Another dead guy

They found another dead guy who fell into a crevase last night. Apparently he had been missing for a couple days. What I don't understand is where his friends were? You just don't go out of bounds by yourself (on a glacier no less) unless you are stupid. This is the biggest difference between US and European slopes. The US resorts tend to have their boundaries and hazzards well marked while the Euro resorts are just wide open. Again, no worries. Our training has been very intense, but on the piste. I'm not going anywhere unsafe at this point.

Tomorrow is our last day of the BASI level 1 exam. I still need to work on a few technical points to my basic riding, but I should pass. I have also decided to start a Pablo watch since he has some sort of issue every day.

Pablo watch 1/31. After a 5 minute lesson on doing a toe side falling leaf drill, he proceeded to perform the drill on his heel side. Additional issues today include being late to the lift in the morning (not unusual) and forgetting his lecture materials back at the flat. This may not seem funny to you, but trust me, IT IS!

Every village has an idiot

Of all the snowboarders in the program, one guy stands out as a liability. Pablo grew up in Spain and is living in England. He is totally unaware of people around him while he is snowboarding. Yes! this makes him extremely dangerous. There have been numerous times where he has almost taken out skiiers (which is about once a day). Each of us in the group have been clipped by him at least once. Wouldn't you know it...On the first day of riding with the BASI instructor, he manages to take out one skiier, one of our own guys, and the instructor in one day. I'm not sure if this guy is gonna make it. I'm staying away from him on the hill.

I truely think something is wrong with Pablo. Every day he has some sort of issue. Today, he left his gloves on the chair lift and yesterday he took out our instructor. I think we need to assign a person to him on a daily basis to make sure he has his shit in order.

Day off...Curling Anyone?

The group went to check out the curling rink today. After some instruction from an old Swiss guy, we split the group into four teams. A few people cracked their asses on the ice, but the practice really improved the scorring. My team went the entire tournament without scoring one point. We suck! It was fun anyways.

Pictures are from this afternoon.

snow skates

Our instructor took it easy on us today. We did have video analysis of our technique in the morning. That afternoon was a day of messin' around with snow skates. I actually have never heard of snow skates until now. Just imagine a skateboard deck with a mini snowboard underneath. It takes a while to get used to, but once you get it, it is pretty fun. Eventually we skated on kickers and rails. Hamish (one of the Scotts) took a nice bounce off the rail. Too bad I don't have a movie of that wipe out. Anyway, the weekend is here and we are going to practice some more. The skiers are really stressed out about the exam. I don't think the snowboarders feel the same way. We are all fairly advanced. The pass/fail metric should be focused on the teaching aspect instead of how well we ride. The BASI instructors are coming next week, so it will be a weeks worth of exams.

Pictures are of Patrick (our instructor) hitting a rail, Hamish and Ollie trying on the snow skates, me at the top of the Blauherd quad, and the entire snowboard class.

It's a Friggin' Blizzard!

It started dumping today. It totally nuked the entire resort. Only ~25% of the resort was open due to high winds and driving snow.

At one point in the morning, our snowboard instructor had us huddled behind one of the lift stations telling us what to work on for our next run. I was the first to lead the group out from behind the building. I made about 30 feet from the building, then a 60+ mph gust blinded me. I looked back for a moment to see everyone else still hunkered down behind the lift station. Then the wind gust increased and I couldn't see 3 feet in front of me. I assumed the down dog position for about 5 minutes until the wind died ( I was totally exposed). When it cleared for a moment, the group went down to the restaraunt for coffee. We stayed in the restaraunt for about 3 hours until the wind died down a little.

Our afternoon session took us into the woods where we built a couple kickers. Our session was basically hitting the jumps all afternoon. Overall a relaxing day. We will have some sick powder runs tomorrow fo sho.

Ice Hotel.....Yes it does exist!

For our second day off, Kaspar organized a sledding trip followed by fondue. The sleds were planks of wood on plastic runners. However, he neglected to tell us how to steer the darn things until the third run. By then, I already rode the sled off course into the powder. The course was a well groomed cat track with plenty of vertical and huge arcing turns. When it was all over, I think I had thrown out my hip in a seven sled pile up. Neal didn't make the final turn and crashed into the safety nets. Funniest thing I've seen so far.

Fondue at the ice hotel was awesome. Although it was the second time I have cheese fondue in three days, the atmosphere was great. I was in a cheese coma afterwards. There are about 10 rooms in the hotel. Each room was carved by a different artist. The staff were nice enough to show us some of the rooms as well as the kitchen. The place also has a separate hot tub. Outside of the hotel is a large seating area in the middle of the slopes. It is a great place to grab a drink and lounge in the sun.

Although we were supposed to rest today, many felt wiped out from today's activities. Week 2 training starts at 9 AM tomorrow!

Day of Rest

Maesi came to Zermatt to visit Jane this weekend. We spent our day off skiing some on the Italy side (which was crap due to the high winds). Maesi used to be a ski instructor in Zermatt. This dude is fast. At one point we bombed a run and I had my board straightlined down the mountian. He pulled away from me like I was tied to a tree. After about 20 seconds he was just an unrecognizable dot on the horizon. He is packing a few more kilos, but dang!

This was the best day so far. I felt great. the conditions were good.

On a side note. I cracked my helmet on the first day of riding. I bought a Giro Fuse helmet at the local shop. The helmet cost $272. Jane said she paid about the same for her helmet (same kind) in Zurich. I just looked at the price for the same helmet on Backcountry.com which was $160. Thank you very much US dollar! Unfortunately I needed the helmet immediately.

Pictures are of Maesi on the lift in the morning, Maesi and Jane, Lunch at Blauherd, and a few of the kids in the course.

Reality of Avalanch Danger

We had two fatalities in Zermatt this week. Apparently the avalanch fatalities have been elevated all over Europe this year. Austria already has 20 and Switzerland had 5 until this week. Kaspar (Peak Leaders guide) said that the Swiss usually have only 5 deaths in an entire season. He thinks that the Swiss tend to control the slopes better, but the conditions here are ripe for avalanches. Both fatalities this week have been off piste. Our snowboard instructor has been keeping us close to the groomed trails so no worries.

Man Down!

Traing day #4. The affects of the flu are now starting to become apparent. My appetite has been poor for the last two days and I'm having significant problems on the mountain. I had to come back to the flat early today to recover. Apparently I was shaking and according to Duddly "Looked rather rotten." The rest of the boys went to the other side into Italy in the afternoon. I hope all of this fatigue is due to the flu and not my age. At least half of the snowboards are smokers. It is really wierd seeing people smoke on the mountain at 3300 meters elevation.

It became very apparent in the past few days that the training will be very intense. Everyday there is a different lesson and we ride all friggin day. The weekends will be nice since we don't have to ride.

Fakie on the first day?

Day 1 training. We met the instructor last night and everyone thought we would be cruising around. However, after the first run we were asked to ride fakie (backwards). I mean a whole friggin' run! My snowboard was not set up correctly at all for this riding. On that single run I managed to land on my right ass cheek 5 times. Jane offered some "bruise cream" but she didn't like the idea of her applying it. I'm currently really sore due to the falls. Legs are in good shape. Still getting adjusted to the altitude.



Oh yeah. We have manuals and study material! I guess this is a course after all.

The Gappers

There are 18 total people in the program. Only four of us are non-gappers. The gappers are those who are taking time off between highschool and university (uni). There is a distinct difference in who the skiers and snowboarders are. All of the girls are skiers and only a small fraction of the guys are. The rest of the snowboarders are your typical 18 year old punks with the exception of one guy who is 34 years old. I have kept my age a secret because I'm over 2X the age of 80% of the people. Nearly all of the folks in this program are from the UK and what I can gather, all of the gappers come from familes with a lot of money. No funny stories yet, but we are still feeling each other out. Tomorrow morning is the first day on the mountain and we have had a ton of snow.

Pictures of our flat and inside with my roommate Jane.

Don't ask Swiss Girls if They Ski

Well I arrived in Zurich on time Friday. Jane and Maesi picked me up and proceeded to tell me that we were having a party tonight. Apparently they were moving out of their flat and needed to finish their alcohol. Maesi lives in the heart of Zurich with a roof deck from the top floor. Although I didn't sleep well on the plane, one Red Bull allowed me to rally. I don't remember too much of the evening other than I German was getting better with more drinks. At one point I was asking all of the Swiss girls if they ski. That is kind of the same as asking an American girl at a party if they like pizza. I finally passed out at 4 am when one of the guys started to play German heavy metal christmas songs (imagine Rammstein singing Silent Night). No time to get hung over the next morning. Jane and I went off to the train station to leave for Zermatt.

Pictures: The alcohol we had to finish. Jane at the train transfer to go to Zermatt.

Farewell Dallas!

thadverosam,
originally uploaded by shammywu.

The farewell party was a great way to start off my gap year. It was nice to see people before leaving. Special thanks to the Arcade Bar for letting us use the karaoke gear. I'm still amazed that almost everone sang something. This may be a theme party that comes back on a regular basis. I feel very blessed to have close friends who like to cut loose and have fun every once in a while.