Scottski63
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- Aug 21, 2020
RA Did you make it out of Switzerland?
NYSkiBlog Maggots in YURP 2022
- Thread starter raisingarizona
- Start date
raisingarizona
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- Aug 4, 2020
Indeed. It was a brutal day though! After we split the race was on and it didn’t stop until I hit the hotel around 7. I’m flying over Baffin Island right now. The covid test wasn’t an issue at the airport either. 80 francs but whatever. Where you at Scott?
Greenland below.
jamesdeluxe
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- Jul 17, 2020
Doh! I brought my own home test from the U.S.
raisingarizona
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- Aug 4, 2020
They were cool with that? Dang…..I wish I knew.
jamesdeluxe
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- Jul 17, 2020
It has to be a test that allows you to generate a QR code to show at airport check-in -- this is the one I used. You get on a video call with a tech (to make sure that someone else isn't taking it for you) and it's done in 15 minutes.
When did you fly out of ZRH? I left Sunday morning / had drinks here:
raisingarizona
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- Aug 4, 2020
This morning at 1035. A bit early for beverages but I did have a really yummy eggs Benny and coffee in London during my layover.It has to be a test that allows you to generate a QR code to show at airport check-in -- this is the one I used. You get on a video call with a tech (to make sure that someone else isn't taking it for you) and it's done in 15 minutes.
When did you fly out of ZRH? I left Sunday morning / had drinks here:
I didn’t have a QR code. I had the folks in the covid test office print me out a paper with my results and took it with me. It worked fine.
Campgottagopee
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- Jul 20, 2020
You can't drink all day unless you start in the morning
jamesdeluxe
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- Jul 17, 2020
I'm interested in hearing @raisingarizona's overall impressions of the Euro experience as a first-timer. In this article a few weeks ago, Storm Skiing Journal covered a number of the key points from an American POV:
I don’t even really know how to talk about European skiing. It is so… different. Like an Orson Wells depiction of something familiar made alien through its reproduction on another world. North American ski resorts tend to be tree-lined and well-defined, clearly cut trail networks rising out of the wilderness. There’s a human-scale to them, along with a sense of purposeful design that’s both comforting and limiting.
Europe is… not that. Rather than master-planned developments sliced out of the remote forest, ski areas in the Alps tend to rise out of centuries-old towns, with lifts sprawling with almost haphazard glee in every which direction. What appears to be one ski resort may in fact be an agglomeration of operators functioning in harmony. It can be difficult to untangle who manages what and which lift tickets work there. The trail map of the Vallee de Chamonix Mont-Blanc illustrates this Rubik’s Cube:
The terrain tends to be vastly different and more treacherous than that of North America. The treeline in the Alps sits between 4,000 and 5,000 feet, around 8,000 feet lower than the Rockies. While I don’t, personally, love skiing above treeline, there is great majesty in it, with rolling snowfields climbing into the infinite horizon. Perhaps because of the vastness of the terrain and perhaps because of Europe’s more relaxed approach to personal risk (and less litigious societies), deadly obstacles – cliffs, crevasses, etc. – are often unmarked. The emphasis is on the piste. The wise hire a guide to go off it.
And the terrain is just… So. Damn. Big. The Aiguille du Midi, Chamonix’s signature lift, rises 9,200 vertical feet. That’s like stacking Jackson Hole (4,139 feet) on top of Big Sky (4,350 feet) and still looking up at Mount Bohemia (900 feet). And yet, it looks like another toothpick in the box when you zoom out across the entire valley:
And yes, the food is better (and cheaper), lift tickets are affordable (to the point that the Ikon Pass is almost beside the point if you’re flying to France on vacation for God’s sake), and the culture is less Disney-in-the-mountains than oh-yeah-this-is-an-actual-place-rather-than-one-that-was-built-to-resemble-one. If that makes sense.
Every skier should visit Europe at least once. The Ikon Pass is now set up as a passport into that kingdom. Chamonix Mont Blanc joins Dolomiti Superski in Italy, Kitzbühel in Austria, and Zermatt in Switzerland on the pass. That’s one mega-resort in each of Europe’s big-four ski countries, enough to let you pop around on trains for a month, making turns off of hundreds of interconnected lifts and dining on gourmet mid-mountain food. There are more than 1,000 ski areas in Europe – no one probably knows exactly how many. It can all be a bit overwhelming. You could do a lot worse than to just tour these four and call it a season.
I don’t even really know how to talk about European skiing. It is so… different. Like an Orson Wells depiction of something familiar made alien through its reproduction on another world. North American ski resorts tend to be tree-lined and well-defined, clearly cut trail networks rising out of the wilderness. There’s a human-scale to them, along with a sense of purposeful design that’s both comforting and limiting.
Europe is… not that. Rather than master-planned developments sliced out of the remote forest, ski areas in the Alps tend to rise out of centuries-old towns, with lifts sprawling with almost haphazard glee in every which direction. What appears to be one ski resort may in fact be an agglomeration of operators functioning in harmony. It can be difficult to untangle who manages what and which lift tickets work there. The trail map of the Vallee de Chamonix Mont-Blanc illustrates this Rubik’s Cube:
The terrain tends to be vastly different and more treacherous than that of North America. The treeline in the Alps sits between 4,000 and 5,000 feet, around 8,000 feet lower than the Rockies. While I don’t, personally, love skiing above treeline, there is great majesty in it, with rolling snowfields climbing into the infinite horizon. Perhaps because of the vastness of the terrain and perhaps because of Europe’s more relaxed approach to personal risk (and less litigious societies), deadly obstacles – cliffs, crevasses, etc. – are often unmarked. The emphasis is on the piste. The wise hire a guide to go off it.
And the terrain is just… So. Damn. Big. The Aiguille du Midi, Chamonix’s signature lift, rises 9,200 vertical feet. That’s like stacking Jackson Hole (4,139 feet) on top of Big Sky (4,350 feet) and still looking up at Mount Bohemia (900 feet). And yet, it looks like another toothpick in the box when you zoom out across the entire valley:
And yes, the food is better (and cheaper), lift tickets are affordable (to the point that the Ikon Pass is almost beside the point if you’re flying to France on vacation for God’s sake), and the culture is less Disney-in-the-mountains than oh-yeah-this-is-an-actual-place-rather-than-one-that-was-built-to-resemble-one. If that makes sense.
Every skier should visit Europe at least once. The Ikon Pass is now set up as a passport into that kingdom. Chamonix Mont Blanc joins Dolomiti Superski in Italy, Kitzbühel in Austria, and Zermatt in Switzerland on the pass. That’s one mega-resort in each of Europe’s big-four ski countries, enough to let you pop around on trains for a month, making turns off of hundreds of interconnected lifts and dining on gourmet mid-mountain food. There are more than 1,000 ski areas in Europe – no one probably knows exactly how many. It can all be a bit overwhelming. You could do a lot worse than to just tour these four and call it a season.
Scottski63
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- Joined
- Aug 21, 2020
I was overwhelmed by the massive amount of steep pitches and vertical drop. The Beauty of getting lost and just going to the train to get back to the hotel. If you want to scare yourself there is plenty of terrain for that. I’ll definitely be back to Europe.
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raisingarizona
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- Aug 4, 2020
You know James, my head is still spinning as I’m trying to wrap my mind around everything I just experienced. I’ll need a minute to figure out exactly what I thought of it all.
Stand by.
Stand by.
