We’ve been a bit lackadaisical about our blog lately. Between skiing, hanging out by the river, and applying for new jobs (Sarah, not Chris), there’s been little time to sit down and put pen to paper. Here’s an attempt at bringing you up to speed.
Easter in Saas-Fee, Switzerland
Chris actually got a full 4-day weekend for Easter, so we made the most of it and headed to Saas-Fee for what we thought would be our ski season closer. (Spoiler alert: it wasn’t.) We caught an extremely early train from Basel Friday morning and were at our hotel by 9 am. The skies were blue and the mountains were calling, so after a quick bag drop and boot change, we were headed to the top. A mere 45 minutes later though, the conditions had drastically changed. Blue skies were replaced with storm clouds, and we were faced with quite possibly the worst whiteout conditions we’ve experienced. We stuck close to each other, but at times, we could see nothing but white. It was extremely disorienting* and bit scary, so after a few runs, we called it a day.
*That moment when the wind is blowing snow in your face so hard that you can see nothing and all you can hear is the wind – all senses are devoid, so you brace for the next bump in the ski run – “I got this, I can ski by feel… ok, this is going pretty smoothly” … and then you realize you have been standing still for a full minute…
The snow that started Friday mid-day simply didn’t stop. It actually snowed so much and so quickly, that the resort closed all the mountains due to high avalanche risk. Obviously, no skiing happened on Saturday, but we embraced a lazy day with open arms. We slept in for the first time in weeks. We perused adorable ski shops, and we wandered down a few snowy hiking trails. We splurged on a fabulous lunch, and we found a bar with Monopoly … and yet another which served popcorn. As a teacher, Sarah has gotten a lot of snow days in the past years, but this was the first proper snow day we’ve shared in a long time. It was glorious.
With approximately 2-feet of fresh powder, we were anxious to hit the slopes early on Sunday. The pistes were a bit crowded given the fact that everyone was snowed in the day before, but we still managed to have ourselves a fabulous day. The definite pinnacle though was the apres ski bar at the bottom: cheap(ish) drinks, excellent live music, and some stellar sing-alongs to our favorite throw-back songs. Exhausted and ready to get out of our ski boots, we finally made it back to the hotel around 7 pm – only to realize that we had left our only pair of shoes in the ski room at the lift station. We definitely got some strange looks when we came lumbering into dinner wearing full ski attire.
Monday was a PERFECT ski day, and we absolutely got after it. Having discovered a new section of the mountain that was much less populated, we managed to get in a whopping 18 miles of skiing before lunch.
Season Closer in Zermatt, Switzerland
We had originally thought that Saas-Fee would be our final ski weekend, but with the Easter “blizzard,” we were able to squeeze in one final weekend where the 2017/18 ski season had all started – Zermatt.
Despite spending a little too much time at our favorite watering hole on Friday, we were on one of the first trains up the mountain Saturday morning. We were lucky to have the company of some good pals and even luckier with the weather. It was quite possibly the nicest day we’ve had this season, and with the longer days of spring, we stayed on the mountain all day. We stopped for a delicious lunch at our favorite mid-mountain restaurant, Chez Vrony, found an awesome Igloo bar at the top, popped in for an opulent glass of Veuve 3/4 of the way down, and finished off the day dancing in ski boots to live music at the base. Even with all those stops along the way, we managed to surpass our personal distance record – clocking in at a staggering 31 miles.
We skied one final day on Sunday, which was equally awesome, and instead of giving you more of the same, here are a few fun facts about our 2017/18 ski season:
- We skied a total of 27 days.
- The total ski distance of the season was almost 500 miles – basically, the distance from Washington, D.C. to Charleston, South Carolina
- Our ski vertical was over 450,000 feet – the equivalent of skiing Mount Everest 15 times
- We are officially ruined for when we move back to DC. We have come to love our ski weekends here, and giving those up will certainly be an adjustment when we move back … whenever that may be.
Finally, Springtime!
With our ski gear put away for the season, we are now in the full swing of spring/summer. Last Saturday, we broke out the bikes, grills, and ladder-ball for a full day in the park with pals. It was a nice little taste of the warm weather and long days ahead of us.
On Sunday, we met up with some friends from the States, Samantha and Erik, who were on a long layover after their trip back from Africa. We were happy to play tour guide and show them around this beautiful country. We enjoyed a long ferry ride across Lake Luzern, ventured to the top of Mount Rigi for some excellent views of the Schwyzer Alps, and topped it off in true Swiss style with a delicious but horribly overpriced dinner… Welcome to Switzerland.
SASgoesSwiss 