St Moritz (13 - 25 March)

After some hurried last minute preparations we tossed our skis on out shoulders and headed out to Switzerland. Having run algorithms and prepared spreadsheets on how to get to our destination for the cheapest we chose British Airways flying from London City airport. The experience was bliss compared to other carriers - the tube/DLR arrives direct at the terminal near Canary Wharf, you're allocated seats, and you don't need to take out a mortgage to get water on the plane. It worked out the same price as other airlines since skis are free to carry and you are still in Oyster range of London.

St. Moritz is in the South East corner of Switzerland, a 3.5 hr train ride from Zurich. It is one of those classic very stylish places with a number of beautiful Swiss hotels with turrets etc. just out of a picture book.

Our reason for getting to St. Moritz was to join Marks parents on the last 10 days of their ski holiday. We stayed in a quaint Chesa (like a small hotel) in Silvaplana which is a little village just up the valley from St. Moritz.

It was great to catch up with the folks and try out the European pistes. Our bodies were a bit shy of taking on the big mountain runs so we stuck to the groomed, with the one notable exception of a 12km run on the Morteratsch glacier.

Sledding the Muottas-Muragl was a highlight. We rode tandem down this 4.2km long, 700m high track and the only brakes were our non-grip sneakers. Not for the faint hearted.

While stunning, Switzerland is expensive, really expensive. Even a bunch of asparagus was 12Ch (18NZD) in the supermarket.

The rest is explained in the photos, enjoy!...



(Click on photo to follow link to photos - on bottom right corner, then st. Moritz, then view slideshow)

Snow snow snow...

For all of you out there wondering if we had gone AWOL the answer is snow.
We have had storm after storm and have enjoyed countless freshies. Unlike NZ, the skifields here are never closed - either the weather is good and you ski, or its stormy and you ski.
We are now settled into our condo at Keystone and will be here till March. Since we aren't moving around much we won't bore you with day by day accounts, so will resume the blog when we head over to the emerald isle.

A bit of an update is below...

Keystone part deux

The grand skiing plan was based on getting cheap season passes and finding somewhere relatively affordable to stay to enjoy being skiing bums without the hassle of a seasonal job. The best deal season passes were for the triple resorts of Keystone, Breckenridge and Araphoe basin which are all connected with a free bus system which makes it the ideal car-less destination. We miracoulusly found a pretty sweet condo across the road from the slopes in Keystone, it is ski-in (through a waist deep powder forest) and a short walk across the carpark to the lift in the mornings. So far we have settled in well and are enjoying American culture with events like superbowl final and mardi gras.

It got down to -25c on the colder days...

Walking out the door was often an interesting experience

In the first weekend we hiked up to the back bowls for fresh tracks...



looking back up the slope

Breckenridge

Breckenridge was the last stop with Mark's family. Break is an old mining town though is now pretty touristy.

We had a few sunny days, fresh tracks and enjoyed evenings out about town. A day off in Denver to do some shopping brought out the best in all of us - we havent really evolved from the old family trips driving round lake murchison 20 odd years ago.

People mover doing what it does best.

Susan showing off some first tracks.

Outdoor pools dont always run in winter.

Sliding down the side of a dogs head - random.

Mark lapping up some cold culture.

The young-uns on the lift (girls have white goggles for reasons unknown).


Meeting the godfather of catfish in the Bass shop in Denver.

Looking at the highest peak of Breck.

3,900m+ skiing!

Mark and Susan slightly higher at the summit.

The last supper at the Bubba Gump shrimp house.

Farewell at the Arapahoe Inn; some back to work, some off to play.

Keystone part one

En route from Aspen to Keystone in the mini-van our 7th travel companion - the superbug Pete brought with him from San-Fran, took up residence in our stomachs. Most of the week at keystone was spent trying to work out which end to point at the toilet. Glad we were not in Laos for that experience.

Mark bought some new 170cm Vokl Mantras which are a mid-fat powder ski that still cuts it up at high speed on groomers... the ultimate all mountain ski.

Temperatures dropped to new lows for us. -25C at night and not much warmer during the day. Frostbite is a real concern at these temperatures as exposed skin is subject to some pretty appauling wind chill once you get skiing.

Keystone itself is an intrawest style resort, think purpose built ski town. Anyways, more on this in part deux.

Aspen

A delayed flight from Vancouver to Calgary had us miss our flight down to Denver. After a bit of excitment we had several hours to wisely spend our last Canadian currency. We met with Marks family (mum, dad, Pete, and girlfriend Gabby) in Denver at the airport hotel. Most of Jan was to be spent touring en mass in a people-mover through Colorado.

...and here we have snow.

First stop from Denver was Aspen which was the furtherest we got into the Rockies and is more of a resort town than a weekender destination (read:less crowds).

Heading through town to the slopes.

After a day to get our bearings and adjust to altitude, the gods were in our favour and started dumping the magical white fluffy stuff. It pretty much kept snowing for the whole 9 days and was the heavist snow storm in 10 years. Up to 18" a day of pow pow led to the epic flag being raised - face shots at every turn! Some of the locals were hucking big air but we were happy finding our powder-feet and making bow-waves down the hill.

Bow waves in thigh deep pow.

Dog sleds crossing the trail.

Aspen itself was very quaint with fairy lights and fur coats round town, needless to say we spent most of our waking hours on the empty slopes lapping up powder, and our evenings spent in exhaustion induced coma's on the sofa.

Snow creatures at the sculpture competition.

A documenary on the local wildlife.