Europe Ski Tour 2010 - Freeriding Disentis Switzerland

Holy Cow! we have been without inter-webs for a few weeks and I gots some catching up to do! So we went and stayed 2 nights in Disentis after make a day trip there the week before. The hostel we stayed in was super rad, it was ran by two Swedes about our age. We were able to ski a couple of cool lines that were literally a 10-15min skin from a T bar. Yeah sick side country ridge (see panorama picture). Its crazy, most places here they groom one way down from the top of the lift to the bottom and 98% of all the people stay on the "Piste" they wont even dip 10ft off the side to ski in untracked snow! So all the off Piste skiing here that is near a resort is actully, in US standards, within the resort! and no one skis it! Well check out these round of pic's from Desintis 3000 some fun 2000 meter descents were had as well from the alpine all the way down to the valley floor, super sick and definitely a leg burner

Ski Tour Europe 2010 - Disientis, Switzerland

We Jumped on the Glacier Express to Disentis for one day just to see if we wanted to spend some time there. When we got off the train the fog was sooo thick you couldn't see 30ft in front of you, this made me pretty sour cause we left a couple cm of new snow and clearing skies to this. haha....so we hiked up the bunny hill to try and find where to buy tickets and got direct in the right direction. Once on top of the mountain all the clouds were inverted and the sun was shinning! I was automatically put in a better mood! we skied a sick ridge that we had to skin up and lapped a T bar and chair on the same side of the mountain. An hour before closing we got shut out because of the wind, we were stuck on the chair for about 30mins beacuse the wind was probable gusting up to 70mph while we were just sitting and holding on...Kinda Scary! We figured that this was the same storm/wind that beat up France and Spain that day, Nutz! Well Here are the pictures form that day....and now that we have just arrived back for a few days there will be more on the way! Whoooo!

Ski Tour Europe 2010 - Andermatt, Switzerland

Once we woke up to rain in Chamonix and all of our gear was soaked we jumped on a train and arrived in Andermatt, Switzerland. The best part about arriving at night is that you get to be amazed by the huge mountains when you wake up in the morning. We have skied Andermatt two days in a row, it has spectacular freeride terrain and un-touched soft snow days maybe weeks after a significant snow fall. There is this Knife ridge, ass clinching traverse that we discovered which dumps you out either in a sweet powder bowl back down to the resort or you can take a right at the "Y" and ski a huge cirque and then down to a creek that leads back into the middle of town, probably about 4000-4500ft total descent. Andermatt is so, so Awesome it would be very easy to stay here and get lost from the rest of the world.

Ski Tour Europe 2010 - Chamonix, France

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!