Yurp January ski tour - Martinske Hole, SK 2006

OK, my time in Leysin was spent, so I headed for Geneve International Airport. My flight early in the morning, so I got there in the evening before and slept at a secret location inside the airport. Before going to sleep, I sort of weighted my stuff so they would be according to the weight limits (15 kg for the regular luggage, and 32 kg for the sport luggage). In the morning I over slept my alarm, but luckily I had a lot of time to spare...


The check-in went just fine, so I SMS'ed Samuli and Rob of my arrival in Budapest. The flight went quite fast, as I was sort of tired and slept part of the time. After landing and waiting in the transfer bus I had a nice chat with a Swiss guy, who also telemarks! Luckily all my stuff arrived, so I went to the lobby with the Swiss guy, I ended up getting the Airport Minibus and I also gave some advice to the Swiss guy, how to reach Budapest with cheap public transport.


When I got to my “flat”, I called Samuli and he let me in his flat. Ended chatting quite a while with Samuli, before heading to his school. After the excursion to school we ate something light and then went to soak in the Gellert Spa.


The next morning was spent curing the hangover (damn you, cheap booze), so I ended up getting quite late and then heading to the school and update my blog a bit. In the evening we went to climb at a local bouldering cave. After climbing a bar tournée was in order, again.


To my amazement I didn't have a hangover, so I met with Mario and showed him a few maps around Sylarna/Åre, Sweden over a cup of coffee. Later Rob came to pick us up, Aron was already with him. After getting us, we headed to pick up Barbie and Balazs before heading for Slovakia. The drive went pretty easily, and we stopped at Martin to withdraw some cash and grab something to eat. After Martin we headed for Martinske Hole, and when the mountainroad started, we had to chain up. The rest of the way went up quite easily, but there was one gaper (police, I presume from the flashing light on the roof) coming down and causing some trouble.


When we finally arrived at the parking lot, we met Radek and sometime later we met Matej. We also managed to get some food for dinner and then headed to sign in for the Fest.


Saturday morning we had a really traditional Czeck / Slovak breakfast and then we headed for the slopes. It was snowing constantly, but it was also pretty windy, meaning crappy visibility. I skied the morning with Mario and Matej on and off-piste. The “backbowl” had chopped pow, but there were still pockets of really good snow to be had. In the afternoon, almost all of our “crew” took part in the Fun Race. The race was really funny, but I learned quite quickly that the Big Daddy is not the best ski on a tight course ;-). After the race ended, I managed to poach a few rides up even though the lift was already officially closed.


Then was the time for the BBQ, and after that was time to do some “maintanence” and then get down stairs to the bar for the party. The evening went just fine and I had a great time. Had a nice chat with the organizers and actually I managed score a prize from the “competition”. Also met Davide and actually partied until the bar closed.


The Sunday morning was bluebird, so I wasted no time eating the breakfast before heading for the backbowl to poach a few fresh tracks with Mario. Actually we made quite a few runs there and photoslutted a few runs. In the end I ended up skiing quite a bit with the locals, and had a break at roughly 2pm. I didn't head for the slopes after that, but I let Davide and Balazs try my Big Daddies. They both seemed to have fun on 'em.


After we stopped skiing, we headed back to the Chalet and packed our stuff on the car and headed back towards Budapest. In the end I was back at Samuli's flat roughly at 9pm and the rest of the evening was spent packing my gear for the early flight. Everything went fine and the Airport Minibus picked my up, only a few minutes late. But I still had more than enough time for the check-in.



Geneve International Airport, seeing from the airplane early in the morning.


The Western Alps seemed a bit cloudy this morning when the sun rose above the horizon.


There was even some snow in Budapest, as can be seen from this photo. Though it had already melted by thursday morning.


The main hall of Hotel & Spa Gellert is pretty nice, as was the Spa. Sadly they have separate sections for men and women, unlike Szécheny Spa...


And this would be Hotel (& Spa) Gellert.


And a local Club, should be funny to those who understand finnish ;-).


Rob, Aron and Mario whilst eating something light at Martin.


Me doing the kicker at the Fun Race on Saturday.


Mario about to launch a BIG air from the same kicker at the Fun Race, Balazs lining up for the jump in the background.


Aron, looking a bit cold whilst overseeing the Fun Race, Barbie behind Aron.


Mario, me, Barbie, Balazs and Radek at the bar after the BBQ, which was held after the Fun Race.


Sunday morning looking really promissing.


And a full 360 panorama from the top of Martinske Hole lifts.


Mario enjoying the fresh pow on the backbowl.


More Mario, Pow & Backbowl action.


And this would be me, cruising on the backbowl.


Matej, seconds before launching a neat line down the backbowl.


Mario cruising fresh tracks at the backbowl.


More Mario action.


Me hiding behind the tree...


...And on transition...


...Before making some nice rooster with my lovely Big Daddies.


Mario doing the jump-turn, for some reason or the other...


More of Mario...


Hmm... I seem to be a bit un-balanced in this pic...


And sure enough, something seems to have gone wrong...


...Before the big cloud of snow emerges...


...Still rolling...


...finally stopped, but still smiling.


Me about to disappear down the laid back cruising slopes of the backbowl.


Mario, Aron and Barbie enjoying some snacks at the outdoor restaurant.


Another PO, involving me, this time not at the backbowl though.


Same place as the one before, the photog and new target memorised from another angle.


Mario having a blast some where at Martinske Hole, carving some fresh tracks...


...And Balazs, the same spot and still fresh tracks.


Again Mario, same place and still fresh tracks, though this photo is from a later run.


And the last pic, showing Mario enjoying the nice pow, below the unnamed chalet.



Photo credits go to Rob, Mario, Balazs and me.

Yurp January ski tour - Leysin, CH 2006

To cut the story short, I should really start to do something with my life and get my MSc papers out from the school. So my studies are nearly done and I should prolly start my MSc thesis next autumn, so I sort of have the spring more or less free. Hence I applied for an exchange program to study the spring semester abroad. Sadly my skills in German, Italy and French are very limited so I could not apply for all the cool schools in the Alps. In the end I got a place to study in the Netherlands, and lucky for me the studies there start at the beginning of February. So I have the January to play around in the Alps and in Yurp in general.


So after everything was set, I made a few phone calls and wrote some emails for a place to ski and some company to ski with.


I started my tourneé in Leysin, Switzerland as a guest of TeleAl. So naturally the first part of my tour is Leysin.


The weather has been really nice, sunshine but sadly no new snow. I spent a week skiing at Leysin, some of the time on piste and sometimes offpiste. I also did some touring, basicly just skinning up the slope for the excersice and then skiing down. Most of the skiing on and off-piste was pretty laid back, as neither me nor Al was in a hurry. We did do a really nice real tour to the top of Pic Chaussy from Les Mosses, roughly 900 m of vert gain. In the beginning we were planning on skiing back down roughly the same way we skinned up, but Serge our picked a better way down. In the end we skied down the NW-couloir, getting into the couloir was a bit tricky but nothing that bad. The snow wasn't that great either, especially when taking into account that the couloir was pretty steep and lower down pretty narrow. After the proper couloir ended, we skied on pastry fields in really good powdery snow. In the end the total descent was about 1000 m of vertical, with the majority of the skiing the the couloir proper.


We also tried to do Les Diableret's proper, a nice roughly 2 h glacier tour, but got cold feet at the beginning as the weather seemed to change. After checking the weather at our estimated top-out time, it was a complete whiteout so we made the right decision to bail out. Ended up skiing freshies on Glacier 3000 and ended the day in Refuge L'Espace, before taking the last telecabins down. My last skiing day was Tuesday, and it was snowing the whole time. Ended up clocking around 8500 m of vert of freshies on that day alone. In the end, I ended up skinning the slopes two times, and then doing the Pic Chaussy NW-couloir. The rest of the time I spent using the lifts.


All in all, Leysin offers some pretty nice skiing, and when taking into account all the neighbouring areas, it can produce some really nice skiing and touring. To top all things, Al was a really great and generous host. So muchos gracias to Al for showing me around Leysin and generally being a really cool guy.

The W-face of Tour d'Ai, just next to the piste has tons of good bolted climbing on it.


Geneve, Lausanne and basicly everything next to Lake Geneve is often in the clouds, unlike Leysin.


Cloe and Al on the lift.


Looking at a couloir, Al and I skied, from above.


And here's another prespective to the same couloir.


A small panorama from the Solepraz-lift, Cloa and Al on the first chair in the pic.


Al posing in front of the house, after a nice day of skiing.


A view from the courtyard towards Pic Chaussy.


Al skinning up the old piste on Pic Chaussy.


And Serge blasting up, near the lake. Still climbing on Pi Chaussy.


And still skinning, though now almost at the top.


Serge and Al enjoying the sunshine and some snacks at the top.


A panorama looking Westwards from the top.


Al skiing in the biggest N-facing couloir.


Al still flying on the narrow part.


And this is how the line looked from below. We skied the prominent rightwards slanting couloir in the center of the pic.


Another view of the line, infact the couloir we skied is hiding in the shadow of the ridge.


A panorama, somewhat below Refugio d'Maien. On the left is Tour d'Ai and in the center Tour d'Maien.


The S-edge of Les Diablarets glacier.


Me skiing below the "knob" in the whiteout.


And Al enjoying the fresh snow...


Al still having fun.


Still snowing the next morning. Time to take out the big guns, Big Daddies.


A few of the lines I skied...


Another line.


A funny sign, must be 'cause there are a lot of 'mericans here skiing (Leysin American Highschool).


Photos by me and Al