Skiing on a bright, sunny, warm day in Davos

It was the first signs of spring - bright sunshine, blue skies and a whopping 10 degrees forecasted for Zurich! It was definitely the perfect day for skiing!

Unfortunately, Azrael had a prior engagement, so I had to find a victim upon whom to impose myself. Lo and behold, it turned out that Hansel and Gretel were going to Davos for a ski weekend. I was quite pleased to discover that the journey from my home to Davos would take less than 2.5 hours, making it very manageable for a day trip.

I set off early to catch the 0737 "ski-express" train. The train was chokka, to the extent that some people had to stand all the way to Landquart, which is just over an hour away. Fortunately for me, I managed to snag myself a comfy "seat" at the top of the stairs, which is the widest part of the stairway. Changing at Landquart, the train to Davos was also quite busy, but there were certainly enough seats to go around. Unfortunately, I found myself surrounded by three extremely chatty Russian women who just would not stop talking and pointing in every which direction with their hands! AAARRRGGGHHH!!! Even my Ipod at full blast could not block out the racket.

Nevertheless, I got to Davos Dorf at 0950 to meet Gretel as planned. We made our way to her friends' apartment where I left my stuff, and headed to the ski lift.

It was an absolutely magnificent day to be in the mountains! Gorgeous sunshine and not a cloud in the sky.

We found a suitable blue slope and headed down. It was just the perfect day. The snow was flawless. Not too soft, not icy, just perfect. The pistes were wide and well-groomed and the crowd adequately dispersed.

After lunch we took the gondola up to theWeissfluhgipfel. At 2,844m, this is the highest point in the Davos ski area. One could tell that it is very high up as it was very windy up there. The view from there was simply breathtaking.

Us beginners did not ski down from there, but some adventurous snowboarders took advantage of the fantastic powder as you can see below......

I am sure you are waiting with baited breath for the dramatic part where I suffer yet another mishap in the snow. Unfortunately for you, but fortunately for me, there was none! Of course, I wiped out a couple of times, once losing my ski in the process, but it was not very dramatic.

I am certainly a much improved skier and even managed to go down a red slope in a calm, confident and controlled manner.

What can I say.... it was indeed just the perfect day.

Sledding down the Uetliberg

When Azrael and I went to the Uetliberg for dinner at the end of January, we discovered the existence of a sledding trail starting just by the Uetliberg train station.

I managed to buy a sled yesterday and we'd planned to test it out right away. Azrael called the "sled path hotline" and was told that the trail was open, there was snow, but to be careful as it was a little icy mid-trail.

It was my first time riding tandem on a sled, and actually only my second time on a sled, ever! Once we sorted out our sitting and driving positions, it was really great fun!!! Until we hit the icy patch.....

I was happily riding pillion, without a care in the world, when suddenly I noticed that Azrael was starting to use his hands to try to slow us down. It was then that I realised that we were slightly out of control and that I should also assist in trying to stop the sled! The patch was incredibly icy, and the next thing we knew, we had spun 180 degrees and were then travelling backwards down the icy patch. I decided to ditch the sled, and proceeded to "throw" myself off the sled.

I thought I would try to walk down, but the minute I stood up, I slipped on the ice and fell and was dragged a couple of meters down the slope!! Thankfully I did not slide down very far and managed to get some traction to steer myself to the side. Ouch! It hurts just thinking about it! Thankfully I have quite enough "cushioning" on my hips. Nevertheless, I am sure a big fat bruise will manifest itself by tomorrow.

On the ground, I turned to look for Azrael and watched in horror as I saw him continue to slide down sideways with his body on the sled. Thankfully he also managed to get some traction to steer himself to the side, away from the ice. How scary!

Not surprisingly, we caught up with a bunch of sledders walking and dragging their sleds along after that icy patch. Once we cleared that section, we got back on the sled and carried on.

It really was good fun, but the icy patches were just too scary. It took us about 40 minutes to get down the 3.1km trail. Given the icy conditions, we decided we would not have another go rightaway, but instead will save it for another day when the conditions are better.

Below is a pic of the sled-path, exactly where we wiped-out!

Lost in Laax

We went skiing with Sydney and her partner Syd last Sunday in Flims/Laax. As there were four of us, we decided to be lazy and booked a Mobility car for the trip. Definitely a good idea as the drive from Zurich to Flims was an impressive 1 hour 20 mins, compared to 2 hours 20 mins by public transport!

It was extremely cold, about -7, when we left Zürich about 8am, but we were full of hope for brilliant weather, especially when the sun starting to break through as we approached Chur. The signs at the ticket counter all indicated that it was perfect weather for skiing.

We started off pretty well. Sydney had convinced me that we were at the same level and that I would not be holding anyone back. We did a pretty good warm up on a nice and easy blue slope and I was ready to hone my new skills which I'd learned recently, during my private ski lesson at Oberiberg.

However, I still did not feel ready or confident enough to take on the red slopes. So whilst the others skied down a red slope from Crap Masegn to the intermittent gondola stop to Vorab, I decided to take the gondola directly.

From my birds-eye viewpoint, comfortably in the gondola, I could see them on the piste. I felt so nervous for Sydney as she looked like she was struggling at the top of the slope, whilst the boys had shot off! I was thinking to myself "How could the boys just leave her behind!?!?!?! She's just a beginner!!", and of course "Thank God I decided to take the gondola!". I continued watching them for as long as I could, switching views from the boys to Sydney and back. The next time I saw Sydney, I gasped in disbelief as I watched her tuck her poles under and crouch down low in a racing position to get down the slope to catch up with the boys. It was then that I realised that Sydney and I were most certainly not at the same level. She is a brave, fearless, dare-devil!

With that realisation in mind, we met up again at Vorab and decided to take the T-bar lift up to the top of the glacier, Vorab Gletscher. At 3018m, this is the highest point in the Flims/Laax resort. The slope coming down from the glacier is a nice blue slope, and we were told that the piste was really wide and pretty flat... just my kind of slope!

Just as we were a third of the way up the lift, a humongous gust of wind hit and the snow started pelting at us. Visibility decreased drastically and before long, we could only just about see two t-bars ahead of us. Everything was white and I could not see the contours of the ground!!! It was incredibly scary and I really wanted to just get off the lift. Unfortunately, we could not even make out the path of the lift, and could not determine if there was a safe break to ditch the t-bar. We had no choice but to grit our teeth and get to the top of the glacier. When we got there, our faces were covered in snow, complete with white eyebrows and white beard (for the men). I had never before felt so cold, ever in my entire life!

I then had to face the daunting prospect of skiing down the glacier with the wind hitting hard. Judging by the lift, I was sure the slope was pretty flat, but I was totally petrified as I just could not see! The fear, combined with appalling visibility, my slight altitude sickness and the snow hitting hard on my face, felt like I was drowning in a sea of snow.

After what felt like an age, I managed to pull myself together and told myself that there was only one way to get out of the situation, which was to ski down, come hell or high water. I managed to pluck up the courage to do so, but kept falling over at every turn. Thankfully, the snow was a deep powder, so the falling was not a problem at all. It was the getting up that proved to be a problem as I would fall so deep into the snow that I could hardly get any leverage to push myself back up. It also did not help that I could not see where we were going. I kept trying to look out for the sign-poles, but they would "disappear" in the fog/snow as soon as I spotted them.

The falling and getting back up continued for quite some time, until a man coming up on the T-bar lift spotted us and yelled at us in Swiss German to ski further away from the lift path. After getting up for the umpteenth time, I turned around and spotted Azrael climbing uphill. I was puzzled!! We were supposed to go down the glacier, not further up!!! It was then that the visibility cleared up for a second and I made out the piste!!! Azrael was climbing up towards the piste!! So this whole time, we had been skiing off-piste on a glacier in bad weather!!!! What a bunch of muppets!!! Is it any wonder that we were skiing in deep powder!?!?

Finally we managed to climb up to the piste and the man who had yelled at us came to join us. It turned out he was the SOS Piste Controller, and he was making the final checks on the glacier as they were closing it "due to bad weather". Uh-huh! No shit, Sherlock!! Although we were off-piste, I am glad we were close to the lift. He might not have found us otherwise.

Once we were on the piste, it was a pretty nice and flat path down the glacier. There were many piste-marker-poles, making it much easier to navigate. Having said that, I still could not see the contours of the ground either side of me. Not knowing how wide the piste was, I did not dare stray from the narrow path Azrael was making ahead of me. I did not dare to make any turns for fear that I might steer myself off-piste again. So you guessed it right.... I pretty much had to snow-plough all the way down! Ouch! My knees hurt just thinking about it!

After a well-deserved lunch break, I got a second wind and was up for doing some nice and easy blue slopes further down the mountain, where visibility was fine. We took the easy blue from Vorab to Scansinas. It turned out to be a pretty tiring blue as it was too flat (even for me!), so the boys sneaked in little bits of red along the way. I was psyched after this run and was looking forward to the next, so up we went again.

This time the boys were up for more of a challenge and chose a blue beginning to join up to two red slopes. I was rather apprehensive but was assured that it would be fine and that I was doing great. It started off pretty well but these guys were all skiing rather fast, so we decided to let Sydney and Syd go ahead, just to ease the pressure off me. I managed quite well with my slow and steady pace, until we got to a very steep drop. It must have been the intersection between piste 13 and 16 (I have to note this down for future reference so that I do not ever go there again!). In my mind, it seemed like a 70 degree slope, but I am sure Azrael will tell you that I am exaggerating. Nevertheless it was just too steep for me to manage.

Once again, I stood at the top of the slope and panicked for a good 10-15 minutes, considering all my options, although I knew there were none. Two kids approached the slope and gasped. I watched the 5-year-old boy tumble down the slope and the heard the 7-year-old girl scream all the way down. That did not help the nerves.

Finally I psyched myself up and attempted to slide down the slope. I was very focused. "Do not look downhill, do not look uphill, look only at the skis". I was doing pretty well, until my skis dug up too much snow and one ski got stuck. In the next instant, I was tumbling down the slope like a mini avalanche. When I came to a halt, my first reaction was to the snow that covered my face. It felt as though my face was frozen and the cold was simply indescribable. Azrael came right up and cleaned the snow from my face and I recovered soon after to continue skiing down. It was quite a spectacular fall but it certainly got me down that slope quickly!!

That was the last run for the day. After an eventful day of "drowning" in snow, snow-ploughing all the way down the glacier, a spectacular fall down the red slope, and using every muscle and joint in my body to keep up on the red slopes, I was shattered.

Do not get me wrong. I still do enjoy skiing, but I will most definitely be sticking to the blue slopes for now. There is simply no point pushing myself to do any more at this stage. There is no prize at the end of the slope, and I would like to just ENJOY the skiing.

P/S: For those of you who are interested, here is the link to the piste map for Laax. http://www.laax.ch/flash/index.php?l=de#/de/skigebiet/skigebiet_pisten_anlagen