Here are the photos from our heliskiing a few days back.
This morning we woke up early to try to get a quick run in before breakfast. It was about 28 degrees F but with all the Italian food we have been eating, we wanted to make sure to keep in shape after all of the good skiing. We ran for about a half hour and decided that we had enough. After running, we headed back to our place and took quick showers and packed up our stuff. We headed out on the town one last time to get some croissants and focaccia and a coffee for Sara from one of the small cafes. We tried to get pesto crossiants, but couldn’t find any.
After we had breakfast it was time to hit the road. If you recall from yesterday, getting in to town was a big pain and parking even worse. Turns out where we parked was 41 euro for the one night. When Dave tried to pay, it turns out that anything over 25 euro needed to be paid with a 50. After getting about 30 euro in the machine in bills, the machine stopped accepting. Dave had to hit the cancel button which ended up working like a slot machine spitting out many coins to make up the 30 euro. After getting the car out of the garage, Dave pulled the car up illegally in one of the squares and we loaded up.
Today was Sara’s opportunity to drive. Being a Tuesday morning, traffic on the streets of Genoa was quite congested. Once we got out of Genoa, the view was spectacular. We weren’t able to check-in to our Airbnb until 4pm so we decided to take the back roads instead of the toll road (autostrada). The road winded through the coast from sea level to high above the cliffs. At one point we crested a pass of 800 m, a far cry from the Alps where we were driving near 3000 m.
As we approached La Spezia, both Sara and Dave were starving. We found a small restaurant on the side of the road and decided to stop in. The sign on the place indicated it was food like your mother would make. Dave had the Tagllini with Pesto and Sara had Raviloli with Walnut sauce. Surprisingly, it was one of the best meals we have had in Italy yet.
After getting a bit of shopping done in La Spezia, we headed up the hill to Caste where our Airbnb was located. Gianluca and his parter met us and showed us our new digs for the next two days. They even provided us a bottle of wine made by their neighbor.
A 13th century village that consists of about 15 people. The apartment is all stone and quite beautiful. We didn’t take many pictures today but promise we will get some up tomorrow. It is stunning.
Tomorrow, weather dependent, we hope to get some hiking in on the 5 Terre.
Here is a video of our drive today:
So today was our last day skiing. Luckily for us, it snowed all night and it was a powder day. While visibility was low, we were able to find a great area of rocks and trees that helped provide perspective. The snow was great. Really light and around knee deep. After we had our fill of skiing the powder, it was time to head back towards Champoluc to meet Karen at the top of the funicular for lunch.
After lunch, Dave took a ride up the magic carpet to get one last powder run before taking it up again to take the funicular down.
After skiing, Sara and Dave headed to the Spa for a very painful massage to try to mend our sore legs after three weeks of skiing. Tonight we are going to have a nice Mountain dinner and pack up for our move from the mountains to the city.
We also had some other exciting news to celebrate!
We appologize for the lack of photos today. Due to the heavy snow we were bundled up pretty tight.
Also if you thought we could say ‘until next time’ Alps without a Julie Andrews meme, you were sorely mistaken.
So we were pretty tired yesterday, so we left a very short post. Sorry about that, we were really tired. So here is how yesterday went.
Jeff, Sara, and Dave woke up and were all nervously excited about our day ahead. We got dressed and under Dave’s direction showed up to our first lift 30 minutes early. We took the funicular up followed by two chairs. Once we got to the top, we had a short hike to reach the area where the helicopter picks us up. We met our guide Loris and he took all of our skis and tied them in to a bundle. As the helicopter arrived our skis were placed in the rack and we all jumped aboard. Within seconds, the helicopter was off. As we pulled away, the force of acceleration and turning was quite intense and we all looked at each other in excitement. The video yesterday doesn’t really do justice to how amazing the view was, weaving in and out of the peaks just below 14K feet. Once we got to the top, we quickly unloaded and dropped to the ground to allow for the helicopter to take off. The whole process was quite organized with the helicopter only on the ground for pickup/drop off for no longer than 15 seconds. The ride was so short we thought there might have been a mix up and that we weren’t actually going to drop down into Zermatt but we were actually in the right place, high up along a ridge line separating Italy and Switzerland.
From there, we clipped into our skis and started a very long traverse around the peak to reach the Col that drops into Zermatt. At the top of the Col as the resort came into view, we realized how much higher we were than the Klien Matterhorn Tram which is the highest ski lift in Europe (3800m). Once we finished our traverse the wide open Col was somewhat chopped up but the snow conditions were quite nice. The powder was maybe mid shin deep. Once we got a bit lower, our guide took us off the beaten path to an area of wide open untracked powder. He said he preferred not to follow the tracks. We said that was fine by us.
There wasn’t anywhere to place a Jake sticker in all that wide open but we brought one just the same.
Once we got to the bottom of the glacier we were back in Zermatt where had we started our trip back on February 2nd. It was quite surreal to be back on the lifts where we started this trip. We took the Matterhorn Glacier Express and the Klien Matterhorn backup to the top and headed towards Cervinia to ski back to Champoluc. As this area sits in the sun all day, the snow was quite crunchy. Also, it was quite cold at -24C. We ended up deciding to skip lunch to try to take advantage of what good conditions remained. We chowed down a cliff bar and after a brief pause at the edge of Cervinia headed back down the hill. While the snow conditions weren’t great, the skiing was still very fun and the terrain stunning. We crossed glaciers, frozen rivers, forests, abandoned stone buildings and an old aqueduct. The end of the run was a very long traverse that took us back to the last town in the Ayas valley, Saint Jacques, just above Champoluc. By this time, Dave’s legs were completely destroyed and quite tired from all the long days of skiing. Luckily we made it to the bottom of the hill unscathed. At the bottom, we walked over to the bar to grab a spritz to finish out the day. With the purchase of the spritz came a ride in the Fiat Panda back to the parking lot where we had left the car. All in all we skied 40 Km across two countries and three resorts. Pretty rad day!
Overall, heliskiing was amazing. If we had unlimited funds, it would definitely be our new preferred way to access ski terrain.
Today we had a fun, mellow day on piste with Jeff, Christine and Nate. It’s snowing pretty hard so visibility was low. Took it easy cruising around and then enjoyed a nice lunch. We love this place and it will be hard to leave.
Photos to come…
Here are all the photos from our ski guide the first two days at Monterosa.
After such an epic day yesterday, our legs were pretty tired today. We headed over to Grand Montets, again, where the reservations for the high tram were full (yes they have reservations). We decided to wait in-line (on-line?) for our first run. After about 25 minutes, we boarded the tram and headed up. The snow was still quite good but pretty chopped up. We were able to find some goods hidden and still had some fresh tracks. On the way down, we were able to find a location to put the sticker for Jake. We are thinking of him the whole time we are here. In the background of the photo is the Glacier d’Argentiere
After making our way down, we took the Gondola on the frontside back up. The frontside is a bit lower and much more chopped up. Dave did find a small 4 foot cliff to jump off which he did successfully. The highlight of our day will be our Valentine’s Day dinner at Hameau Albert 1er which is a 2 Michelin Star restaurant. Although, we won’t have any money left after, we are looking forwards to it.
As promised below are the photos from our ski guide yesterday (unedited). You can click on the photos and enter full screen.
Note: Leave us a comment if this works. The internet is really slow so it is hard to tell if it is working.
Last night we were able to decrease our number of grocery store runs. This is good because most everything was closed because it was Sunday. After enjoying a glass of wine next to some folks from Michigan, we headed home and Sara made a great penne pasta with smoked salmon and romanesco. It was delicious.
This morning we took the leftovers and made it into a fritatta. The perfect fuel for our day to come. It snowed most of the night and we decided to head out to Grand Montets earlier today. We were on the Base Tram before 8:30. The visibility remained poor but the conditions were amazing. There was knee deep to waist deep powder. That early in the morning we were able to get two runs on the mid mountain gondola that were basically untracked. The day prior, we made a reservation for the high mountain Tram at 11:05. We thought most of the snow would be tracked out but we were wrong. Nearly the whole run we were able to get fresh tracks. Following our first team ride we made another reservation for an hour later and grabbed some lunch. During lunch the sun came out and our second run on the tram was also amazing. Light fluffy powder. Unfortunately the GoPro died before the second tram ride but below are a few shots of our day today.
Tonight is our last night in Switzerland. It is sad to leave but our next adventure in France awaits us.
To recap from last night, we were planning to go out for some pizza at La Pergola. Unfortunately, when we arrived, they said that their pizza oven was broken. I am not sure that I believe them as others who ordered after we arrived were able to get Pizza. I think they were so busy that they were trying to disuade people from ordering pizzas to give the kitchen a break. As we couldn’t have pizza, we went for pasta instead. It was still quite good.
This morning, we headed back out to the mountain. As it hasn’t snowed in a few weeks the mountain is pretty chopped up. In fact, last night we learned that one of the yellow runs we took yesterday is known as being one of the longest mogul runs in the world. The moguls across the mountain were big. Some of them four to five feet tall it seemed. Anyways, on day six of skiing, Dave was having some troubles getting in the groove. At least there were some great views to be had. Below is a photo with Verbier at the base.
After skiing some off-piste next to the runs, we decided to try the last run we did yesterday this time with good visibility. The run was quite nice. The beginning started with large moguls, followed by a wide open bowl that had some nice snow in it. We descended in to the town of La Tzoumaz:
The path went down a winding road where after a while, there was an actual road with cars next to the run. The path continued to provide us with breathtaking views. The photo below shows the bowl that we skied down way off in the distance.
We also passed a really adorable cheese shop off the road.
Once we reached the town, we took the Gondola back up and headed to lunch on the mountain. We found a great chalet called Chez Clovis. We both had, of course, soup and enjoyed the beautiful views.
After lunch, we worked our way back to Verbier. We ended up taking this route that went right through the town. I am bummed we didn’t get a photo of it; however, they even had slots in the road, so you could ski across the asphalt without damaging your skis. You had to watch out for cars. There were also a couple times where you had to cross an active pomel horse lift. The run went through the chalets in town which I plan to buy a few of with all the money we are making off the stock market right now. Stocks are up, right?
After skiing, we headed back to the room to clean ourselves up. We then went to grab an Apres at Le Rouge. This was another recommendation from Sara’s friend.
Tonight as it is our last night in Switzerland we are of course going to eat some cheese. Off to eat Raclette at La Caveau.
Before we leave Switzerland, here are some of our closing thoughts:
- You really do eat a lot of cheese.
- If you ate meat, you would be very happy.
- People here are very nice.
- They aren’t lying when they say it is expensive.
- In one part of the country everybody speaks German (Zermatt), then you drive 1 hour and everybody speaks French (Verbier).
- Skiing many days without a washing machine results in a really stinky hotel room.
- It gets cold here, -24C is a new low for these two California constitutions.
- We would happily come back to both towns! Switzerland, its been a blast.
Bonjour from Verbier!
We spent yesterday afternoon relaxing and walking around the town, it’s very different from Zermatt. Where Zermatt is down in a valley, Verbier is on the hill and more spread out with fancy chalets and hotels going up from the town center. It’s got a very different vibe too. The terrain reminds us a lot of Kirkwood or Deer Valley with a lot of fun off piste options and it’s steep too. We’ve seen many more skiers with alpine touring gear and even telemarkers than we did at Zermatt and the off piste areas seems more well tracked (although it hasn’t snowed since we got here so it might be looking like this in Zermatt too). So there’s a soul skier group. Then there are lots of well heeled Brits of all ages. In addition to the normal restaurants and apres bars that you’d expect in most resort towns there are also tons of nightclubs. Like DJ battle, EDM nightclubs.
Last night we had a lovely dinner at Aux Vieux Verbier recommended by one of Sara’s colleagues in LA (thanks Patrick!)
We also stumbled on a great wine store called Vinabagnes where we met some very nice locals who gave us recommendations on where to ski off piste and also let us taste the local wine from the Valais region of Switzerland. Wine is grown here on some pretty steep terrain, similar to what I’ve seen in Piemonte, and the earth is very minerally.
This morning we headed up the hill via the Medran gondola. Since we arrived there’s been an inversion with a very low cloud cover (this morning it was actually snowing in town) and clear blue skies at higher elevations. After the first gondola we took one more gondola and two trams, all the way to the top of the Mont Fort peak. Although we wanted to follow the alpine touring folks off the back we weren’t exactly sure how to make our way back to Verbier (one of the locals we met said it required an hour of skinning, the other said 20 minutes)and since we didn’t have skins and an hour hike seemed extreme we stuck to the front side. Still very fun and very beautiful.
We found a great place in the sun high above the clouds for Jake’s sticker. Thanks to everyone who helped me try to find a few more. A day before I left I found a few in a very random place at my house. I have no idea how they go there but once I found them I had enough for each stop on our trip.
After that we skied a bunch of different runs all over the mountain; they could use a good snow so a lot of crunchy bumps. We grabbed a late lunch of the hill (soup again cause Verbier is $$$$$) and then decided that we would take this long ‘yellow line*’ run down the valley and call it a day. Judging from the runs we had already done it looked like it would take us about 45 minutes to an hour. Perfect!
*A ‘yellow line’ is an off piste run that is marked in the center with neon yellow poles about every 20 ft. The skiable area is so massive off each lift that it’s easy to get lost, but more on that later.
Leaving lunch we followed a ridge line and topped into really fun stuff that took us down to a gate. Yea, the yellow line we planned to take down to the base was marked with a gate and a bunch of signage. Luckily it was open but still. We waited until we saw someone else go in and then we dropped in behind. The top of the run was fine, a little crunchy but still fun. We watched the skier in front of us disappear into a little gully, beyond the gully was a random cat track with really high walls on either side. Couldn’t see much of anything as we would our way down this cat track except that it looked really freaking steep on either side. Then we got to a giant sign that said a bunch of stuff in French and also don’t turn right, high avalanche danger. So we went forward a little bit and then visibility dropped a lot. We were in the clouds. Luckily two locals and a ski school instructor with a little kid came up behind us. The local guys went right and told us to follow them. The ski school dude and the little kid went straight. I’m not sure we made the right decision in hindsight because the local guys said the visibility was worse over there but we followed the ski school. We lost the ski school in the fog so stuck right to the poles, it was hard to see one past the other but we make a really good team and eventually got below the dense clouds and back onto the mountain run. After that we called it a day.
After skiing, we walked around town for a bit. We stopped by a local butcher and purchased some stinky cheese and bread to go with the wine we purchased yesterday for our hotel room apres-ski. We watched a bit of TV and waited for our next pizza adventure at dinner at La Pergola. I think all we are going to eat on this trip is melted cheese in some for. Tomorrow is our last day of skiing in Verbier and the. We are off to France on Saturday.