“Flims/Laax, Switzerland” A Great Week of Skiing 13/3/09 Day 239

Day 239 (Slide show) (Video)

The way the ski passes work here in Laax/Flims is like most resorts. I bought a six day pass but I have seven days to use it. This is very convenient when your plans are changing all the time. Yesterday Andrew wanted to use that day as our down day. This was so we could buy a day pass to ski on Saturday. I wasn’t that excited with this plan for a few reasons. One was that I was hoping to return my ski equipment a day early and maybe get a refund. This was probably a pipe dream but I was hopeful. Also we had no accommodations for tonight so we have to figure that out. Another reason that I almost forgot about was who wants to ski on Saturday. These were some good reasons I thought but he wasn’t listening so we took yesterday off. This is Friday and I was going to ski today. His plan was for me to buy another pass for tomorrow. I wasn’t going to do this. I figured I would wait around at a restaurant and work on this blog while he snowboarded.

I caught the first tram and the day was very nice until around noon when it got very warm. It was like skiing on a glacier in the summer. The weather was good though so it was fun. I stayed at the higher elevations for the most part and found a new restaurant with a great salad and wine for lunch. This place was called Stella. I have a few pictures of the place with a mounted Cow on the wall. This is very strange to me. Where I’m from the animals that are unfortunate enough to be stuffed are Bears, Elk, Buffalo and the like. I guess around here there aren’t any mighty wild animals left. Or more likely it is to support the cheese industry.

I’m ready to get back to Prague though, I am sure that the good weather is near and I will be bike touring soon. I find myself always thinking about where I’m going to go and what the Czech trails are like. I’m skiing now so I will try my best to enjoy my last day skiing. I’m sure I won’t get another chance anytime soon.

Around 4:30 I skied my way down to the bottom of the Flims Village. It was like water skiing.

As I was turning in my equipment Andrew showed up. I was surprised because I was to meet him at another location. It turns out that his bad tooth was really hurting him and he wanted to get back to Prague as soon as possible. I was quite happy about this but I did fill badly for him. He ended up loosing a day on the mountain and he was in a lot of pain. I like Andrew and I really appreciate all the friendship he offered me during the bad time I had during this winter in Prague. With his help I was able to ski three times and that really helped me from going crazy. Thanks Andrew.

New Powder and High Winds 11/3/09 Day 237

Day 237 (Slide show) (Video 1) (Video 2)

WOW! There’s about 15in/38cm of new snow today. It’s very heavy but still a lot of fun. I caught the second gondola at 8:30. The clouds make it a pretty bad white out, can’t see a thing this morning. I got in 3 to 4 good runs and then went in for an Irish coffee. I was like a snowman. My beard was frozen and melted all over my muffin. The Tram opened at 10:40 and I was on it. There were a lot of areas untouched up on top and I caught them all. My boots are sloppy and I wish I had some good equipment but that is the way of it when you have to rent. After about 1PM the best pistes were skied out. I went in for a beer at the top and the wind was very strong. I don’t think they can keep this open very much longer. I made a short run to a chair and they had closed it. Four people were caught on it and I saw three evacuated off. A girl was still on when I stopped watching because she wouldn’t go down the rope. She wasn’t that high and could have jumped like here friend did. I left though, I wanted to get back to the top and the gondola was the only thing open now. At about 3pm I was in the restaurant at the top and an announcement come over a speaker in German that the place was closing. I talked to some ski patrol and they said I should go down. By this time no one was there except me and the patrol. I started off the summit and once over the ridge it was nice and pretty much out of the wind. I had a great run. There was no one the whole way. It reminded me of my younger days skiing until the last possible moment. It has been a great day and I don’t want to spoil it by skiing on the lower mountain. I’m heading back to Nico’s place a bit early.

I’m Searching for Powder 10/3/09 Day 236

Day 236 (Slide show)

It’s a beautiful morning. I walked right out the door to some new snow and skied right to the gondola. It’s another white snowy day on the mountain. I skied by myself all day which works out fine. It lets me enjoy the day at my pace. I was hoping for several good powder runs but the snow cats have groomed the mountain everywhere. Their grooming technique is different then I’m used to. Where I’m from the resort will groom the center of the piste and leave the edges for the powder hounds but here their grooming all the way to the edges. It’s very hard to find any powder and if you do find any it is tracked fast. This place is so big I’m very impressed with this cat crew. They must be drinking a lot of coffee to groom this place in one night. The Tram didn’t open until late which was a bummer. There would have been some good powder up there early all bet.

This was a good day but I’m getting tired. After the powder was gone I sat at this nice bar on the mountain for most of the afternoon. A couple of beautiful French ladies sat with me for a while. We talked and had a drink together which was a lot of fun. But it was short lived; I must have been drooling and mumbling too much I guess I can’t remember. I told a friend about this later and she said “You’re not exotic enough.” What does that mean? It kind of hurt, like a knife in the back. O’ well.

It was a relaxing day today anyway.

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.

Sunny Day Skiing in Flims, Switzerland 8/3/09 Day 234

Day 234 (Slide show) (Video)

There is still a storm coming but it seems to be running late. Maybe it will show tonight. I woke up to sunny skies and cold temperatures. It’s Sunday and the crowds are larger but it really doesn’t feel like it. The place is so big that it can handle a lot of folks.

When I walked out and saw the sun and the beautiful village I forgot all about my headache and sore ankle. Yes it is true, I have another sore ankle. I can’t seem to find a good pair of boots. What I need is my own pair but I’m sure this will be my last time skiing so I will just suffer through it.

Skiing was good today even though I was tired. I made 7 to 8 runs every couple of hours. There are virtual no lines so when I got tired I would find a nice rest stop for a beer then hit it again. I stopped in at the supper market for some snacks before getting on the Tram which makes it nice. The prices are quite high here in Switzerland.

Andrew and I are leaving or hosts today and we aren’t sure where were going to stay. It seems Andrew is going to just wing it. I asked several times what the plan was but he was vague about it, I would have been happy to look around yesterday afternoon for a place but whatever.

We got lucky at a hostel we found around 7PM they had two rooms in the attic unclean that we got for 10CHF each. The only problem is I have to walk bent over. The place is defiantly built for kids.

Tomorrow night we have a place lined up in LAAX which will be a lot better.

Skiing in the Swiss Alps 7/3/09 Day 233

Day 233 (Slide show) (Video)

We woke to about 10cm of new snow this morning. I made my way to the ski shop early and was the first one there. Andrew still wasn’t feeling very good but nothing was stopping him from getting up to the slopes.

At the ski shop I scored some Atomic powder skies and some pretty decent Lowa boots. The prices were a bit high though compared to Austria. For a week it was 252.00 CHF. When you do the conversion it’s about 20% higher. What can I do at this point except get to the mountain? That’s where I was really gouged. The ski pass for 6 days was 368.00 CHF. Ouch. It sure is a good thing we are not paying for the lodging. Andrew did a good job there.

This place is huge but the upper part was closed early due to wind which was ok I found a nice section to ski at and just stayed there for the day. Andrew took off to find some good board areas. In Austria I started to fell like I was getting some type of old form back so I just spent the day working on turning and working the crud on the edges of the piste’s.

I ran into Andrew after lunch and he was a bit irritable. I think his tooth was bothering him. We split up and meet at the end of the day. I was fine with that. It was a lot of fun but the top area never opened due to the wind. I can see why too it is strong on the ridges. Also there are some strange things going on with the clouds up here. Check out the pictures.

Were supposed to get some more new snow tonight, I hope so.

Skiing Switzerland, Flims/LAAX 6/3/09 Day 232

Day 232 (Slide show)

Well I’m off to Switzerland. This whole trip came together very fast. My friend Andrew contacted me a couple of days ago and asked if I wanted to go but he wasn’t sure when. The timing wasn’t looking good, he said. Then last night he sent me a message saying to meet him at the metro station at 7:00 AM. It took me about an hour to get ready.

The place is called Flims/LAAX which is in East/Central Switzerland. As I found out later it is just south of Liechtenstein even though we only drove by the country it was kind of cool. We are planning on a week of skiing and I don’t know much about the plan, Andrew seems to have it worked out.

He showed up about 45 min late which left me in the cold but when I found out what happened I wasn’t so upset. It seems he was eating his breakfast and somehow broke a back tooth. He was in some pain when he arrived. I felt bad for him as he tried to keep me from seeing how much it hurt. We drove all day with a couple of stops for gas and just when he was starting to feel better he bought some bread with some kind of seeds on it. You know the rest I’m sure. Yes, he took two bites and a seed lodged in the broken tooth. It took an hour to dig it out with a toothpick. Not a good start to our trip.

We made it around 7PM to the home of some friends of Andrew’s. These folks had let Andrew stay at their home the year before. This was a very nice couple, older then I, which is amazing. I thought I was the oldest person on the planet but I guess not. After a nice dinner and conversation I crashed early. I plan to get to the slope early to rent some equipment and see what this mountain has to offer. Andrew tells me it is a great place.

“Brad Huff Bluesman” at the Saint Nicholas Café, Prague 5/3/09 Day 231

Day 231 (Slide show)

A couple of nights ago I was told that a good Bluesman named Brad Huff was going to play at this club down in the city. This is a guy I had run into several weeks ago and I really wanted to find the right night to see him. He plays several gigs around the city each week but this place the Saint Nicholas Café is suppose to be the best. He is only there on Tuesdays. I received some good information because he was very good and the St. Nicholas has great pizza with good prices. The place is owned by a Yankee named Kevin and he told me a great story about how he was here in Prague as an exchange student the day the soviet army came to town in 1968. But I wanted to tell you about Brad Huff and the Saint Nicholas Cafe. Maybe someday later I will tell you about Kevin.

Today was the best day for riding I’ve had. It is about 9c and I rode about 4 hours. There are several new pictures of the river and some of the bike path to the city. I can tell right know that I’m going to have to change the tires on Renee. Her rubber is a bit to narrow for these rough trails. The weight I will be having on the Randonee I will need something a bit wider and softer. I brought an extra set of tires which I bought at the last minute. I’m sure glad.

My skiing friend Andrew sent me an email yesterday and said he was putting together a trip to Switzerland. He didn’t give me much information other then I would need a sleeping bag and pad. It looks like we will be Couchsurfing to save some money. It’s a good thing because it’s expensive there I hear. He has been very busy with school so I didn’t get very many details. Were going to a place named Films/Laxx. I’m leaving tomorrow.

A Week of Boredom 25/2/09 Day 223

Day 225 (Slide show)

After returning from Austria the weather was cold and miserable. Not much has happened over the past few days. There are a few small highlights I will note.

On 2/17 Tuesday I received an email from friends in Dresden, Germany who are asking me to come and join them for a music festival there. Sounds like fun and I could ride back. It would be a long way but by then I will be in good enough condition I hope.

The past week was a boring time for me. I went to a few small gatherings with some Couchsurfing friends here in Prague but it just isn’t that much fun for me. I seem to always leave early.

Another interesting thing happened though.

Remember my wallet was picked in Kathmandu and all the trouble I had getting a new CC from those bloodsuckers at Citibank? Well I also lost my driver’s license and I decided I would never get that replaced without going to the CA DMV. Well I got lucky again and it turns out that the DMV sent me a renewal notice because my DL was going to expire. What Luck! I’m able to get another one by just paying the renewal fee.

My log book has run out of pages so I had to find another one. I found a store here that sells Moleskine. This is the log book that many authors use. Not that I deserve it but it’s kind of cool. I will miss my old brown log book, it has been everywhere with me.

I had an interesting experience on night when a lady I had meet a week ago sends me an email asking me if I wanted to go with her to a Jan Saudek Gallery and dinner. I said sure of course, she was attractive and Jan Saudek is a provocative artist I would like to see. The whole night she was as cold as a cod what a bust. At dinner I decided to only put out enough money for mine. She paid for hers which I think she wanted to do anyway. We split up early and I still can’t figure out what was going on that night I swear I used my deodorant. Aren’t there any women left out there? All I seem to meet are girls.

Today is a nice day with lots of sun. I’m going riding. I’ve decided to ride north down the river Vltava. Yes this river flows north. I want to see how far I can go on the river path. If I’m going to come back from Dresden on this path I would like to do a scouting mission. It’s a bit cold and I need to fight the old bags at the super market so a good ride for a few hours then the battle royal in the deli isle to finish off a good day.

“Ski Amadé, Austria – Bad Gastein” I Survived 16/2/09 Day 214

Day 211 (Slide show)

Day 212 (Slide show) (Video 1) (Video 2)

Day 213 (Slide show)

For the past few weeks I’ve had a hard time. The winter here in Prague is really dragging me down. I’ve planned several short trips to various places in the area only to later decide I didn’t want to go to that spot. I’ve been very bored.

A couple of days ago something happened that really surprised me. I received this email from a friend I had met in Couchsurfing here in Prague. In the email I was asked if I wanted to go skiing for a few days. There was no plan set up and I was asked if I knew of a place to go. I decided that we needed to get together with our computers and see what we could come up with. We spent a full day together working on the plan and everything seemed fine. I felt good that we would have a great four day trip.

As it turned out I figured that going to Austria would the best choice. It is relatively close, about 6 hours by car and it is in the Alps. After looking at all the options that were within the range of 6 hr by car we decided on the Ski Amadé area just south of Salzburg, Austria. The place is called Amadé for Amadeus Mozart of course. This ski area is so large that I found it overwhelming. It encompasses 24 ski resorts the size of most of the resorts in the states. There are a total of 254 lifts with kilometers of piste’s to ski. Once I saw how big this area is I figured I could find some part that would have good snow and a fun village. I wasn’t too worried about the reservations but was there enough snow that was the question.

We didn’t get to leave Prague until around 8:00PM on Thursday so the plan was to drive as far as possible then find a place to crash. I was hoping to reach some part of the area mid Friday. But right from the start things started going bad. I really don’t want to get into the details because it was one of those crazy trips where you really want everything to go right but it never does.

I spent two days skiing in Austria at Bad Gastein which is a resort in the Ski Amadé Group. This place has the highest evaluation and the village is pretty nice. The snow was marginal though. The upper part was too windy to ski on and the lower part was ice in the morning and water skiing in the afternoon.

My friend and I didn’t get along very well which put a strain on things. The trip was put together too quickly I guess. I don’t have much to say other then that. I’m going to put in a few pictures so you can see the place. I’m really trying to forget about it. I didn’t write much at all in the log book, it’s all quite a blur.

If I was to give a grade on this adventure I would have to say a C. I would go for a D except I made it back with getting in a car wreck or an injury on the mountain. The whole trip went from bad to worse, one of those where you’re happy to get back in one piece.

I will not a few highlights like the Red Bull Freestyle Skiing Championships which were held on Saturday night right in the middle of the village.

Also the village itself was quite nice and there were spas everywhere. I’m told that is what the translation of Bad is in German, hence Bad Gustein.