Quick dash for Verbier, CH 2006
Well, I was offered to possibility to head back to Verbier in the middle of February. The weather forecast seemed promessing as there was a major weather system moving in from the Atlantic delivering a lot of moisture, and the next front was just behind the first one.
So in the end Marip picked me up from Delft and I loaded my gear on the already quite packed BMW, then we headed for Cologne to pick Mario's friend Werner. Well, it was the start of the winter holidays, so the driving took a bit (actually a lot) more time than expected. Anyway we arrived at Werner's place and dranked some coffee, loaded some more stuff in the car before hitting the road.
On the way we stopped a few times to fill up the car with gas and ourselves with coffee, even managed to witness a fight (damn you British lads), or atleast that's what we tought it was. Weather wise it started to rain soon after Cologne and it continued to do so for the rest of the drive (OK, it did stop many times, but it always started again). The rain changed to wet snow just after Martigny and we had a small discussion at Le Chable, should we try to go up to to Verb or stay at Le Chable (it was ~ 3am).
We played a game of change and continued to press onwards, in the end we lost as Mario had no chains (actually the high-perf tires on his BMW don't accept chains) and we got stuck roughly half way. Luckily there was a lot of traffic, as Pub Mont Fort had just closed. So one of the locals helped us to push the car on the side of the road and then called a taxi for us. The taxi then helped to tow the BMW to a nice safe place, before taking as to Verbier.
Well we were originally planning on crashing at my former flat, but I haven't gotten a reply to my SMS (later found out that my friend had finally switched to a Swiss mobile...). We still took the taxi there and unloaded everything, luckily the ski room and laundry room were open. So in the end we took the skiing gear to the ski room and then crashed at the laudry room (for ~4h). We got up, packed our stuff and headed for The Bunker.
Even though we had a reservation there, they said that we couldn't lugg our stuff inside before 10am, well the breakfast was going on, so we poached the breakfast...
After eating and some more negotions, they finally let us to take our stuff to the bunk-house, as the beds reserved for us had indeed been free. Made the mistake to tell 'em that we ate an extra breakfast though (next time....).
So get the gear in the bunk-house, change into skiing gear & pack the backpack. Then walk again to the "former" flat and take the skiis & boots from there, before heading for the slopes.
When Werner and Mario had gotten their ticket, we headed up and basicly skied were our nose pointed. Mario had earlier written an SMS to Bob, and after a while we got a message from him to meet up. So I had a blast skiing soft bumbs with Werner and we lost Mario on the way, soon enough I got a call from him saying that he'd already met Bob and was now skiing with him. So we should meet at the bottom. And so we did, I also managed to meet Francesco at the near the Medra's lift station.
After regrouping, Bob showed us the nice tree-skiing and a few other nice lines before the Apres-Ski. After that Bob went to change his clothes and then picked us up, helped to get the rest of the skiing stuff from the "former" flat and then even helped us to dig out the BMW (it was really sunny, so the roads were already snow free). We made the call, that if another storm comes in we'd be stuck if the car would be at Verb, so we drove it down to Le Chable. Then it was time for a few more beers at a pub down there (and watching ice hockey, the Suisse beat the the Canadians... I also made the prediction that most likely the Fins and Swede's would be at the final, Swedish taking the gold, guess what happened), before Bob drove us up to The Bunker for a few more beers. They were having the info-meet of Verbier Ride 2006 at the Centre Sportif's restaurant, and we mingled in nicely with the 20 something skibums.
Then it was time to change and head for the shower, before having some dinner. The old guys went to bed early, but I stayed up with the young guns from the Bunker.
The following day started with the breakfast and then we skied a few lines at Chassoure, before skiing the Col de Mines. Got some nice snow and fresh tracks on the way. Then we skied a nice offpiste line from the top of Savoleyres all the way back to the village, before taking the telecabin down to Le Chable and then the bus to Bruson.
Bruson has some really nice tree lines, and we even managed to poach a few fresh lines there...
In the evening, I went to swim with Werner... the jacucci was really nice... After that Werner and Mario went to search out for pizzeria, I stayed at The Bunker and being true to the dirtbagging trend (of The bunker) brewed my own stuff (unlawfully, as it prohibited to use stoves inside The Bunker). It was snowing lighly in the evening, making the next day look really promissing. Again the old boys went to bed, and I stayed up quite a bit later with the rest of the residents of The Bunker.
The day started again with breakfast (before we packed most of our gear) and then to ski. Col de Mines was in the agenda again, this time I skied a freshly avied steep'ish couloir from the traverse-track on the Col de Mines marked offpiste run. The couloir didn't have tha much snow and a lot of the rocks were visible, after I had skied ontop of them. The ~20 cm of fresh covered the surface just enough to make the rocks invisible, lucky for me that the Big Daddies are really durable... Anyway after the I had cleared the somewhat sketchy (and rocky) top-part the rest of the couloir was bliss. This time we also skied a variation in the lower part (from last time, we didn't do the marked path in either of the runs we did there), which lead me to a really steep bush-run with a lot of small drops... It was a bit hard, but blody fun....
Again, we made it to the top of Savoleyres and skiied another variation down to the village, the snow was heavy, but good. Then Mario went to get the car up (the roads were clear) and I went to pick up some snacks from the local COOP.
After Mario got back, we packed the car and met again with Bob at the Sports Bar for a beer or two. Rick and his lovely wife/gf was also there.
Then it was the time to drive back. Driving to Cologne went without any big difficulties, and so did the last leg to Delft (for me, Mario had to continue a bit further). All in all a great weekend with good company, and the BMW was a blast to drive.
The BMW stuck in the side of the road... A truly great start for the trip.
And the quality "housing" for the rest of the night.
Mario and Bob in Apres-ski mode. The snow was good and the skiing fun. Mucho Gracias Bob for showing us around...
Werner and the ever so lovely bunkhouse, better know as The Bunker.
Mario enjoying some pow in Bruson, Verbier can be seen across the valley.
And Werner rocking the Sugar Daddies on chewed up pow, still in Bruson.
Mario and Me eyeing our lines in the Bruson trees.
A nice end for a nice day of skiing ;-)
Life is never boring in The Bunker, here's Sofia gettin' educated by someone (can't remember his name).
Werner getting ready to hit the slopes in the morning. Last evenings carnage can be seen at the table.
The couloir I skied. The traverse is about 1/4 from the top of the pic and slightly on the lookers right, you can just make out a bridge over the narrow couloir there.
Me in the uncut white room.
Mmmmnnn, good snow, drool...
Mario cruising the lightly suncrusted pow in Savoleyres.
And Werner having a blast, even the sun desided to come out from the clouds.
Pics by me and Werner
So in the end Marip picked me up from Delft and I loaded my gear on the already quite packed BMW, then we headed for Cologne to pick Mario's friend Werner. Well, it was the start of the winter holidays, so the driving took a bit (actually a lot) more time than expected. Anyway we arrived at Werner's place and dranked some coffee, loaded some more stuff in the car before hitting the road.
On the way we stopped a few times to fill up the car with gas and ourselves with coffee, even managed to witness a fight (damn you British lads), or atleast that's what we tought it was. Weather wise it started to rain soon after Cologne and it continued to do so for the rest of the drive (OK, it did stop many times, but it always started again). The rain changed to wet snow just after Martigny and we had a small discussion at Le Chable, should we try to go up to to Verb or stay at Le Chable (it was ~ 3am).
We played a game of change and continued to press onwards, in the end we lost as Mario had no chains (actually the high-perf tires on his BMW don't accept chains) and we got stuck roughly half way. Luckily there was a lot of traffic, as Pub Mont Fort had just closed. So one of the locals helped us to push the car on the side of the road and then called a taxi for us. The taxi then helped to tow the BMW to a nice safe place, before taking as to Verbier.
Well we were originally planning on crashing at my former flat, but I haven't gotten a reply to my SMS (later found out that my friend had finally switched to a Swiss mobile...). We still took the taxi there and unloaded everything, luckily the ski room and laundry room were open. So in the end we took the skiing gear to the ski room and then crashed at the laudry room (for ~4h). We got up, packed our stuff and headed for The Bunker.
Even though we had a reservation there, they said that we couldn't lugg our stuff inside before 10am, well the breakfast was going on, so we poached the breakfast...
After eating and some more negotions, they finally let us to take our stuff to the bunk-house, as the beds reserved for us had indeed been free. Made the mistake to tell 'em that we ate an extra breakfast though (next time....).
So get the gear in the bunk-house, change into skiing gear & pack the backpack. Then walk again to the "former" flat and take the skiis & boots from there, before heading for the slopes.
When Werner and Mario had gotten their ticket, we headed up and basicly skied were our nose pointed. Mario had earlier written an SMS to Bob, and after a while we got a message from him to meet up. So I had a blast skiing soft bumbs with Werner and we lost Mario on the way, soon enough I got a call from him saying that he'd already met Bob and was now skiing with him. So we should meet at the bottom. And so we did, I also managed to meet Francesco at the near the Medra's lift station.
After regrouping, Bob showed us the nice tree-skiing and a few other nice lines before the Apres-Ski. After that Bob went to change his clothes and then picked us up, helped to get the rest of the skiing stuff from the "former" flat and then even helped us to dig out the BMW (it was really sunny, so the roads were already snow free). We made the call, that if another storm comes in we'd be stuck if the car would be at Verb, so we drove it down to Le Chable. Then it was time for a few more beers at a pub down there (and watching ice hockey, the Suisse beat the the Canadians... I also made the prediction that most likely the Fins and Swede's would be at the final, Swedish taking the gold, guess what happened), before Bob drove us up to The Bunker for a few more beers. They were having the info-meet of Verbier Ride 2006 at the Centre Sportif's restaurant, and we mingled in nicely with the 20 something skibums.
Then it was time to change and head for the shower, before having some dinner. The old guys went to bed early, but I stayed up with the young guns from the Bunker.
The following day started with the breakfast and then we skied a few lines at Chassoure, before skiing the Col de Mines. Got some nice snow and fresh tracks on the way. Then we skied a nice offpiste line from the top of Savoleyres all the way back to the village, before taking the telecabin down to Le Chable and then the bus to Bruson.
Bruson has some really nice tree lines, and we even managed to poach a few fresh lines there...
In the evening, I went to swim with Werner... the jacucci was really nice... After that Werner and Mario went to search out for pizzeria, I stayed at The Bunker and being true to the dirtbagging trend (of The bunker) brewed my own stuff (unlawfully, as it prohibited to use stoves inside The Bunker). It was snowing lighly in the evening, making the next day look really promissing. Again the old boys went to bed, and I stayed up quite a bit later with the rest of the residents of The Bunker.
The day started again with breakfast (before we packed most of our gear) and then to ski. Col de Mines was in the agenda again, this time I skied a freshly avied steep'ish couloir from the traverse-track on the Col de Mines marked offpiste run. The couloir didn't have tha much snow and a lot of the rocks were visible, after I had skied ontop of them. The ~20 cm of fresh covered the surface just enough to make the rocks invisible, lucky for me that the Big Daddies are really durable... Anyway after the I had cleared the somewhat sketchy (and rocky) top-part the rest of the couloir was bliss. This time we also skied a variation in the lower part (from last time, we didn't do the marked path in either of the runs we did there), which lead me to a really steep bush-run with a lot of small drops... It was a bit hard, but blody fun....
Again, we made it to the top of Savoleyres and skiied another variation down to the village, the snow was heavy, but good. Then Mario went to get the car up (the roads were clear) and I went to pick up some snacks from the local COOP.
After Mario got back, we packed the car and met again with Bob at the Sports Bar for a beer or two. Rick and his lovely wife/gf was also there.
Then it was the time to drive back. Driving to Cologne went without any big difficulties, and so did the last leg to Delft (for me, Mario had to continue a bit further). All in all a great weekend with good company, and the BMW was a blast to drive.
The BMW stuck in the side of the road... A truly great start for the trip.
And the quality "housing" for the rest of the night.
Mario and Bob in Apres-ski mode. The snow was good and the skiing fun. Mucho Gracias Bob for showing us around...
Werner and the ever so lovely bunkhouse, better know as The Bunker.
Mario enjoying some pow in Bruson, Verbier can be seen across the valley.
And Werner rocking the Sugar Daddies on chewed up pow, still in Bruson.
Mario and Me eyeing our lines in the Bruson trees.
A nice end for a nice day of skiing ;-)
Life is never boring in The Bunker, here's Sofia gettin' educated by someone (can't remember his name).
Werner getting ready to hit the slopes in the morning. Last evenings carnage can be seen at the table.
The couloir I skied. The traverse is about 1/4 from the top of the pic and slightly on the lookers right, you can just make out a bridge over the narrow couloir there.
Me in the uncut white room.
Mmmmnnn, good snow, drool...
Mario cruising the lightly suncrusted pow in Savoleyres.
And Werner having a blast, even the sun desided to come out from the clouds.
Pics by me and Werner
posted by Henkka at 20:54
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