Winter Winds Down in Leysin

Exploring Luan

Luan is a small village behind Leysin and a little bit lower. I trekked over there on my skins on Sunday morning to get a few fresh turns.

Villars in the background. It was a beautiful day.


Here's a view of the Tour D'Ai and Chaux du Mont (located at the Leysin resort) from a different perspective


Looking out across the valley from Luan


Looking in direction of Lake Geneva




Skinned back over to the piste after Luan to make a few turns. Skied home to my back door for lunch. These are the fresh tracks I got to make on the final run home. It might have been the best snow of the day.






Chamonix

The sun didn't shine on the slopes and it was a very frigid day, but I skied anyway. I was able to spend the late afternoon in downtown Chamonix. Chamonix is my favorite place to ski so I could not pass up the opportunity to go. And at only an hour and a half drive away, how could I pass it up....



This guy was cruising around offering horse drawn carriage rides...sweet outfit



Mont Blanc began to poke through at the end of the day, but we never could see the summit




Dinner with the group (faculty and students) at Poco Loco in downtown Chamonix before the drive home. Delicious burgers....best I've had east of the Atlantic.

More Skiing

Skiing has been good lately. I've been able to make it to Portes du Soleil, Zermatt and Verbier so far this season. Hoping to be able to make a trip to Chamonix before the close of the season. Here are some pictures from my most recent adventures in the snow. I'm not sure what Leysin would be like if we couldn't ski here.

Cabane Mont Forte - Verbier
This past weekend, I went to Verbier for the first time....well, the first time to ski that is. The only other time I was there was for the Tour de France. It was nice to be going downhill and not uphill there. I went with three other teachers and seven students. We spent the night in a cabin on the side of the mountain.

Here's a good group shot...our kids wear the brightest colors...



View of the mountains...


Two of the kids enjoying the snow


The Cabin


Saturday was a beautiful day


We had a slight problem on Saturday....lost track of time and ended up at the bottom of the mountain after all the lifts had closed for the day. The problem...our cabin was at the top. We were able to convince the liftees to give us a lift to the top. We have the entire telepherique to ourselves...just four people plus the (unhappy) conductor inside. Plenty of space for all.




Cards in the cabin







And then on Sunday, the lift back up to the cabin area closed. All our bags and kids' bags were still in the hut. The four of us teachers hiked back up to the cabin, split the 11 backpacks between us and skied back down with all the gear.




Leysin

NEPAL - BERNUSE SNOWSHOE CHALLENGE
Here's the group I'll be traveling with to Nepal for spring break. Last week we trekked from Leysin town up to the summit of the Bernuse (Leysin). This was our biggest fundraising event and earned us nearly 4000CHF. Less than a month to go until we trek to Nepal to install stoves and lights in a rural Nepales village in the Himalyas




A night ski home from Addie's birthday dinner on the mountain turned into an Olympic race through the woods....we're not competitive or anything.


Me, Addie and Todd post-race debriefing....Addie is pleading her case.


The podium