The Struggle Is Real Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Dave and Sara’s Excellent 2018 Adventure

Le Petit Coq

By Dave and Sara on Sunday, February 18, 2018

Last night Christine and Nate got in around 11 after a few complications at Linate airport. We had a light dinner of bread, meats and cheeses and then shared the sweets we brought over from Chamonix.

This morning we woke up to a beautiful view of the mountains.

We met up with Fabio, our guide from Chamonix at 8:30. He’s from this area and used to guide here so offered to come over and guide us here. Fabio is the mayor of Champoluc, everyone knows him here. After grabbing a coffee at the bar and saying goodbye to Karen the six of us headed up the gondola.

We took a few lifts up and arrived to the ridge line between the valley we are staying in and the next valley over. Fabio led us through the off piste, it hasn’t snowed here in a while so the conditions were a little tricky. By the time we made it to the other side of the second valley it was lunch and we stopped at a great place with an amazing view of the Monte Rosa. After lunch we split up and Sara, Dave, Nate, Jeff and Fabio did another off piste run headed back to Champoluc. We came through this crazy couloir/gully that was beautiful and at the end we had to walk across an old avalanche path.

That’s Nate putting his board on after waking across the debris. It was so cool!

This resort, like everywhere we’ve been so far, is expansive. From lunch back to the base area we’re staying at took 3 hours. By the time we rolled into town it was time for Spritz and we met up with Karen and Christine at the bar next to our apartment. We settled with Fabio that tomorrow we’ll head all the way into Alagna, the third valley over to the east from here where it’s a little higher and hopefully the snow is a little softer. Tuesday we’re taking the day off from skiing to explore the region and Wednesday we and Jeff are going to go heliskiing . The route will take us back up to the Klien Matterhorn in Switzerland, down through Cervinia and finally back into Monte Rosa. It’s very exciting and we are all hoping for good weather.

Tonight we walked a little ways out of town to a restaurant called Le Petit Coq so we could experience fondue and raclette the Italian way. It was super fun and super delicious. The brisk walk back into town was much appreciated after our Italian-cheese fest.

Chamonix

Last Day in Chamonix

By Dave and Sara on Friday, February 16, 2018

So our day started somewhat no great today. We woke up and it was still raining. We packed up and headed off to Grand Montets hoping to ski our last day here. When we got there, we learned that the gondola was broken and the Tram had a queue over 2 hours long. We decided that it wasn’t worth it to wait. The other resorts are much lower and with the rain limit at 2000m, they would all be getting rain instead of snow. Therefore, we headed back to the condo. Instead of skiing, we decided to go to the sports center to run. After our run, we came back for a quiet lunch at the house of bread and of course cheese.

After lunch, we headed out to explore the town one last time.

Chamonix, it’s been grand. Until next time.

Chamonix

Photos from our Ski Guide Yesterday

By David on Wednesday, February 14, 2018

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.

Chamonix

Powder Days

By Dave and Sara on Monday, February 12, 2018

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.

We’re having some technical issues getting video up which is a bummer because we took some sweet ones. Hoping to get them posted tomorrow. Until then here are some nice shots of Aiguille du Midi from when the weather cleared today in town.

Chamonix

Great Mountain, Bad Visibility

By Dave and Sara on Sunday, February 11, 2018

Not much to post today. The highlight of the day was getting the washing machine to work. We had so much laundry and it is great to get it all clean. Having a place with a kitchen means that we have been trying to eat in. Last night we made some Salmon and Romanesco. It was great to eat something fairly plain.

This morning we headed over to Grand Montets to ski. It is about 15 minutes outside of town and came highly recomended from the Davidsons. When we arrived, it was snowing pretty good. The conditions were great but the visibility was not. When you are in the clouds, it is snowing, and there are no trees, it is impossible to determine what is up and down. Undeterred, we skied a few runs from almost the top, but decided not to go all the way up because it was just too hard to see. We skied for about 3 or 4 hours and decided that it was getting too hard to see. The takeaways from our first day here in Chamonix is that the snow is fantastic and the mountain is really fun. They are expecting to get about 30 cm tonight so conditions should be fantastic tomorrow. We have a reservation to take the highest tram at Grand Montets tomorrow. Hopefully we will get some great photos/video of the good conditions for our loyal followers. Tonight we are going to make some pasta with leftover romanesco. Yum!

Verbier Zermatt

Next Stop Verbier

By David on Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Today was a fairly low key day for us. Before we get there, we should let you know about our dinner last night. We went to Restaurant Du Pont last night for some fondue. This was one of the oldest restaurants in Zermatt. Compared to Ferdinand’s earlier in the week, it was not as good; however, we were still happy to be eating cheese.

After eating dinner, we headed back to the hotel to pack and attempt to update the blog so images aren’t rotated. Unfortunately, there is a bug where it looks right on an iPad or iPhone but is flipped on a computer. I think we now have it fixed. We also worked on trying to get the subscribe option to work. Therefore, let us know if you get an email notification about this blog post or if you don’t.

This morning, we left the hotel in our electric chariot taking us to the train.

Today was our last time of making the transfer via train. The train was pulling in as we arrived at the station. Once loaded up we headed down the mountain to Tasch to pick up our car/minivan.

The car we got is 4×4 but unfortunately is quite big and ugly. We didn’t get a photo of it but we will at some point. I’ll use this for an example:

The drive from Tasch to Verbier was fairly grey. It looked like the views would have been nice but was mostly covered by either clouds, fog, or smog. We couldn’t tell. Anyways, here is a brief clip showing our drive in.

Once we got here, it was a little too late to hit the hill. Instead we went and grabbed some lunch at some sort of health food cafe that is part of the W Hotel. We both had bowls and I had a juice. It was nice to eat something healthy after eating so much cheese. The rest of the day is fairly uneventful. Mostly, laundry, settling in to the new hotel, and getting important supplies such as hotel wine. The one thing I will say about this hotel is it is not nearly as nice as Zermatt. That being said it will do for the three nights we are here.

Zermatt

Zermatt- it’s a wrap!

By Dave and Sara on Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Our last day full day in Zermatt, here’s the recap.

Last night we walked around the town a bit, it really is so pretty here. There’s a lovely church where all the mountaineers of yesteryear are buried and right next door is the town hall and police station. And this!

Also the world’s largest Alphorn.

We grabbed drinks in a cool bar tucked inside the Old Zermatt restauarant and also ran into our ski guide David there. If anyone is thinking about coming to Zermatt we highly recommend booking a guide through David and his outfit Alpine Exposure. Super nice guy and he found us a powder stash. Yay!

After drinks we had pasta at Pizzeria Roma up the street. Super low key and friendly spot for a comfort food pasta dinner.

This morning we got up early, had breakfast and hit the mountain for our last day. Unfortunately there was weather around the Matterhorn so we weren’t able to go up to the glacier again but it was ok, there is PLENTY of skiing to be had even without the upper, upper mountain. We stuck to the western side of the valley, northern facing slopes which were protected from the storms that tend to come up and over from Italy. We skied the little cable car as everyone seems to refer to it, it’s a peak to peak relic that provides access to a ton of off piste skiing. So fun! Dave tried to make a gopro video but unfortunately just got great shots of his feet.

We also had some important business to attend to today. As many of you know, we put a sticker for Jake up at every resort we visit in Europe. (Sorry this photo is a little wonky but there was a patrol hut right next door and they were giving me the side eye.) Jake loved to ski and travel so we like to think we’re bringing him along with us on a bunch of fun adventures. We hope you enjoy the view of the Matterhorn, Jakey, miss you all the time.

After skiing the off piste area a few times we broke for lunch in Riffelberg. The snow train makes a stop here, I’m obsessed with this little train.

We ate lunch at the cafeteria again today, with the market tanking in the US and Switzerland being mad expensive we stuck with soup and water. But hey, at least it was soup with a view!

The weather got significantly worse after lunch so with our tired legs, we decided to ski just a little bit more and then make our way back down to the village, about 3000 vertical feet 🙂

We’ve been staying at the lovely Matterhorn Lodge and Apartments here in town. The staff; Ruth, Flo and Lea have all been so lovely and the room and lobby are both great. Tonight they surprised us with Apres in front of the fireplace. (…California, who dis?)

We will post about our dinner tonight tomorrow (hint: cheese of course). Tomorrow we are off to our next adventure in Verbier. This will be the last time we have to take our bags on the train. Wish us luck!

Zermatt

The Most Magical Place on Earth

By Dave and Sara on Saturday, February 3, 2018

Woke up this morning like woah!

Since we got in after dark last night we did not notice the giant Matterhorn massif looming directly over our hotel. And it is so spectacular. Here’s a closer look.

Pretty cool right? Here’s one even closer.

(JK, although this was my favorite ride at Disneyland growing up. Inspiration for the trip maybe?)

Seriously though this place is gorgeous. The town is really cute and I bet it is amazing here in the summer. And the skiing area is huge- it connects with Cervinia in Italy so you can really ski all the way around the massif on one pass. Today we stuck to a relatively small portion of the resort which still required a solid 45 minute high speed gondola ride. The snow is great and there is more in the forecast tomorrow and Monday. Avalanche danger is moderate however so we stuck pretty close to the groomers. Still found fresh powder though! (Sorry everyone skiing Tahoe this weekend)

No sight of this guy yet but we will be here for 4 more days.

We are staying at the Hotel Matterhorn Zermatt, centrally located and really nice (feels newly renovated?) Today on the hill we had lunch at Riffelberg with a lovely view of the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa. No photos though and also it was –24 degrees Celsius.

There can only be one cure for -24 degrees Celsius and that is copious amounts of cheese. This cheese-a-palooza was courtesy of Ferdinand at Hotel Cervo in Zermatt.

Pre-Departure

Next Stop Switzerland

By Dave and Sara on Friday, February 2, 2018

As you saw before, we packed most of our bags last week. Today is the day we leave for our epic adventure. With the few final touches, the bags are all packed up.

Look at all of those bags! So many we had to take the biggest Uber ever. $99 and it wasn’t even surge pricing!

We got to the airport and Dave had to take a business call at the most opportune time:

Surprisingly, with all seven bags (not counting our carry-ons), there were no baggage fees. Thanks Swiss Air! Getting through security was relatively easy. Dave’s bag got searched, of course. After a short walk, we made it to the United Lounge to enjoy all the luxurys of lounge life.

The lounge is packed and the only space available is in the pay-phone room where there is barely enough space for both of us. Luckily there was free sparkling water to quench Dave’s thirst.

The hardest part of all of this is obviously saying goodbye to the dogs. Luckily they are in good hands. Thanks to my parents for watching them in the beginning and end. They will have a fun time out in the country as well.

Our next update to the Site will be from Switzerland, so get excited!

Pre-Departure

Packing

By Dave and Sara on Saturday, January 27, 2018

T-minus five days until we leave. Today we did the difficult task of trying to figure out what we are going to need for two months including 24 days of skiing. Even more difficult, we had to figure out how to make it fit in our bags. Luckily we practiced and came up with a good list and were able to make things fit.

The forecast for skiing looks pretty amazing. Our first resort has already been evacuated twice because of two much snow. With the weather we have been having in California that is a breath of fresh air. Check out the snow report from Zermatt for today and the weather forecast going once we get there.

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