During
last week I was invited by this kind Swiss native to join her, her
family, and a few other students at her ski-in-ski-out chalet on the Swiss
side of Portes Du Soleil. We left early Friday evening in the middle of a
blizzard, the drive was a tricky one and we even got to witness a small land
slide on the side of a mountain pass which was pretty siick . After
arrival I met her family who spoke little but enough English, to teach me about
the Swiss native way of ski vacations. The chalet was very small but
very cozy, yet it was extremely modern for a ski
cabin. It snowed hard the entire first day and had most of
the mountain closed which was a major bummer; however, around
3pm the sun peaked through the clouds and allowed for some amazing
face shots in knee deep powder! I was only able to really get 2 good runs in
with the father of the girl who invited me before the storm started back up
again. That night after dinner we went out to a small bar with in walking
distance. There were only a few small groups within the bar,
and didn't not look very inviting until we started talking
to the bartender who was from England. After a few beers he started giving us
free shots and the night went from there. I woke up early the next morning
to find that the clouds were gone and the sun was on the horizon. I quickly
woke up and put on my gear, forgetting that in Swiss culture they have a sit
down breakfast and take there time getting ready... the saying
"no friends on a pow day" clearly does not exist here.
After waiting 3hours for the hung-over girls to get ready and for are bread and
butter breakfast we were on the mountain! There was power
everywhere! Just steep fields of untouched
or barley touched powder. It was the type of days I dreamed about
when I thought of coming to ski the Swiss Alps. After face shot after face shot
we went in for lunch which of course was not my idea and was a bit more of a
culture shock as we were sat down and treated to a full sit down meal... a time
waster in my opinion, but was very tasty. After lunch we ventured to
the French side of the resort and split into different groups. The father and
me headed into the steeper region and even ventured to ride the
famous Swiss wall. All I can say was EPIC, truly Epic.
I didn't want to leave it seems as this massive resort which I only
say 1/3rd of in 2 days was the perfect place to be a ski bum. As we left
it began to snow again. I arrived at home late Sunday night
and was confronted by neighbor to go snowboarding again the next
morning at a much closer resort. Charmey where we went the next morning (Monday)
is the Diamond Peak to Glion. It was still snowing but we managed to get a few
face shots in before classes started at 1pm. I’ve been here 2 weeks
now and I've gotten 4 days of powder snowboarding in, I could not be
any happier.
That’s
it for me, ill write more about school next time, which is a lot like SNC with
just more directional classes.
Cheers,
Lloyd
W. Garden
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