Me, Howie and Ethan on part of Chaux du Mont
Crazy view of the lake and mountains and clouds from Chaux du Mont.
Here's Addie!
Ridin' up in the telecabine after a powderful run
And cracking some jokes...
I had a little accident with my pole...oops
Addie, Howie and me
And by the end of the day we were all spent. Here, Ethan fell into some pow. It took a lot of energy for him to get back up.
Howie took a digger too....notice the snow caked helmet.
Ski term has begun!! Every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, I'm on the slopes. I think I'm approaching 30 days on the season.
In exchange for my season pass, I am required to do two days of mountain duty. I ski the mountain with the duty phone and make sure the kids are safe. We had our first ski day (Monday) on my week of duty. School was cancelled and we were all on the slopes in the early a.m.
Here, I am relaxing with a vin chaud circa 11a.m....
Enjoying the beautiful scenery with Dents du Midi and Mont Blanc in the back drop...
Later that day, duty called and I had to help a student who had severely severed his leg. I arrived on the scene greeted with bloody snow and an open bleeding gash on this kids leg. Never a dull moment, that's for sure. The following day, Tuesday , was our normal ski afternoon. All went well until about 15:50 when I received a frantic phone call from a student. She and her friend were lost....really lost. They failed to mention that they had fallen on a really steep slope and were stuck in trees far far away from the piste.
I called in some back up because I knew this was going to be a tough mission. Howie and Ethan came to the scene. We heard the yelling before we could see the kids. The picture here really doesn't do it justice. Ethan, Howie and I climbed down this gnarly slope and basically made a human chain to get these girls out. Here is Ethan getting one of them while I wait for the hand off and Howie gives a blanket to the other girl. It was so much steeper than this picture looks. Do you see the girl in the white coat in the tree??? We came in from above to rescue.
Howie and his alpine boots manned the top. You can kind of get a better idea of the slope here.
We had called ski patrol and told them to bring ropes. We didn't think we could get the girls out. Ski patrol came to the piste, but didn't bring any rope. They also didn't make it down through the powder. After 45 minutes of digging the girls out....who needs ropes anyways??...we had to trek uphill through waist deep powder carrying our gear. Thirty minutes to travel 200 meters. It was slow moving and we took turns breaking trail.
Mission accomplished. We made it to the piste....before dark was an added bonus
After that mission, we deemed ourselves LAS's mountain rescue team. Here's a shot at the apres rescue....me, Ethan and Howie.
This is Erin's birthday (Jan 30th). We snowshoed up to Prafandaz, a restaurant on the side of our mountain. I didn't eat fondue, but many people did. Here's some fondue....
Sack of potatoes for the fondue....in a swiss bag
Me and Andrew
Erin, Jamie and Addie on the hike up to Prafandaz while the snow fell.
These are just some shots from random days of skiing this season. Most are in Leysin.
The top of the Bernuse....Kuklos restaurant.
The famous towers of Leysin....Tour d'Ai and the Mayen
Looking out over Lake Geneva
Howie
And then there was the Sunday that I went to Portes du Soleil through Champery. This ski resort might in fact be the biggest in the world. There are twelve different towns you can enter it from...some on the Swiss side and some on the French side. Here I am on the French side after a day of skiing. I'm about ready to conquer "Le Mur Suisse" (The Swiss Wall)....named for the steepness of the run, it leads one back to the Swiss side.
A look at the Dents du Midi from the other side
