January Update (2nd Half)

January is a tough month as an accountant during busy season working 80 hour weeks (weekdays alone); I think the Swiss mindset is a little different than what I'm used to in the US.  For example, eating through lunch and dinner at the client site does not exist here nor does mandatory weekends working onsite.  Still late nights working a combination from onsite and home, but I was able to eat dinner at home almost every night and maintain a regular running routine and have free time on the weekends.

Weekend of January 23

My engagement team spent the weekend together in Verbier skiing and stayed at one of our Assistant's family chalets (Thank You Freddy).  Never would I have ever envisioned taking a group vacation for a weekend of busy season ha.  Team had a blast and skiing was spectacular.  Had my first Raclette at a restaurant where there were two seatings for the entire restaurant (7 and 9) and a central Raclette machine where everyone is served from.

Most of the team at the top of Mt. Fort

Why hello there Matterhorn

Raclette

Weekend of January 30
Spent the weekend relaxing, catching up on life, and no skiing as weather wasn't great; officially a fail on skiing goal ha.

Weekend of February 6

Back on the bandwagon and skied with the ski club in La Thuile, Italy.  Fun fact for the region is many of the cities have French names and I was under the impression I was going to ski in La Thuile, France (also a close ski town) until I saw signs for Courmayeur.  Blue bird day and the resort had some great runs that seemed endless; the women's World Cup will be at this resort the end of February and we skied the GS run that was in the process of being gated.  Smooth, tough run that apparently is the steepest GS in Europe.  This was also my first time skiing in Italy and the terrain is similar, but food choices are quite different:

France/Swiss: Tartaflette and Rosti

Italy: Polenta and Pasta

Currently, I'm on my flight back to the US for the Koinis wedding on a short trip (Thursday - Tuesday); I will miss the skiing goal this week, but it's an acceptable excuse.

January Update (1st Half)

So I've started January with a new goal while trying to manage working busy season hours; I'm going to ski at least once each weekend during the ski season provided no conflicting trips planned.  So far I've been doing well on this goal...

Jan 9

I went skiing with the ski club in Flaine, France (Grand Massif) and was soaking wet.  I could wring out my gloves at the end of the day and they were pouring water.

Jan 16

Skied in Interlaken, Grindelwald, and Wengen area.  A small group of us rented a chalet for a friend that was in town from the US to ski.  Saturday was great and we covered much of the resort other than a run in Wengen as the skiing World Cup was being skied this weekend at that site.  

Sunday was the randomest day ever....

Going into the day there were several questions regarding the following day's activities; to ski or to sled, as conditions looked to be bad the day began in flux.  After some confusion, we called the front desk at 9:47 and learned that breakfast needed at 10 so the group instantly dropped what they were doing to run to breakfast at the main lodge from our chalet.

Following breakfast, the group packed and went to check out with a continual debate to ski or to sled.  The weather looked terrible so we planned to sled at first although the ski race was on TV and it was sunny so I made the executive decision we should try to ski.  We then realized we missed the normal city bus to town so the hotel drove us and we brought our gear to the train station to save time.  Once arriving at the train station at 9:40 we began to slowly put our bags into the lockers and quickly realized that that was a train to Klein Scheidegg (top of the ski hill) would be leaving in 5 minutes so this became a scramble....we did make it although we did not realize that the train ticket was $15 and saved almost no time ($30 for those with non half-fare) when compared to taking the city bus to the gondola.

The day did end there, upon reaching the top of the mountain the weather was once again terrible so we were debating even buying lift tickets so we decided to ski down planning to ski all the way to the bottom and then call it a day thus not requiring a lift ticket.  The one run all the way to the bottom was a blast!  Upon reaching to the bottom, we realized that our train tickets were never scanned....so we did this again, and then did it again while stopping for lunch on the mountain, and then took the train to the top again...so yes, we outsmarted the Swiss train/lift ticket system.

So we skied the rest of the day via the train rather than chair lift and then finished the day.  Our last scramble of the day involved us getting to the bottom of the ski hill and taking a train to the main station to arrive at 4:14 and needing to board another train leaving at 4:17.  Keep in mind that our entire group is still in our ski gear, with skis, and still still needing to get our bags from the lockers.  We miraculously made this and were lucky enough to get thrown in a cargo car with no seats for the first train (45 min), which sounds terrible, but was great as it allowed us pack all of our bags and get situated before heading on the 2 hour train ride home to Geneva.

So...first half of January I'm 2 for 2 on skiing!