Nitzerland: April 2018

While slowly adjusting from the end of ski season, I planned two trips to London.

Wkd. of Apr. 28

I flew to London mid-morning on Friday and upon landing, my first stop was for lunch at Chipotle after missing spicy, Mexican style food living in Geneva. Following lunch and getting situated in the city, I went to the Noel Gallagher concert at Wembley arena. Not quite the same as seeing Oasis, but this was a fun concert to see in person.

For Saturday, I had a very early tour that started at 7:45AM (this is 6:45AM Geneva Time) to see Windsor Castle, Bath, Lacock, and Stonehenge.

Stonehenge

Lacock - Lunch

Lacock - House from Harry Potter

Sunday was the flight back to Geneva, but all-in-all a great trip.

Wkd. of May 5

This was the weekend of the Geneva Marathon races and I registered and ran the half marathon. Weather was sunny and quite warm; very pretty day, but happy that I was not running the full. Felt good after the run, but in retrospect, I feel like this should be renamed the ‘cheese Run’ as it’s the first running race subsequent to Ski season where one’s diet consist of a combination of at least two of the following each weekend raclette, fondue, tarteflette, or croque monsieur.

Wkd. of May 12

I returned to London for a long weekend due to a Swiss holiday and planning to meet with friends from Royal Oak that now live in the UK (Adam, Milena, and Kate) to see some familiar faces.

I went to the Harry Potter play in Thursday/Friday and was very impressed; it felt as if it was a movie due to all of the special effects.

For Saturday, we went to the Harry Potter studio tour and it is amazing the number of sets, props, and equipment that was needed for the movies and kept! The highlight was the full hog warts replica that was used to film all passing shots of the castle in all movies.

Hogwart's replica where all shots of the castle and grounds were filmed during the movies.

On Sunday, I took the train to Newcastle to see the Chelsea vs Newcastle soccer game. Newcastle has been one of my favorite teams since childhood so this has been one of my bucket list items since moving to Europe. The team finished in mid-standings this year, but it was exciting to see a win at home.

St. James Park

I’ve been in London a few times since moving and it feels like being back in the US as it’s a large city with English spoken. Fun place to visit, but I much prefer the weather of Geneva after getting rained on with every trip there.

After learning to ski randonee (touring) the previous winter, I learned of the Haute Route and had to attempt the feat with my last winter in Europe. The Haute Route is a famous mountain touring route that connects Chamonix to Zermatt. The trip is a mixture of downhill skiing, hiking/cross-country, and mountaineering trip where you must carry all your gear over the course of a week while sleeping in mountain huts throughout the Alps.

Saturday
I prepped my gear for the trip to then take an Alpy Bus from the Geneva airport to Argentiere for the trip briefing that evening; just preparing my gear, I'm already getting worried on my technical ability as I've only done this type of skiing a handful of times.

I arrived early afternoon and relaxed until our briefing that evening where we were given an overview of the trip and I had to obtain remaining gear that I didn’t own (ice ax, climbing harness, and boot crampons). No major surprises, but we were told that our guide had injured his knee and a replacement guide would be arriving on Monday evening; therefore, we would spend one day skiing in the area with a 3rd guide while awaiting the new guide; this allowed for the added bonus of another day in hotels.

Looking like 'great' conditions the day of our briefing...

Sunday
We spent the day tree skiing within Le Tour and did some light touring and mainly stayed low for the best visibility. Although not specifically noted, it was evident that the guide was assessing each person’s abilities and taking more aggressive routes to make sure we were ready for the trip and would not be endangering ourselves.

Monday
We met our new guide and spent the day in Flegere; this was the same area where I spent my first weekend of 2018 skiing although this time was quite a bit different while spending time off-piste. Our guide informed us in the morning that we would need to take a detour in our week's planned trip and forego the trip from Chamonix to Verbier and start in Arolla as the avalanche risk was too high so that was a bit disappointing, but better to be safe than sorry....

When starting in Flegere and on our first climb behind the top lift, we immediately observed some smaller avalanches in the area and several helicopters flying through the valleys near us. Upon reaching the mountain ridge, our guide abruptly told us that we needed to abandon our initial plan to ski off the backside and return to the front of the resort fast as the risk seemed very high.

We descended the mountain and spent the afternoon doing some rescue exercises, which was very helpful to familiarize ourselves with our gear. For example, we used our avalanche beacons (done several times before), but also dug a ski belay to then develop a pulley system for removing our guide up and over a large snow drift simulating a crevasse.

Later that evening, we were informed that the area we had originally planned to ski and then avoided had a large avalanche that day that had killed 1 and injured 3...

Tuesday
We departed Argentiere by taxi to Arolla, leaving our gear at the hotel before taking the lift up mid-mountain for a few climbs. The day was better than anticipated with lower wind and better visibility, but still better to be careful.

Don and gear at the hotel du glacier (Arolla)

Wednesday - The Trip Begins....
We started with a similar route to the prior morning, but rather than stay within the Arolla valley we crossed over the top ridge towards the Dix hut. The descent was so steep that there were ladders that we had to take with our gear attached to our bags. At the base of the ladders, we then rappelled with skis into the base of the valley before then to the Dix hut. Our plan was to check in, drop gear, and then do some more touring around the hut; however, the storm came in and we arrived at the hut in a white out so our day of skiing ended at 1:30.

Base of the ladders

I need to provide a quick segway to provide an overview of the hut system. The huts are owned by the Swiss alpine association and managed by individuals who live at the hunts for 2-3 weeks to cook food, provide upkeep, etc. before returning to normal life. These huts are situated in mountain peaks generally 2,700-3,300m and there is no way to reach the huts except by skiing or by helicopter. They're set-up similar to hostels with multiple bunks per room in very close quarters; there are no showers and depending on the hut, bathrooms are sometimes in a small building that is outside.

Food is either helicoptered in each day or some have a cable system to the closest villages in the valleys. Given this fact, prices are typically astronomical other than Swiss wine that is the same in the valley as in the hut. Despite the challenges of getting food to the huts, the meals are great; I likely ate better in the huts than when I live on my own!

Living in the huts is like nothing else; you arrive early afternoon to get late lunch and then find ways to pass time until dinner and until bedtime. There are board games, cards, and plenty of books about the mountain and skiing (in French). The whole experience is very unique given you travel with the same 'hut' day-to-day as everyone is skiing the same route through the mountains so you relax and share stories together out together. Outside the time between the arrival and dinner, there is little excess time as sleep is just after sunset and then breakfast is before the sunrise.

For day 1, we spent the afternoon playing a lot of cards and I did a children’s puzzle; in search of anything to kill the time with no connection to the outside world or English books. Dinner was multiple courses, first course was a vegetable soup, main course was a chicken curry with rice, and then we had a mini custard pie for dessert.

Dix Hut

Thursday

We awoke at 6am for breakfast and to prepare for the day’s skiing; I’m quite sure this was the earliest that I’ve ever woke to ski. We were skiing with the sunrise on the mountains and that was very pretty to see as the day was quite clear.

The day's hike was to the highest peak of the Haute route (3970m) where we crossed the mountain range and now have a view of the Matterhorn (Pigne d'Arolla). This was not an easy day with 1000m + hiking and a section on a glacier that was near 45 degrees and required ski crampons; the reward at the top was well worth it.

Pigne d'Arolla

We finished today’s skiing at 1:30 at the Vignette hut. First thing upon arrival was getting Rosti! I then managed to find some phone service near the helipad so I found myself outside in my shorts and hut crocs on the snow to get some service. During this time, we saw a helicopter drop off a skier so that was quite interesting. Dinner was great again with a vegetable soup, beef stew with rice, and brownies for dessert. This hut had been recently remodelled and we had our group of six in a room for 9 so there was tons of space!

Vignette Hut

Hut Life (Vignette Hut)

Search for phone service (I'm the guy in shorts).

Friday

We woke at 6a for a quick breakfast and then out on the mountain. We hiked 1250m+ for the day with excellent weather in the sun and it was hot! I made my snow pants into shorts and was only wearing a t-shirt at certain points. We hiked to the Bertol hut (at 3311m) and arrived at 1:30 so I was able to grab a quick rosti for lunch.

The ascent could not have been hotter!

Climb to the Bertol Hut

Rosti

Bertol Hut

This hut was perched high in the mountains and they definitely have built this to accommodate many people in small spaces as our room slept 16 and the bathroom was outside. Sleep was a luxury although I did have ear plugs, which helped!

Saturday
We started at 6am and this was the last day! The weather was sunny and we had a short 500m ascent followed by a Ski descent into Zermatt alongside the Matterhorn; in total, we covered 14 Miles on this day. Skiing along the Matterhorn and reaching Zermatt for a last meal and drinks was a great finish to the trip before taxiing back to Chamonix where it all began. The skiing was not the easiest during the descent as the snow began to become wet and icy; one of the tour members fell and cut his nose that required some bandaging before resuming the skiing. We were lucky that this was the only injury during the trip.

Just outside of Zermatt before the final descent

Final Descent

Once reaching Argentiere, it was great to have a real shower and clean clothes after several days of sleeping in huts!

The following day, we skied in Grand Montets and several friends joined from Geneva. While on the final run, my ski came off and upon further investigation it seemed that my binding had broken. Luckily, this happened in a resort so I could ski down the remaining mountain on a single ski slowly as this could have been a major issue requiring a helicopter if occurring while on the Haute Route. I was able to contact the manufacturing and they replaced both bindings that same week free-of-charge while in Geneva.

Notice the right pin (or lack thereof)

This trip was an amazing experience and a great accomplishment that did have me quite nervous while planning. I’ll need to complete the remaining section of the route at some point in the future, but the few days I had were filled with great views and and an awesome experience leaving me with the feeling that you can go anywhere on ski!