Swiss German.
Dusk has brought the clouds back down into the village/valley, so tomorrow's
ski area opening remains uncertain. At least I am up at a decent altitude and
able to re-acclimate to exercise with less oxygen. I am having fun, but it's
time for a weather change.
Sunday
September 17, 2006 4:25 pm Saas-Fee Still
extremely foggy and it was snowing again at the ski area with near
zero visibility, so no snowboarding again today. I went up to the
top to check
things out and to see the Eispavillion and Mike Horn Polar Exhibition.
The ride up there from the village involves two stages of riding the
Alpin-Express gondola and then a ride on the Metro Alpin, the highest
underground metro in the world. I also had a small snack/meal in the
Allalin revolving restaurant and watched it snow outside. No, this
is not THE round restaurant that they made into Blofeld's lair in
On Her
Majesty's Secret Service, but it was nice to hang out up there for
awhile. Now I am really ready for the weather to clear so I can go
snowboarding.
I've seen a few world cup type skier guys jogging around town, which
may be what I resort to at this point to stay in motion. The pool is
awesome but was really scary chaotic yesterday in terms of doing laps.
I will probably get some kind of exercise and then go and get online
at a bar so I can get my last 3 days worth of stuff online.
Here are photos from today (Day
4) (Eispavillion, Metro Alpin, Allalin Revolving Restaurant, Snow)
Sunday
September 17, 2006 8:15 am Saas-Fee The
snow report indicates that they are closed due to fog for now and will
update again in 15 minutes. From the looks of things outside my window,
they are correct. The fog comes down to about 200m above town if not
lower than that and it is pretty thick. Yesterday I went and fed the
marmots at Spielboden and took more photos of views and things around
town. The marmots are very cute, very friendly and have quite the appetites.
Here are photos from yesterday (Day 3a) featuring the Marmots, Feegletscher,
and more village stuff!
Saturday
September 16, 2006 10:46 am Saas-Fee, Switzerland Still
no snowboarding, pistes are closed again today, this time for avalanche
control and preparation. Looking forward to a powder day tomorrow (Sunday)
and even better weather next week. I went and got my skipass first
thing this morning and took a ride on the Alpin-Express Gondola
up to the first
station. It was really cold and wet so I came right back down. I also
walked around town a bit and took more pictures.
Here are photos from yesterday (Day 2) featuring Hannig and my new toy
Marmot!
Here are photos from today (Day 3) featuring Alpin-Express/Morenia and
Saas-Fee village!
Friday
September 15, 2006 7:58 am (1:58 am ET) Saas-Fee, Switzerland A
long couple of days of traveling Louisville>Newark>Geneva
by plane, Geneva>Visp by Train, Visp>Saas-Fee by Bus. It was
raining yesterday and continues to rain today. The snowpark/skiarea
was closed
yesterday and is still closed today because of the weather. From the
webcams they are broadcasting on the local tv channel, it looks like
the wind and visibility are factors. They also show some new snow up
there, which will be a good thing once the weather clears. Photos from
Day 1 are here.
Some of the labels are incorrect. I was really sleep-deprived. I was
really
excited to see the urban pandas thriving in the French-speaking part
of Switzerland. With all of that money they make renting their children
to American zoos they moved to Switzerland to campaign for the environment.
August
23, 2006 New site design and graphics today. I'd had the old ones
since Fall of 2004, it was time for a change. I
was going to do something with these hostess snowballs I photographed
last spring but it didn't work. Here is a snowball in plastic transparent
terrain...it is chocolate cake inside with cream filling.
Winter
2008/2009
Summer 2008
Winter 2007/2008
Summer 2007
March/April/May 2007
January/February 2007
November/December 2006
September/October 2006