Cross-country skiing in the Juras--February 18, 2006

In a fit of Swiss-iness, we decided to spend a sunny Sunday Nordic skiing (or cross-country, as we call it back home) in St. Cergue, a small mountain village in the Juras, roughly 45 minutes by train from Geneva.

The trip to St. Cergue was easy, an express train to Nyon (the next town over) and then a local cog train up the mountain to the village. After getting off one stop to early -- not our fault for once, bad info on a website -- we got to the desired outpost to begin our ski day.

Oh, but not so fast. After getting fitted for gear at a one-room rental shop (little more than an 8x8 shack next to a local rail stop renting Nordic skis and kids sleds), we find out they don't take credit cards and we were woefully short on cash. Merde.

Well, true to Swiss hospitality, the gentleman running the operation called his wife to come pick up one of us and take us back to the town we first stopped in because the other outlet had a card swipe. 30 minutes later, we were off.

As noted, the day was sunny and the temp was just at freezing, and so Steve dressed as he would for downhill - longjohns, fleece, shell exterior, the works. And it turned out to be just a terrible, horrible idea. Just awful. Invading Russia in winter bad.

You see, Steve forgot everything he ever experienced cross country skiing, particularly the part about sweating like a pig. It seemed like he was stopping every hundred yards to take something else off - probably looking like Ned Braden in the final scene of "Slapshot." Jaren, on the other hand, had dressed far more appropriately and was far more equipped to handle the task.


Jaren making good time.


More than half that gear will be coming off in the next five minutes.

Did we mention the first couple of kilometers were uphill? Oh yeah, aerobic madness. Now don't think we weren't having fun -- it was an absolute blast and the scenery was fantastic -- but dragging ourselves, our extra gear and every croissant we'd had for six months up a hill was no small feat.

Things leveled out, we were able to make some good distance and even got a bit of downhill on our way 'round the mountain. But wouldn't you know it, more hill. And look, its steeper! Ice! Damn it.

But we did it, neither willing to let the day go to waste (or willing to let one have the satisfaction of seeing the other give up) and after 25 minutes of straight climbing, we were soaking with sweat and ready for a break. Luckily, the top of the hill featured some wonderful vistas in the sun, which made the miserable climb worth it.

LEFT: Chalets in the middle of the woods with the only way to reach them is by walking or skiing. CENTER: Our path in Givirine, just North of St. Cergue. RIGHT: Our view from the top-the Alps



Back down and then it was on to a good bit of flat land, allowing us to stretch out a bit and hit some good strides. Jaren told Steve her inner monologue was focused on perfecting form, thinking about how nice the experience was and fondly remembering skiing on Liberty Lake as a kid. Steve told Jaren he was trying to figure out if he knew enough French to tell the doctor someone had filled his lungs with karosene and lit them on fire (turns out he doesn't).

We skied for a couple more hours until the sun started to set. Fun in the sun and snow indeed.


Of course, come the next morning, we were both nursing sore muscles we forgot we had. Totally worth it though.

"Ch, Ch, Ch, Changes"

We're taking a minute out of our regularly scheduled program to bring you this important announcement. Ok, so maybe its not an emergency, but we thought it would be good to take a minute to catch everyone up on a few recent additions to the blog.

First up, if you take a look at the right hand column you'll see a nifty new button for Skype, the free service that allows users to talk to one another for free to and from anywhere in the world. Just download the free software, set up a name and presto, talking to your favorite Americans in Switzerland takes just a click of a button. Connection is pretty good too, no fuzz or delays. And should we have internet access in Africa, we'll be able to use it there too.

Second, a bit further down the page on the right you'll see a link that says "Steve's Articles," and after seeing it you may ask yourself what the heck it means. A list of his articles of clothing? A video of him performing and interperative dance drawing inspiration from Canada's founding document, the Articles of Confederation?

None of the above, actually. See, in an attempt to aleviate the boredom of only having a residence visa, Steve contacted a few editors he knew from his days as one of Walek's merry band of Associates and worked out a few opportunities for freelance contributions. So far there are five articles up, and in the coming weeks he'll begin work as a beat reporter covering the World Trade Organization for Fairchild Publications. So yeah, I guess he's a regular Woodward and Bernstein now (ok, so probably more like a cross between Lou Dobbs and Mary Hart, but you get the point).

So to conclude, if this had been an actual emergency the loud buzzing sound would have been followed by important information from state and local officials. Thank you, and have a nice day.