Nice edit!Thx for sharing it here
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Nice edit!Thx for sharing it here
Looks like we sat out on a banner year. Stoked for y’all.
That's awesome UM.
nice edit.
Thanks guys, and I appreciate all of the follows. Sorry I missed the main event, but this was the only way I could make this trip happen.
Really shocked how smoothly our trip went. Amongst the few hiccups, Untied flight UA3 Chicago to Zurich was 5 hours late because of a cockpit window problem...yikes. They amazingly had another antique 767-300ER on hand, so we disenmbarked and did a plane swap. Even so, we made it to Rueras before dark.
Michelle lumped us in with the other maggots, which was amazing and helped keep costs under control.
Busters pro travel tips on here and via PM's were absolutely on point. I reread a lot of the old threads.
We bought my 14 year old daughter a Junior Travel card for 30 CHF. The only negative was you have to que and show a passport at the station which took about 15 minutes. After that she rode with us free everywhere.
SBB app is amazing. I wish I had learned how to save the itinerary before arriving. It was kind of sketch on the first legs switching trains till we figured out to star (plus) our route so it gets saved. The only tight transfer is at Zurich HB and we made it as the doors closed. Would have been easy if we had the app dialed. The trip through Goschenen leaves 48 after the hour from the airport. Turns out with the fog we couldn't see anything over the pass anyway, but it was still a rush going in.
Switzerland is tiny. I knew this, but pulling in to Rueras, it is still a mindbend, we are here already, really? We drive farther for my daughters weekly soccer matches.
With Epic you have to pay 50 chf for train pass each. So the wife and I did that, daughter rode train free. Getting our 5 (epic local) day ski pass was easy and took about 5 minutes in Dieni, which is about a 3 minute walk and 2 minute train ride from the hotel, or you can just walk maybe 12 minutes, but we couldn't be bothered.
The walk to the train from the lodge is up hill. I'm glad my 80 year old parents took a pass on this trip. They would have barked. Skiing back down the hill half drunk after apres was one of the highlights of the trip. I blame our guide for showing us the way. Apologies for the mud in the ski room.
The ski room hilariously has locks on the lockers for paranoid Mericans. After a couple days, we were all sitting down there taking our boots off and laughed and stopped locking up our stuff.
Andrea was amazing. Our group was mixed as far as levels, we didn't have AT gear (I do but left it home) but he made it easy for us to ski awesome shit and still meet up after almost every lap. Hardest working dude ever. Three days with him added so much more to this trip than just the ski guiding.
Michelle was off with the OG euro mags most of the week, but always a Whatsapp message or quick call away. Definitely treated us like family, and I hope we returned the favor.
Best food of the trip was at the lodge. But we did eat elsewhere as well. Having good food on the mountain was amazing. The .5L bottles of beer were irresistible.
The weather was perfect. Like almost no wind all week.
Zurich was nice. It was too warm for March. I assume, because of that, there were people everywhere. The waterfront area was packed, and so we also lingered. The town has a lot of money, and a lot of people who spend a lot of money on expensive clothes. Looking past those folk, it was a quintessential euro city experience.
Everyone was polite. We did not get treated like ugly mericans ever once. My strong midwest accent did attract attention and some great conversations with strangers.
Sounds like a great time.... And hopefully you said yeehaw with your accent at least once to make us euros happy ;)
Ha! I definitely dropped some yea haw bombs.
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Great trip. So many things you mentioned are why I love going to Europe.
Yeah, UG thanks for all that. Cool showcase of everything that is rad about skiing.
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Seems to indicate that the Telepherique in La Grave opened. Anyone of the socials got an updated. I have the imagine the vibe is awesome.
I wonder if this would be a good spring to go to La Grave or if it's going to be crazy busy since the lift was down all winter.
Word!! Nice work papa! :)Quote:
Originally Posted by uglymoney
uglym- Thanks for sharing the trip report and video. (nice WSP selection)
It’s hard to believe I’ve already been home a week. As has anyways been the case, this trip has been the highlight of my season. The mountains are mind blowing, the vibe is relaxed, the conditions are all over the board, but the people is what brings it home. It’s hard to describe what good hosts Michele and Serena are, and somehow they outdo themselves each year.
Things lined up well for me to be able to take the kid this year again, and for a teenager he travels remarkably well, though he crashed out on me on the final train leg.
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Two flights and a few train rides gets you to Mountain Lodge. A view that never gets old.
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Day one was a nice sunny day harvesting corn with the oracle himself, Lars. If you want a day skiing fast and hunting soft turns he’s your perfect partner.
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A lot of fun little lines in there.
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Obligatory walk home
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Day three was an attempt to summit the Oberalpstock. It didn’t go quite as planned for the kid and I. Last year Kai asked me if Charlie has any fear skiing. Turns out a low vis via ferrata was his limit. We got to the base of this and I’m pretty sure the only way he was getting up, was if Andrea was going to carry him up. So we turned around and went hunting for soft snow.
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Day four found the crew making the drive to San Bernardino, home of Switzerlands slowest chairlift. But fresh snow and no lines had us happy to lap it all day.
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Day five found a handful of us on the Gemstock skiing boot deep powder by braille. We knew there was good snow but you just couldn’t see it. Finally our patience paid off though and Brian, Barry, Charlie and I got 90 glorious minutes of sunshine and powder.
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Obligatory train station walk after pizza and beers.
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Day six saw us make our annual pilgrimage to the mag holy place of Splugen. It didn’t disappoint.
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The next two days was a whole bunch of meh skiing, but the Swiss characters keep things interesting.
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To be continued in Engadin…
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More! More! More!
After the main shindig wrapped up the circus moved down the road to Engadin. Don’t let the furs and Louis Vuitton fool you, there’s some damn fine skiing in St. Moritz.
Not bad view from the hotel.
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And even better, we woke up to bluebird powder day. Fucking sublime skiing all day. Started off with a couple tram laps of hitting the low hanging fruit in Diavolezza.
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A little before noon we decided the time was ripe for a quick boot pack into Val d’Arlas. Probably one of the most visually stunning places I’ve skied. Skiing didn’t suck either.
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End of lap powder smiles and a quick skate gets us to the longest magic carpet in the world at the base of the Lagalb tram.
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If you’ve never been to Lagalb it’s basically a 2,500’ vert bowl that lends itself very well to high speed powder laps. Perfect way to end the day.
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Next up was Corvatsch and St. Moritz proper for more soft snow hunting and mind blowing views.
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Train beers
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Finished the day off with a fucking amazing meal in St Moritz. I already miss these people!!!
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My final day of skiing consisted of 4 hours of chasing the Lagalb tram while trying to keep the boys from going too big. Followed by a sublime ski out on the Morteratsch glacier. Special shout out to the local mag Mathieu who we ran into in the tram, and proceeded to bomb powder laps with for a few hours.
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Just bad parenting right here.
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Spent a few hours in Zurich before our flight and ran into the mag spirit gnomes.
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Such a fun trip. Skiing with friends old and new kicks ass.
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FKNA Bud, FKNA!
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low vis via ferrata might be a dealbreaker.
Great TR Alias, I'm so glad y'all were able to get after it!!
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^^^Awesome, love it!
Also, Tri-Ungulate sighting!
Charlie carryin’ speed! love it
:heart: I hope to make it back, love the pics.
Awesome work, guys. Like Bob, I definitely hope to make it back soon
This thread fukn rules
Also, Alias what are you using to post your report and pics since you seem to have broken the server fan code!
Tapatak is the only way I can post photos. The app and the desktop version won’t work for me.Quote:
Originally Posted by mcski;[emoji[emoji6[emoji640
Shit, now I wish I went to St Moritz after instead of before Mt Lodge