Well, I went back to Flumserberg today.

I really wasn’t sure if I was going to go or not; I had no plans with anybody, and a little advertisement on Facebook didn’t come up with any hits. But in the end, I decided that I need to practice, and the weather was great, so I grabbed a book for the train and headed off.

As fortune would have it, Nick and Megan were on their way over as well, and sat just one car behind me. We met when we switched trains, then took the gondola up from Unterterzen together. There we parted ways for the morning, while they met some other friends and I skied some of the more aggressive pistes at the top.

These “aggressive” pistes were two of the very few black pistes on this mountain, and weren’t yet open when I was there two weeks ago. With an average of about 20cm powder everywhere, it was very hard in one sense; turning was difficult. In another, though, it was very easy to keep speed down, and there was no sense of fear; falling in powder doesn’t hurt at all.

I had some good fun there, but once was enough, and so I headed across the mountain. After lunch with the Deloitters, where I also bumped into Nathan and Claire, we headed up and down the mountain as a group. I worked on my form a bit and just hung out with the others, sometimes going with the less advanced people and sometimes pushing it a bit more with the more experienced folks. At one point, Nathan and I hit some pretty deep powder on an almost vertical incline as we went looking for a piste that was on the map but not marked anywhere (guess that’s a bit like following your GPS off the road because it says turn left here, eh?). Good times all around.

By the end of the day it got dark and cloudy, and let’s face it – this time of year, you can’t really hope for any sunshine past 16.00 anyway. So we bounced back to the gondola, got in line, and made it down just in time for the 16.58 train back.

Now I need to start planning Christmas weekend’s destinations…

Our second full day in Verbier began with a trip back to the SureFoot guys. My right boot needed some adjustment (and indeed, I made a second trip later that day) but once completed, they were perfect.

As with the day before, the weather was absolutely flawless. Saturday also marked the first day of the full-on winter 2010-2011 season, so the mountain really opened up. The snow was great, the lines were small, and it was so warm that I skied with my jacket unzipped most of the time. Of course, in such bright sun, a bit of “racoonism” was inevitable, as ably demonstrated by Stephanie.

At the end of the day, with Steph worn out, I suggested one last ride up the lift before we called it a day. She suggested that I go instead and ride as aggressively as I wanted to, which I did. Before heading down, however, I took a photo of the view from the peak.

Following a valley run, in which Steph Рmostly Рtook the long winding blues, meeting up with me at the bottom of some more aggressive reds, we watched an old Bond flick, then went to dinner at La Pinte. Apparently under new management this year, we happened across them during their grand opening. We had a cheese fondue with tomatoes over potatoes, followed by a Cr̩me Catalone (sort of a Spanish Cr̩me Brulee), along with a local wine. Again I was surprised by the fair price Рjust a rappen over 80 Stutz for the two of us. So much for being a rich-folks-only town.

The train home on Sunday was mercifully quick, weighing in at just 3 hours 39 minutes. But I miss it already….