On Saturday the girlfriend and I went to Flumserberg, a more or less local ski resort that’s quite popular with the Zürchers. It’s pretty close – takes about an hour by train, maybe 45 minutes or so by car, traffic dependent. It was about 70% open, and the weather while poor in the morning was gorgeous in the afternoon.

This is a mountain that I know well, as I’ve been there many times. The first time was back in March of 2006, I think, with a few classmates from the HSG. I went snowboarding there with my friend Rana when she came out from the States, and I typically go there at least 3 or 4 times per year.

This time I went with Steph and her family. Well, Denise and Gitte were missing, but we had the addition of Michelle’s boyfriend Anders. Bendt (her dad) is the one taking the above picture. We didn’t ski much together, as Anders and I were more practiced than the rest (though, to be fair, I wasn’t skiing that well, likely due to some poorly-fitting boots that are getting replaced in 4 days), and Michelle hadn’t been on the slopes in quite some time.

The most fun I had, though, was guiding Steph down one of the steeper reds with pretty serious bumps. That’s at about the outside edge of her skiing ability, but with a little guidance, she made it just fine. She gets more practice in Verbier this weekend; by the end of the season, she’ll be doing the black pistes with me. 😉

On Saturday the 27th of November (2010), I made my first trip to Andermatt, a ski area in central Switzerland. It got me thinking that I should do a new post for every ski day this year, both so that I can easily see how much skiing I did at the end of the year and so that I can get back into the habit of writing once in a while.

The mountain is a solid two hours by train from Zürich, as most of the good mountains are. It was a last minute invite by Mattia to join him and his friends Sylvia and Kris, who joined us as the train passed through Zug. Apparently we chose this place because a) we’d never been there and b) they have a 2-for-1 deal on lift tickets for all UBS customers till mid December.
Größere Kartenansicht

It was a good time for my first outing this season, but I probably won’t go back – certainly not if only the Gemstock peak is open again. It just wasn’t that big, and the equipment was very old; the T-bars had a lot of down-up moments, with hard acceleration that at one point even pulled me off the ground about 4 centimeters. Who gets air while riding a T-bar UP the mountain???

I did have some fun when we accidentally went off-piste into a free-ride area. By “fun” I mean that it was way beyond my level, and that I was wearing the completely wrong type of skis, and by the time I got to the bottom a good 30 minutes later, I could barely stand due to tired leg muscles. 30 centimeters of powder is hard work.

This weekend’s destination is undecided, but it will probably be Flumserberg or Flims Laax. We’re not short on possibilities here!