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February 2011 saw me somehow convince my parents to let me visit the chalet twice with friends. The first trip was a long weekend with work colleagues that would see us flying to Geneva and hiring a car. A stroke of luck had seen us upgraded to a top of the range people carrier rather than the estate that we had ordered – complete with rear facing video camera to help with parking and all kinds of sensors which we had great fun testing out!!
The snow reports had been pretty shocking and this was borne out when we got there, with glorious sunshine and none of the local resorts being open. In the days and weeks approaching the trip I had tried to convince my colleagues that the poor snow reports were not an issue – it just meant we would have to drive further to get higher and find the snow. Luckily it turned out that way and we spent our three days at Les Diablerets, a resort that went up to a glacier at over 3,000metres and so was virtually guaranteed snow.
John and Bradley were first time skiers, and their progress was probably set back
Barclays guys posing at the top of Les Diablerets
On our final afternoon we headed up to the top of the glacier at 3,000m+ to enjoys the weather and the views.a good distance by Sheetal and I manhandling them up a blue lift at the start of the first day and trying to “teach” them how to get down. We had chosen far too steep a slope and it was completely counterproductive – exhausting the poor guys before their professional lesson! Oops!
Luckily Claude (professional skiing instructor) was there to actually show them how it should be done and they made pretty rapid progress! I was also pleased that for my first trip of the season my snowboarding technique seemed to have come back to me and I was gobbling up the reds and the blues without too much difficulty. I had also conquered the button lifts which had been giving difficulty the previous year.
By the final day we had bought a ticket up to the top of the glacier to enjoy the superb views and snow conditions. From the glacier there was an incredible black run that tested me to, and beyond, my limits. It was absolutely great fun, but so exhausting as the steepness meant that every ounce of effort was being put into my technique to keep me upright – and on a few
occasions it wasn't enough!
At the end of the final day we gathered at the car exhausted and elated. Despite the terrible snow conditions across so many parts we had made the best of it and had a great three days on the slopes. Hurtling down the black at Les Diablerets will definitely be a stand out memory for me!
The second Switzerland trip was a repeat of the 2010 road trip, but unfortunately Chris thought his old knees weren't up to the full 6 days skiing so he flew in half way through and joined us for the final three days on the slopes.
This time when we arrived the temperature was a balmy 4 C or so, and the snow leading to the chalet was only ankle deep so there was no need for “shovelly Joe” Mason to demonstrate her prowess, or for me to embarrass myself by attempting to shovel some snow and then nearly passing out!
There were massive dumps of snow on the first second and third nights which led to amazing snow conditions in the early part of the week. We had decided to eschew any resort that was t-bar
dominated, and so went for the larger chairlift-only locations such as Rougemont and Schonreid. The deeper snow also made me more confident to practice my jumping, as the landing seemed a lot more cushioned in the case it went wrong – which it certainly did on a couple of occasions! However, in the main my boarding and especially my jumping was improving, and the same was the case for Mandi who without the hindrance of a broken wrist was showing how it should be done!
We soon settled into the usual great routine of good food, wine and cheese in the evening along with music and films in healthy doses. The quality of the eating only improved after chef Alger snr joined us to bring us up to the full complement of four.
Our final night we treated ourselves to a meal out in scenic Gruyeres, where we shared a great little fondue as a starter, but then unfortunately Steve did not choose wisely and got some thin slices of what looked like turkey ham for his £20 odd, whereas Chris and I plumping for the fillet steak and the horse respectively were well rewarded!!
Our journey home went via beautiful Bruges, and the hotel I'd selected turned out to be an absolute gem – a far cry from the Formula 1 that had been so derided the previously year in Paris! I'd taken my only big fall of the trip the previous day, catching unexpected air while travelling at speed and losing my hat and goggles in the tumble. I'd thought nothing of it at the time, but was feeling pretty ropey when we headed out in Bruges for a great meal at a little café on one of the major squares. When we ordered 4 of the local beers, the waiter asked if we wanted small or large...naturally Mandi said large on behalf of the team but none of us were expecting a full one litre stein to come out! The glass was so thick it virtually required both hands to raise it, and soon enough any wooze from the bang of the head the previous day started to be cleared by our good friend beer! After the meal we wandered the old town of Bruges via a few of the bars, sampling some great beer at every step. It was a Saturday night and Bruges was a busy place, better still all of the places had free entry so we were able to flit between them without too much problem, a fact testified to by the arrival back at the hotel in the very early hours of the morning via surreal conversations with some locals outside a burger van which completely out of character seemed to have pitched up in one of the squares!
Needless to say, all of us except Chris were not feeling too clever the next day and we were pretty thankful for the late Sunday checkout offered by the hotel on Sundays before we made the short trip to Dunkerque to grab the ferry home and conclude another very enjoyable Switzerland road trip. Thank you mama and papa Freitag!
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