Recent Snow Adventures

We have been having some fun in the snow around our house. The rumor that it rarely snows at the lake level is purely false. Just a couple of weeks ago, we got more that 12 in at the house, which apparently was the most snow at that level since the 60’s.
So we are making sure that we get our fill of snow while we are over here. Every weekend is either packed with skiing or snowshoeing or sometimes both. The views are amazing and sometimes the only way to see the sun after a few days is to strap on the snowshoes and head for a mountain peak. We have made it to a only a few of the great ski areas and have quite a few left to explore. So far, we’ve seen Crans Montana, Gstaad, Villars, Chamonix, Port du Soleil and Grindlewald. That’s just the tip of the snow capped alps here. They apparently close up shop after easter and with us traveling the USA in spril, we are going to have to double time it to get more in.

A lot of the snow excursions have been to simply explore out our back door. We’ve yet to conquer Rocher de Naye from the doorstep to the top and back in a day. The mountain has gotten the better of us on a few occasions. The last time after 2 feet of fresh snow, we crossed the second avalanche run out and Clara pulled the plug. We had the av-gear but it was too dicey to approach the really vertical section that late in the day. We instead practiced our snow cave building skills. Considering that was the first one that either of us had every built, the skills were pretty weak. We managed to get it big enough to have lunch in and head home.

My gut opinion at this point has been confirmed by a few expat-locals. The snow in US/Canada is better than the alps but the steeps and above the tree line skiing is better here. But when the snow is good, and the clouds break, every two planker and boarder heads for the hills because it’s epic. I’ve yet to really piece together the perfect day but I can feel it coming in the next couple weeks. It’s been an epic year for snow here, so it’s only a matter of time. We’ve yet to venture to the farther resorts, which are higher and more snow. It’s just been time and cost prohibitive at this point. The snow pack will likely last long into the summer months this year. That will make it interesting at the mountain top finish for the tour in Verbier and summer hiking.

We also ventured out to scope of a snow adventure race. We had aspirations of participating. Or maybe I just did, but I’m glad we didn’t. XC skis were the derigueur and we would have been at a serious disadvantage with only our raquettes de neige (aka snow shoes). The course was nice and the O-points were mostly on marked XC trails. It was a two day stage event, where teams had to build and sleep in an igloo at the end of day 1. We also took some notes on igloo building techniques. It turns out a snow saw would be pretty handy if not essential. We will be back next year to compete for sure.