So on a overcast Valentine's day morning, I packed my bags and headed to the train station to head to the hills. The train ride went by smoothly, thanks to Annie's copy of the newest Dan Brown novel, Lost Symbol. Its really not that good, but was entertaining nonetheless and 5hours and 15min, and two transfers later, I arrived in the small ski town of Chamonix just before 7. Its clustered in the middle of the Mont Blanc range, and has 6 skiable hills. After a quick stop to pick up some dinner provisions and toilet paper for the house, I struggled around town looking for the appropriate bus stop. Finally found it after a bit of difficulty, made more cumbersome by my uber heavy snowboard bag. Next problem: figuring out which stop to get off at. It was dark, and there were no announcements as to what stop was approaching. Then a small miracle in my mind occured. Onto the bus hopped Johannes, a hilarious German exchange student from last year who I guess was also crashing the UBC party for the week. We all got off at the right stop just past the small town of Argentiere where our house was, 15min from Chamonix. The club had rented a house of sorts for the week that slept about 30 people, so there was room for Euro travellers to party as well. I got in, was warmly greeted by my good triathlon friend Mel Thompson, and Rosy, and unpacked my stuff. I quickly wolfed down some baguette with chevre, before the group headed to a bar down the road. Over beers I got to meet the various faces of the group, and chatted with the few people I knew a little bit before. The pub was empty, so at around midnight, we headed back up the street to call it a night. But en route we passed a small bar, Le Salon, that was packed and bumping! Clearly we had to stop and check it out, and one thing led to another and we took over the dance floor and were badgering the DJ with requests for Snoop Dogg and other tunes. Some good times were had, and before I knew it, I only made it to bed by 3am. Great start to the trip.
This initial late night however, combined with the fact I am far from an early riser any more, meant a not so early start on Tuesday. I thought I was doing pretty well to be up at 9:30 and got ready pretty quickly, but most of the house was empty, and I ended up waiting for a group of stragglers to get their act together before heading out. So began the day of mishaps. Mishap number one: not realizing where I had to buy my pass. Morgan had said I couldn't buy it at Les Houches, the hill the group was checking out that day, but that I should head out with the group and he would let me know where I could pick up the pass. Unfortunately, he forgot to do so, so I actually had to get off a bus and go back to Chamonix central to try and get my week pass sorted out. Since the hills are open to 5, I wasn't fazed as I could still get a full afternoon's skiing in. Mishap number 2: Not realizing where the ski offices were and walking around with my board for 30min trying to find one. The closest one had been only 5min away. Great. Finally found a ticket booth where I could order my pass, and thought I got it all sorted out. Mishap #3: Headed to Les Houches, and catch the Gondola up the mountain. Start skiing, take a couple tow ropes by accident, which suck on snowboards and try to figure out how to get to the lift where my friends are. It was snowing pretty heavily and I couldn't see more than 2 ft ahead of me. When I try to get on a lift, the screen scanning my pass informs me I have the wrong domain card. What? How did I get up the gondola then? I ski down some sketchy closed run to another chair, and same thing happens. I make my way down to the bottom of the desk, and they inform me I must have gotten/been given the wrong pass. Unfortunately this means I have to head back to Chamonix to get it fixed.
So Tuesday skiing was a bit of a fail. I bused the 20min back to Chamonix after standing in the slush rain and got my pass all sorted out. By this point it was 3:30, and I decided that was a wrap on the day. The rest of the crew came back from the hill as I finished sorting out my pass and we headed to this bar, Chambre Neuf to check out rumours about a really good apres ski. The nice cold beer made me feel better, especially since it was on the Ski and Board tab. We chilled out for a while, and then around 5:30 a large group decided to head back to the house. Thankfully, this lovely Norwegian girl Hilde convinced me to stay a bit longer, and we enjoyed the most rowdy apres ski ever! Dancing on tables was fully encouraged, and we shouted along to Bon Jovi with the live band. It was great fun. Then we headed home for a quiet night of dinner and cards, and a good nights sleep. Fresh snow today means tomorrow was going to be good!
Chambre Neuf - stories of great Euro apres ski were bang on!My goal for Wednesday was the rectify all the errors of the previous day and get what I had come for: a full day of skiing. Step one: Wake up at 7:30 and arrive at the hill at 9, taking first run at 9:30 in 10cm of fresh snow. Now that's more like it! Being that it was my first day of the season, the legs were quickly begging for mercy, but I still had great fun skiing a full morning with Mel and Jake, tearing up some off piste. One thing that is interesting with European mountains is they start so high up you are above the tree line. Therefore the whole mountain is open. We met up with Morgan and Rosy just before lunch. Mel Rosy and I broke off in the afternoon and took it easy, as Rosy and Mel had swapped gear, resulting in Rosy being on skis for the first time in 9 years! I was extremely impressed with her skills, especially considering by accident we took her down a black on her second run. By 3 the hill was pretty tracked out and visibility was crap, so we contentedly called it a day. A good one at that.
Mel T on snowboard at Grands Montets
View of the Valley.We got back to a quiet house, and after a brief rest period, Rosy Morgan and I made the 10min trek into Argentiere for groceries and the ordering of food for the family dinner of pizza planned for that night. That sorted, we returned to prep the salad and wait for the rest of the team to arrive. After finally procurring a corkscrew to open out 15 bottles of wine, about 23 of us sat down to dine together. It was a lovely affair, and gave a true sense of family to the group. I sat down by Rosy, Morgan, Mark and Dylan. The salad with toasted sunflower seeds was a particular hit. The wine flowed freely, followed by beer. Food devoured, it was realized that our banquet table would work perfectly for some epic flip cup face offs. My team won, multiple times. Afterwards, we somehow hustled everyone out the door and out into Argentiere to take over a bar. Its amazing how when you arrive with a group of 20, the place really gets lively. More good dance times had, and before I knew it, I was helping Morgan stumble home at 2. Altogether an epic day.
I have mixed reactions about Thursday. I got up at 7:30, and felt not so hot, so I was very thankful when Rosy, Mel and Morgan were doddling, and took advantage of a small nap. Their morning antics were actually quite funny, taking in a glass of wine in hopes of helping the hangover, and Morgan and Maurizio deciding to test out the "water feature" in the year out front. All of this meant that we rolled out the house rather late, but it was a beautiful morning so there were things to look forward to. Initially Rosy and I were confused when Morgan made us get off at Aigulle du Midi, and no one in line for the cable car had skis. Because we weren't skiing just yet. Initially I was like, what I want to go ride, but in the end, missing that afternoon of skiing was one of the coolest things of the trip. Here's why:
Not a bad view.After summitting a number of peaks, up and up on two dizzying cable cars that had be legitimately nervous because of the fact we were speeding along vertically up a snowy rocky mountain only by a single thin wire, we arrived at Aiguille du Midi. The view from the first look out point was incredible. You can look out all over the Mont Blanc valley, which includes Chamonix and Argentiere and all the way to Les Houches. Mountains and valleys as far as the eye can see, into Switzerland in fact. Not a bad place for a picnic lunch. We munched on the best sandwiches ever and remembered what an incredible experience this trip was. We had a laugh over the extreme amount of dog poo Rosy was rocking on her boot, and inadvertantly got on Morgan's pants. Then we took and elevator up through a shaft into of the mountain to the very summit of Aiguille, at 3842m. Even better. From this side, you can see over to Italy, and in the summer you can actually take a cable car over there. I was amazed by the engineering feat of climbing all the way up and building this lookout. Ballsy if you ask me. I was nervous even leaning on the railing.
Looking up at the very summit of Aiguille du Midi.
Morgan and Rosy up at Aiguille du Midi. They were the Mom and Pop of the group.
And this is why the Alps are legendary. Hello Italy!
Chamonix CentreGot back to the house around 5 or so and cleaned up and made a really awesome pesto pasta salad. As the evening wore on, I partook in a great came of Kings featuring raptor claw as a rule. That led way to another series of flip cup rounds. Then I made a tough call. The rest of the group changed their minds and voted to go the Chamonix for some serious clubbing, but I knew I was super beat and wanted to put in some solid days of riding Friday and Saturday. So I home, and ended up crashing really early. Best decision ever. I even got to witness a hilarious drunk guy Marc (a brothers friend) be hilarious. Over the course of the night, a "table jumped out at him", he tripped over his own pants while peeing outdoors and sliced his nose open, and got dropped off randomly in Chamonix to work off his own drunkenness, yet still managed to pick up to two girls. I have a feeling this is much funnier for me than for all of you back home. You'll just have to trust me on this one.
As I said, missing out on the club was a good decision (especially in light of the fact that drinks were stupidly expensive and the cabs home were a ripoff - 60 a cab). I woke up refreshed and not quite so poor, and way out the door and on the hill by 9:30, this time over at Le Tour. I was riding solo since the majority of the group had decided to hire a guide and do ski tour down from Aiguille du Midi. Being that it would only be my second day all season, and it was 70 euros, I decided to pass and just check out some of the smaller mountains. Thanks to my early start, I got to enjoy some first tracks, and had a great time cruising around the mountain at my own pace, rocking out to my ipod. Sadly, Chamonix has been a victim of global warming the last few years, having recorded record lows in snowfall. Apart from Tuesdays few cm, they hadn't had snow since Jan 26th, any skiiers nightmare. Add in lack of snowmaking machinery, things were a little dicey. This meant that I was left with some imagining of how much more terrain would have been open, but nonetheless I enjoyed my explorations, which were mainly confined to the trails.
By some miracle, Morgan managed to spot me on the hill just before lunch. We did a run then headed in so I could enjoy yet another exquisite sandwich. I never make sandwiches in my everyday life, but it is an integral part of skiing, and the French edition was just amazing. Sinful, I might add. Gorgeous baguette bread, ham, cheese, mustard mayo and green peppers. Delightful indeed. Morgan and I seperated in the afternoon, and I cruised around for another hour and a half before calling it a day.
A brief reading rest, shower back home before Morgan and I walked into Argentiere a final time for some last minute food. Enjoyed another good pasta and salad dinner with Rosy before I packed up most of my stuff and headed out at 6 towards Chamonix. The club was leaving tomorrow morning, so I had left open my reservation at a hostel for Friday and Saturday nights. I decided to take most of my stuff over on Friday to avoid the meelee of the Saturday morning shuffle. After missing my bus stop and having to walk back 10 with my cumbersome board bag, getting a little lost in a random neighbourhood in the dark and slipping on ice, fallling and getting my pants wet, I finally found the front door of the Gite Alpenrose. I was given a brief tour, ditched my bags, and headed back to town. Unfortunately. My deviations of the route had resulted in me missing the last bus to Argentiere. It was 7:50, and the next one wasn't until 11. However, with the help of a nice young Irishman, I managed to hitchhike back to Argentiere. Because the bus system in the area really kindof sucks, this was not that uncommon, and we didn't even wait 5 minutes. The lovely couple who picked us were from Vancouver in fact, but living in Geneva for the last 5 years. Small world. I finally made it back to the house for the final night at 9. Despite the fact that I was rested and game ready, I had to admit that in the end we lazily sipped beer and watched ski movies in the living room.
The church in Argentiere.Saturday morning flew by as somehow, everyone got out of the house with all their stuff, and we left the place decently clean. Or clean enough that we only lost 80euro of the 300 euro deposit. The guardien of the house, however, informed Tita, that if we all lived normally in such a state of hygiene, we would all have very sad lives. (I don't think he really liked us very much). Hey, a house of 30 young partying students is not the easiest to keep a handle on.
And with that, I said my goodbyes to the team as they were headed to Geneva for a day before the long flight home. I, on the otherhand, still had one day left before my train home Sunday morning. I got back to the hostel and changed and snack, arriving at the hill of Brevent, Flegere just before lunch. Like Friday, I rocked out for 4 straight hours to my ipod, cruising around the sunny hill, enjoying the views and just riding. Sometimes its nice to have some time to yourself. I finished at about 4, and I have to say, I have been a very satisfied camper on this trip in terms of skiing. BUT...Whistler is still the bomb! And as per everytime I go skiing, I have redecided I need to be a ski bum for a season. It just has to happen (sorry Mom).
Paragliders over the valley. I headed back to the hostel and chilled with my book before enjoying the longest hottest shower. Next stop: Chamonix for some magnet searching. I probably haven't been somewhere if I don't have a magnet. I also scored a sweet retro promotional print for my room. Mission accomplished, I was faced with an evening all to myself. I decided to go see Black Swan, a film I've been meaning to see. What else to do by myself at night? For my first movie watching experience by myself, maybe not the best movie choice...for those who haven't seen it, its kindof creepy. Not the kindof movie that makes walking home for 20min down a dark deserted road very enticing. Natalie Portman is pretty amazing, hence why she won best actress for it the falling weekend. I really enjoyed it anyways. Thankfully the trusty old ipod came through to distract me from the shadows on my walk, and I made it home alive. Cheery even, thanks to Meatloaf and Paradise by the Dashboard Light. Reading. Packing. Bed.
Sunday morning train catching at 9:03 went off without a hitch. A great week in Chamonix, yet another incredibly special memory to add to my treasure chest that has been this year in Europe. My only annoyance is that the snow was coming down thick and heavy now that I'm leaving...
Bisous!
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