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| View from Mont Fort of the 4800m Mont Blanc shrouded in cloud, and of the Mont Fort glacier below. |
Our first trip to the Alps was an absolute blast! We gave it a miss last year, scared we’d get
hurt and ruin Ironman training. Thank
goodness that’s all done with, so this past weekend we headed to the Swiss Alps
to ski/snowboard Verbier. The scenery and
snow were incredible, and the company not too shabby either! Our group included my fellow optometrist
Marcy and two of her friends Tina and Joy (both physicians – we were prepared
for any medical situation!), me and Chris, and Vic, a guy Chris knew from
various Air Force soccer teams who just moved to the area.
In an ironic twist, our flights were delayed both going into
and coming out of Geneva because of heavy snow in England. We eventually arrived in Switzerland , then drove
to Verbier and were able to spend a few hours on the trails before the lifts
closed. Our first impression was WHOA,
this is a huge mountain and there’s no one on it! We checked into our hostel that evening, had
a quick shower, and then headed into town for dinner and a couple beers. Us girls walked back together, were too busy
talking to realize we missed our path, and ended up blazing a trail through
knee-deep snow and over a fence to get back ‘home’. Oops J
Sunday we woke up early and literally were on the mountain from
the time the lifts open until they closed.
The day started off really foggy and although the forecast called for an
entirely cloudy day, the sun appeared around ten and never left. The lifts to the very top of the Mont Fort (3330 meters) opened and we were able to gaze down at its glacier under bright blue
skies before skiing down some pretty technical terrain to a really long
off-piste valley where we spent the remainder of the afternoon. It
was AMAAAAAAZING!
.
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| The crew minus Joy - Vic, Chris, me, Tina, and Marcy. |
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| Warning: danger of crevasses, stick to marked paths. Got it. |
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| Looking out onto the Swiss Alps. |
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| Only a sip was taken, for celebration :) |
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| Gorgeous view from one of the lower trails. |
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| On the way up. |
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| Loving the sun!! |
The other really fun thing we did on Sunday (and Monday) was
take a huge (maybe 10-foot high) jump onto a 15’x12’ Swatch BigAirBag landing
thing. Hard to explain, it looked like
this:
We have some videos that I’ll put up soon. As the resort was almost empty, we never had
to wait more than a couple minutes to go.
Basically, you shoot as fast as you can down a big ramp, and in my case
scream bloody murder as you’re being thrown in the air, then land on the big
cushiony air bag and just slide off. Each time we got a little braver, going faster
and getting higher into the air. By the
fourth or fifth time every one of us said something along the lines of “I
totally could've nailed that landing”… not that we ever would’ve tried without
that soft bag!
Verbier has a good sized terrain park as well, which we
ignored until Monday. After building up
courage with the BigAirBag, Vic was the first to actually attempt (and land)
one of the terrain park jumps. I guess
it was about five feet high and had a four or five foot gap to the landing
area. Chris set off next and almost
landed his, and then I sucked up my fears and went. I’m so proud that I landed all three of my
attempts, albeit quite ungracefully! I literally
got a headache from all the adrenaline but it was totally worth it.
Right at the end of Monday the clouds rolled in
again and at times the visibility dropped to just a couple feet. Instead of tempting fate we packed it up a
little early and headed out. It was a
short but exhausting trip, and although
I would’ve killed to be there another couple weeks I’m thankful we were able at
least to experience the Swiss Alps. I
think next year we’ll plan to be there at least a week, so let me know if you
want to come!
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| Monday, clouds rolling in. Me, Vic, and Chris looking out over the mountain. |
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| Visibility worsening. |
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| Hello, cloud. Goodbye, awesome Verbier. |
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