A Well Kept Man

For the last few weekends, we skied on Saturday and frolicked around Switzerland on Sunday. This proved to be quite successful and fun as we visited many new and exciting places. This weekend we opted for something completely different and utterly chaotic...we frolicked around Switzerland on Saturday and skied on Sunday! I know, we could barely sleep with all the excitement this change of schedule caused. The real reason for this switch was the ludicrous amount of snow pelting the Alps this past weekend. Between Thursday and Saturday night the Alps received anywhere from 20 cm of snow (2.54 cm in every inch...plus, act now and we'll also convert your old miles into kilometers for no extra cost to you! That's a $39.99 value, free!) up to 50 cm of snow in areas traversed only by mountain goats and the Swiss militia.

The weather station warned of severe, unbridled, uncontainable avalanche danger in many areas so we felt it was best to stay away from flowing fields of snow on Saturday, and wait until the danger passed for skiing on Sunday. We were treated to lovely vistas and a bright sunshine on Sunday in the ski area of Villars (this is now our second trip to this resort). Apparently all of Switzerland decided to follow our lead and skied this day as well as the slopes were packed with skiers, snowboarders, and tobogganists. We found some new trails that we did not ski the first time, which induced happiness and joy in our minds...until the trail ended in the middle of town, requiring us to take off our skis and walk the 1/2 mile back to the ski resort while avoiding the townsfolk's icy glares.

We only skied for about 3.5 hours, but that is because we spent another half hour walking through town, as well as to and from our car as we couldn't even park anywhere near the resort due to the massive amounts of skiers. It was a warm day with highs in the upper 30's on the mountain (highs in town were in the mid 40's), not bad for late January (meanwhile I am grinning with the realization that I don't live in Minnesota and thus, I am not freezing cold all the time)! We didn't bring our camera, so the only pictures I have are from my cell phone; thus, I apologize for the quality. Who knows what next weekend will bring as Alli is off to the U.S. for work on Sunday, or Monday (I should probably write these things down). Hopefully, this snow will stick around for a while and we can check out some skiing in France (provided I am still allowed to cross the border).