So the new year started with an early night and a long drive on new year's day to Swizzel-land - more precisely Grindelwald for Tash's Mum's 'significant' birthday - basically a big family holiday with a 'Come dine with me' theme in the evenings.
Not much to say about the journey except it was long and I-spy got a bit tedious. Highlight was dinner in a French meat restaurant (a nice bleeding steak) and a night in a Formule1 - happy memories of Font every time I stay in one ;-)
Day 1 - Sunday. I hired ski boots so I could walk like a robotic John Wayne and also try out my brother's old snow blades on the slopes around the chalet. Not bad for a mess around but they didn't cut it compared to Tash's hired skis. So instead we decided I'd use Tash's brother's skis next day.
Day 2 - Skiing. An early morning and we were pretty much on first train up to Kleine Scheidegg.
(Left: All the gear and absolutely no idea on the train up to Kleine Scheidegg)
Right: Awesome views to Eiger north face from Kleine Scheidegg - looked like a path! Albeit a very cold path.
My first run and first time on skis since I was 10 years old was a well chosen (by Tash) narrow and icy blue run. There was no space to turn and I couldn't even snow plough to stop so I decided to instead use the banks of the run to bump into and help me fall over if I needed to stop. Eventually got the hang of it and within an hour or so I successfully got down a red run with more confidence and proper parallel turns. This was short-lived as I then went on to make backward progress and ended up pretty much sliding on my back all the way down a different red run with kids spraying snow and ice in my face as they turned majestically just to rub it in. My knees felt really sore at this point too and I thought they were going to snap at times - I don't think I was turning properly! After this we skiied all the way down to Wengen (beautiful little chalet village).
(Left: Wengen village)
From Wengen we got the train back up to Kleine Scheidegg. A few more red runs from here and I was feeling a lot more confident and we finished the day with an amazing long run called Arven right the way back down to the valley bottom to end an awesome day.
Left: Evidence that I did go down some reds!!
Day 3 - More skiing. Another early morning and we were on first lifts up to First (pronounced Feersht). The runs were perfect for me - totally empty and really wide. But as it was 9am they were also really icy and I had a really hard time even getting down the first blue run. I had a proper Kilner-esque strop at one point when I couldn't get my skis back on after losing control and rolling down the slope. As the snow softened up I found it alot easier and I got more confident. A few more blue runs and a couple of drag lifts later (one of which Tash fell off!) I was going well again and we headed down an amazing long red run all the way back to the valley. There were hardly any people at all on the run and I could go fast without worrying about hitting anyone else.
Left: The brilliant long red run down from First to the valley (it wasn't all as flat as this - and that's me!).
We skiied straight onto a waiting bus at the end of the run to get down to Grindelwald and then got a bus to Mannlichen lift (no queues!). 40 mins later and we were at the top of the lift (it's a very long bubble lift). From here we went straight down another amazing long red run right back to the valley and then got the train up to Kleine Scheidegg again (we definitely got our money's worth from the lift passes!). From KS we took yet another brilliant long red all the way back down to the valley to end another awesome day (this run we'd bailed out from the day before as I thought it'd be too much for me!).
In the evening we were cooking our 'Come dine with me' dinner - soup, lasagne and chocolate fondants. It was decided not to score people's evenings but despite stiff competition if I was forced to I'd have to say we won :-)
How can you not win with a dessert like this?!
Day 4 - Tobogganing. Hired toboggans and got the Mannlichen lift up with Tash, Jess, Tim and Jenni. Absolutely lethal. Although we were following toboggan runs, at no point when we were crossing ski runs were we under control. I came so close to completely wiping out a skiier. The day before Tash had been cursing a little kid who'd nearly done the same to her!! We went down the top half of the run twice and then carried on down the 'officially closed' toboggan run towards the valley.
Left: The beautiful toboggan run down from Mannlichen.
Right: More tobogganing fun!
Left: A quick stop for a beer and glühwein half way down and we were off again. Tash was pretty tipsy after her massive glühwein but at least it gave her more confidence!! ;-)
Anyway the reason for the run being closed became apparent lower down as we ended up on a road which was basically just sheet ice. The snow banks meant that it was just a huge bobsled run - totally out of control and using the banks to ricochet down the road hoping no cars came up in the opposite direction!
Tim over cooking it on one of the corners.
We made it back down safely though.
And in time for a spot of curling - great fun but not as easy as it looks on telly!
Day 5 - After surviving three days of winter sports with no insurance (due to unforeseen circumstances) and a cloudy day forecast we decided to cut our losses and just have a day spent down in the valley. Walked around Grindelwald, looked at the ridiculous ski-wear on sale (and the even more ridiculous prices), watched people on the nursery slopes and laughed at how much better than them I now was ;-)
Day 6 - another super early start to get a flight from Basel at 8:30am back to Barcelona in order to get back for work that afternoon. As predicted, only 3 kids turned up!!
All in all it was a pretty fantastic week - so many thanks to Ros & John for everything!!!
And it got me really psyched for more skiing....bring on some Andorra action in the next few months :-)
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