Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

White Out

Is it white out in Switzerland? Sometimes, too much so. It seems like every ski week in Switzerland will be both blessed -- and cursed -- with new snow. The snow itself is great, of course. But the snowing, a little less so. One day in Zermatt, we find ourselves skiing in a white out so thick, we literally cannot see a single contour or feature on the hill. Not only is it cold, wet, and ultra slow-going, but it has the unpleasant side-effect of causing all of us to experience motion sickness. And I'm not exaggerating. Sometimes the sensation is so strong, for a moment it's as if we literally don't know if we're going down or up.
 
 

The picture below is from the subsequent year's trip in Villars. I think. We could be in the same Zermatt white out. Or, we could simple be in the middle of a piece of paper.

 
I know we're in Switzerland, or Italy -- one of the two, anyway -- by the flags. Which we can just barely see. But we might be at the South Pole, if  the blustery snow and the penguin sculptures are any indication.
 
 

If you don't hear from us for too long, just send out the St. Bernard. We're probably still out there, lost in the white out.
 

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Ski Switaly

We are skiing in Switaly for the week. That would be half in Switzerland, and half in Italy. It just depends which side of Zermatt's resort we ski down. Despite the fact that it's right on the Italian border, and even the label for Switzerland in this sign is written in Italian, we are actually in the German-speaking part of Switzerland.
 
 
It's like skiing in a storybook, with white Alpine peaks and charming chalets all jumbled together.
 
 
 

All of it in the shadow of the Matterhorn.

 
 

There's the usual amount of hauling gear, and the long rides up. The long runs down are generally beautiful, until Gigi and I manage to get lost on the trails and end up skiing through the town's streets.You know the skiing's good when you can accidentally ski through the resort town itself and think, "Hey, this is better than some slopes I've skied down!"