The train ride to Chamonix was quite eventful. When we got off the train in Lausanne, Swtzlnd two boarder patrol came up and asked us to follow them into the station. They lead up through a maze of grey hallways and sterile offices to an obvious search and interrogation room. Here they called in another four officers and proceded to tare all our bags apart. They thought that we were transporting drugs because their yellow lab drug dog liked the smell of our bags....it was the stinky cheese an sausage that the dog really like, typical. When it was all said and done, Steve Jay got a full pat down and me a full on strip search. Jesus! After our intense encounter with the border patrol we were able to catch the last train to Chamonix. Arriving around 9:00pm we still had to figure out where we were sleeping that night. We had heard of a British Hostel in town but when we found it the Hostels Bar Tender said they were full for the night. Our next option was a cheap year around campground that was in the next town 3km down valley. Since it was so late the bus lines and the trains were not running anymore so we ended up pushing our ski bags down the snowy wet road, hauling the rest of our gear on our backs. A brutal hour and half trek to Le Bosson, France dumped us into a campsite, but not before some round about route finding up and down some long hills. The next day we slept in, then went into Chamonix to pick up some topo maps and fuel for our camp stove. Chamonix is quite amazing with the mountains rising 4000 meters right next to town. After devouring some tasty sandwiches from "Mojo's Sandwich Shop" we caught the bus back to our camping. Waking early the next day we geared up and headed for the ski area on the west side of the Mt. Blanc valley, "Le Brevent." This area is mostly all south facing and huge with fun side country terrain. We skied two days here the first just cruising around getting our ski legs under us again, ha...I had a couple epic wrecks the most notable was flying into a cat track blowing out of a ski and face planting hard on to the hard pack, Ouch! I defiantly ate some snow and cracked my goggle lenses, not to mention the wicked skiers thumb I got as well. The ending run of the day day took us from the very top of the tram, so on top of a peak, all the way down a drainage to Chamonix descending about 1500+ meters. The next day was quite eventful, we ski toured from the lifts up some very steep slopes and to the top of a couple jagged exposed peaks. The view and feeling of being on top was awesome mountians as far as you can see. On our two tours that day Steve Jay's lines were very wind loaded and riped out. The First Avy he was able to straight line out of but the second one caught him and chundered him for about 200ft down slope. I thought I was gonna have to dig him out but miraculous he fought is way out on top. Their were definatly a couple teeth marks in his Avy Lung after that ride. The next Morning we awoke to rain down in the valley, when it rains while while winter camping and everything is soaked it just puts you in a sour mood. Sooo...we booked it out of France to Switzerland. I will up date y'all in the next post about our where abouts! Cheers!
So gnar.
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