Laax, Switzerland Skiing in the Alps 9/3/09 Day 235

Day 235 (Slide show)

Actually after sleeping in this attic room last night I feel better today. I think it is because I turned in early though. It couldn’t have been the room. I mean my feet hung out over the bed and I hit my head on the wooden eve’s above the bed two or three times through out the night but I do feel better today. Go figure.

There are about 6 in/15cm of new snow on top but it’s a little wet. The clouds are covering the mountain which makes for some interesting moments. In conditions like this you have to be quick to miss the unseen objects that appear out of nowhere.

I made two god runs early but realized I forgot to lock the car so I had to take the bus back to where it was parked. This didn’t take long but I lost a few runs. It was a good day of skiing. I stayed on the Laax, Switzerland side for most of the day and found a few new places to explore. My usual routine is to ski about two hours then take a break at one of the refuges for a beer. I like to try to stop at most of them at least once to check out the local color. If I find a nice one I will stay a while but then get out and ski a few more hours. Also I always like to stop for a snack around 11 to 11:30 this way I’m skiing when everyone else is eating.

I ran into a local guy today at one of these nice pubs and I asked him how many people he thought were on the mountain yesterday. He had spoken to a resort manager and he was told 12,000. I was quite surprise at this number because it sure didn’t seem like it. Then he really surprised me when he said the record was set last year at 90,000 on a Saturday, holiday weekend. I said it was a sea of humanity. This was on the whole mountain which is 4 resorts. I’ve only been on two of them but still that’s crazy.

Andrew and I are staying with a Couchsurfer tonight named Nico who has a place right at the base of the tram here in Laax. He is a very nice guy and his place is very comfortable. He is a snowboarder which gives Andrew someone to hang with. It’s been snowing all day today and getting harder. I’m looking forward to a bit of powder tomorrow.