Skiing in Chamonix --January 4, 2007

We recovered from the week-long journey through Northern Italy and Southern France for a few days in Geneva before deciding to take a day and ski in the French Alps, specifically at Chamonix. Aaron didn’t have any of his gear with him, so he purchased a few necessities (snowpants, gloves) to get him through the day. We also found him a good deal on renting a snowboard. Aaron had never snowboarded before, but convinced himself it was a good idea. Heck, how many people get to say they spent their holidays walking along the French Riviera and skiing in the Alps???

We rented another dinky little European car (Mitsubishi Colt, and a sassy one at that) and headed for the mountains. We made it to Chamonix in under an hour and found the rental place shortly thereafter. Since the region just got hit with its first snowfall of the year, not all the ski resorts were open. The guy at the rental place suggested, Le Tour, as it was one of two resorts open in Chamonix.

Getting off the Le Tour gondola, we decided to continue up the mountain where there was better snow.

Exiting the lift was interesting. Jaren, wearing skis, was in the middle with Aaron and Steve on either side with boards. This order had the potential to be disastrous, and lived up to 50% of our expectations (Steve managed to plow into Jaren while trying to avoid another skiier).

Now could we make it down the mountain? Aaron followed Steve’s instructions:


Taking a break guys?

First run down the hill. We’re all ok.


View from mid-mountain. The mid-mountain lodge is in the foreground and the village of Chamonix is in the background.

Aaron survived his first run, so we headed back up the mountain...

Steve decided to take the lead on this next run. Well, what Steve didn't know is that the trail he was taking the group on was nothing but unskiiable heavy and wet snow. We all got stuck in it, right up to the waist. Merde.

Steve jumped and wiggled his way through the muck and Jaren easily skid on through. Aaron, however, decided to make the beginner move -- take off his board and walk it to another trail.

As Jaren waited, she saw Aaron sit down and prepare to strap into his board. He tossed the board down, but before he could get his feet in the board...

Pfft...gone.

Freshly waxed, the board whized right by Jaren, who quickly tried to ski after it, but got caught in the off-the-trail wet powder again. Regardless, the effort was futile - the board went off the cliff and down into a ravine.
Aaron just started running after it, down the hill, screaming "F-this, F-that....F, F, F".

Long story short, the three of us went on an expedition to find the board, but to no avail. Jaren skied down and went up again to try and follow the board's tracks. NOTHING. Aaron and Steve, in the meantime, walked down the rest of the run.

Investing in new snowpants, gloggle and gloves: 100CHF;

Buying a liftticket to ski in the Alps: 46 Euros;

Renting a snowboard and boots: 30 Euros;

Watching the snowboard run-away down the mountain in a whiteout, never to be found again: PRICELESS.

But, loosing the snowboard didn't keep Aaron down. Oh, no. We all took the gondola down the mountain to the base where we saw another ski rental place. Aaron went in (with his rented snowboard boots on and everything) and rented a pair of skis.

After a quick lunch, we were back on the mountain.

Little did we know that while we were at the base, clouds were rolling in. A whiteout was forming.

The first run down, we all thought it was pretty cool not knowing where we were skiing. We went up the lift again (the only ones. We are idiots) and skied down. There was no one else in sight.

As we worked our way down the mountain, the horizon disappeared. Snow and sky became one white sheet and you only knew where down was when you fell because you had turned without realizing it. We all got vertigo and in our confusion and nausea, we decided we should wait out the storm.

Jaren on skies...in the start of the whiteout.



Aaron on his skies?!?!

We waited a bit and decided to ski the bottom half of the mountain a few times before calling it quits for the day.

Heading back to the snowboard rental place, Aaron started doing some contingency calculations in his head, having tried to keep himself focused on skiing as to not ruin his good time. We all anticipated the cost to be around 250 Euros ($325), but he only had to be 150 Euro, plus if the board was to be returned (or found once the snow melts) he could get a refund.

All in all, Aaron's experience makes for another entertaining blog post.

LINK to more skiing pictures

And with that, Aaron's European adventure came to an end. It was back to Chicago, where a whole chunk of dirt awaited, leaving us here to continue do discover Switzerland.