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Published: January 31st 2011
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As an Australian living in London, there is one box that must be ticked - the European ski trip! Thanks to the organisation from my Swiss work colleague, I ended up in the superb spot of
Laax in Switzerland for a ski weekend. It was certainly not the kind of place I could have found by myself. It certainly did not disappoint, with the best 2 days of skiing I have ever experienced and probably ever will experience. It was well worth the sore ribs and sore feet that came from it. The Swiss are so spoilt for great skiiing, with amazing mountains to ski everywhere.
Having walked out of the office in London at 3pm, by 11pm I found myself in the remote village of Laax, Switzerland, about 2 hours south of
Zurich. We were staying at
Hotel Rustico, a very rustic hotel indeed.
In the morning we had a 10 minute walk to the base chairlift where we hired equipment and got lift tickets before riding the gondola up to
Crap Sogn Gion. I was amazed by the amount of Swiss wearing helmets, these people were serious skiiers! Of course I decided that my outfit of 4
layers and a thin jacket plus my running tights and jeans was a suitable outfit for the classy ski resort of Laax. Of course I was the only one skiing in jeans, talk about the ultimate Aussie bogan move. Of course my Swiss colleagues got a laugh out of it, as they did watching me get out of the moving gondola in my ridiculously tight ski boots! At this point they must have wondered if I could actually ski given my lack of coordination on my own two feet. The Swiss took me down my first run, which was a blue run, the easiest level in Switzerland. Luckily I was able to pick up where I left off 3 years ago with skiing and found myself skiing like
Zoolander, perfect parallel turns to the left, turning like the
Queen Mary to the right, not sure why that is. The run was beautiful. So long and wide and perfect powder I quickly realised this is the best skiing I will ever do in my life! The blue run was more like what I would call an intermediate run back in Australia with some tricky drops to deal with, but the real
fun was at the end of the run when it merged with a red run (which is the intermediate run in Switzerland). This part was more like a black run to me and my Swiss colleagues took much enjoyment flying down it to turn around at the bottom and watch me negotiate it. Amazingly I did and my jeans stayed dry. But disaster was about to hit me.
My first t-bar back up the hill was the problem. In Australia, t-bars are generally at a consistent gradient, and short obviously. But this t-bar was flat and up and down and finished with a very steep up. I dismounted too late and went straight into a snow wall, coming off not just embarrassed but with very sore ribs due to forcing the top of my poles into my chest as I hit the wall. Every breath hurt, but I pushed on.
Next we took an easier blue run to a gondola that took us closer to the summit. Once we got there we realised the cloud was quite low and could not see too far, so we skiied back down. Of course this was a red run and it
made for interesting skiing when you can't see 2 metres in front of you. It felt like I was going fast, but later in the day when we went back to that spot I couldn't believe I had done it! I was much more cautious without the cloud cover! It was a glorious day of skiing. So many runs, no queues for chairlifts and actually not many people on the runs. I guess there are so many runs and so many other places nearby to ski that there is plenty of room for everyone! And with my skiing technique, I sure needed the room!
Before heading off the mountain we hit the
Rockbar, a huge outdoor bar with amazing 360 views of the mountains, it is packed and the tunes are pumping and it doesn't matter how slowly you drink, the beer is always cold. My kinda place.
After a full day of skiing, we did what the Swiss do, and went out for some cheese fondue and
kirsch, a schnaaps-like drink. I needed some alcohol to numb the pain of my ribs, which I now conclude are severly bruised or fractured, and a very heavy meal of
fondue pretty much put me to sleep at the table. The restaurant was so Swiss. Wood everywhere and stuffed animals on the wall, it was also very warm and the smell of cheese was thick in the air.
Sunday morning was even more perfect and with our tickets and skiis on hand, we hit the slopes quicker in the morning, I of course went the jeans option again! This time the summit was really clear and we skiied some different red and blue runs that were a lot of fun and a little scary in parts too, I mastered the t-bars and was confidently going down some pretty hair raising slopes, trying to keep up with my Swiss colleagues was a challenge and probably spurred my skiing to new heights, considering my natural lack of coordination. The surrounding mountains were amazing and on such a clear day, many had chosen to go
off piste to enjoy the day. I also stopped on some of the runs to take pictures and video of the glorious scenery. Even though we had to leave
Laax by 3pm I was pretty glad to leave earlier as my legs were burning, ribs still smarting and my feet were screaming at me to get out of my ski boots. For once I was more than happy to be sitting for the 5 hour commute back to London. An amazing skiing experience was the perfect weekend trip!
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