Locarno Work Trip with some Skiing

For the first 2 weeks of March, I was working offsite in the Ticino region of Switzerland (near Italy).  While working in the area, I tried to take advantage of being in Southern Switzerland.  I realized one major problem about combining a work and personal trip within the first 30 min. of using public transportation:

Work and ski gear; this was quite the struggle!

Zermatt - Wkd. of March 3
For the 1st weekend (before work), I went skiing in Zermatt with a few friends.  Visibility was great the first day....

At one point, I was skiing boundary pole to boundary pole and had no idea which direction was down with little visibility to the next pole.  It did manage to clear at night to get a sight of the Matterhorn:

Day 2 was much better, with good visibility in the AM so our group managed to go skiing and enjoy the slopes for most of the day.

Mountain fondue for lunch

Champagne apres ski bar on the side of the piste

As I departed from Zermatt to Locarno for work, I learned a quick/valuable lesson after 2.5 years in Switzerland.  The SBB (train network) will transport and store your luggage very inexpensively and this proved to be a lifesaver for the remainder of my trip! 

The work week was work so nothing too exciting, but the location is a popular summer vacation destination so there were plenty of nice restaurants and great views:

View from the hotel of Lago Maggiore

Dolomites - Wkd. of March 10
On Thursday, I rented a car to drive to Val Gardena for the weekend (Dolomites) to meet some friends to Ski for the weekend. 

Our AirBnB was in St. Cristina along the Saslong Run, which is a piste used in the Ski World Cup circuit.  Our actual AirBnb was quite cool as it was a neighboring building (servant’s quarters?) of Castle Fischburg that was ski in/out.

Castle Fischburg

City view from the above the AirBnb

We spent 2 days skiing as a group and then I also skied the 3rd day on Mt. Marmaloda before driving back to Locarno for work the following week.  The 1st day of skiing was spectacular in the sun at Lagazuoi (see last year’s Dolomite post) and then the other days were snowy/overcast so a bit more difficult.  The food of the region was delicious and we had our fair share of desserts (as a group) of 6 apple strudels, 5 tiramisu, 4 ice cream black truffles, 2 white ice cream truffles, 2 kaiserschmarrns,1 sacher torte, and several rounds of bombardinos....

Bombardinos

Dolomites Apres Ski

Funnier moments of the weekend were:

1) Our group did not venture far for dinner as we ate at the same restaurant every night, which also included sitting at the same table, in the same seats, and with the same waitress.

2) When skiing Lagazuoi, a small group chose to ski there and back rather than drive as it was an hour of driving or 1.5 hours of skiing.  On our return trip, we quickly realized that we may not make it home.  While on a gondola, we spotted our friend’s car on the neighboring mountain road and called them to pick us up in the next town.  While skiing, I was texting the car back and forth to update them on our location and when nearing the bottom I had planned to send a note with the lift name to get picked up.  While skiing alongside a road in the city, I hear a honk of the horn and it’s our car randomly parked to pick us up when seeing me ski by.

I returned to Locarno late on Sunday and worked the week again before taking buses/trains to St. Moritz on Thursday.  I made certain to have my ski gear delivered directly to St. Moritz prior to another adventure on public transportation!  The travel went quite smooth and I arrived in St. Moritz early evening to grab dinner; I love Swiss trains.  Pretty low key night as I travelled by myself on this trip.

St. Moritz - Wkd. of March 17

St. Moritz is an impressive ski town; I skied in 3 of the areas and did the night ski on a Friday night.  The city has many remnants of the 1928 and 1948 Olympics, which really added a lot of character to the city.  If you visit before 4 March, you’re able to try bobsledding on the world’s oldest track; unfortunately, I missed this by 2 weeks.  

For the Friday day skiing, I went to Diavolezza; this resort has limited lifts and lots of off piste access.  The snow was one of the better days of the season with 6” of new snow on Thursday night and a sunny day.  I finished early (3), took a nap, and tried the Corvatsch night Ski at 8.  I’m quite sure the last time that I went night skiing may have been when I was half my age and in the Hastings Ski club.  It was a very different experience form skiing at Bittersweet where the entire hill is lit up and all runs are open to here where there is a single piste open that is 4.2km with bars/restaurants along the way; both are fun in their own right, but not easy to compare.

View from the train after following a group of skiers on the Bernina glacier and finishing in the neighboring city.

Restaurant along the piste

The single lit run for the night ski

I skied both Corvatch and Corviglia on Saturday, which are the traditional St. Moritz resorts with first having the highest lift access in the area and the second having hosted two world cups and many FIS championships.  Visibility was tough as I found myself skiing boundary pole-to-pole again at one point and it was difficult to differentiate the sky from the piste and I even sailed off the edge at one point, but luckily regained composure quickly.  I skied both the 2017 FIS championship run and the 1928/1948 Olympic runs and they were quite different.  The FIS Run was very wide whereas the Olympic run was lower, very thin, and winding through the trees.

This was my 31 miles of skiing on Saturday

For Sunday, I did not ski and embarked on my 6 hour train ride back to Geneva where I had not been in 18 days.

I mentioned food above already in the Dolomites post as there were plenty more desserts to be had while in this region of the country; I also wanted to highlight the number of times I had pizza given the repetition:

Dinner Friday in Zermatt

Lunch Sunday in Brig (to Locarno)

Lunch Monday in Locarno

Lunch Tuesday in Locarno

Lunch Thursday in Locarno

Dinner Thursday in Val Gardena

Dinner Friday in Val Gardena 

Dinner Saturday in Val Gardena

Lunch Monday in Locarno

Lunch Tuesday in Locarno

I was definitely craving a salad when arriving home!