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Old January 10th 06, 12:55 PM
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Default Back from 1st time skiing the Alps

Thought I would share some of my observations skiing in the Alps ,I usually
ski in the Northeast , mainly Vermont . I went skiing for 6 days and went to
Courmeier , La Tuile , Cervinia & Chamonix . Courmeier was 1st and the 1st
obvious thing that hits you is the size of these freakin mountains . The big
Gondola is HUGE . They use a magnetic lift ticket which I wasn't too crazy
about . The lift lines are terribly unorganized and how I made it back to
the U.S without getting into a fistfight was amazing . The snow was fluffier
and lighter than the mostly man-made I'm used to . The trials are very wide
.. It was hard at 1st to concentrate on the trail in front of me as my eyes
kept wandering to take in the amazing view .
La Tuile ( sp?) was 2nd and I found it to be the easiest . Again the views
were intense . They were blowing off dynamite in a few places for avalanches
which scared the **** out of me .
Cervenia and Zermatt (sp?) were 3rd and you come real close to heaven when
you go the platform at the top and take in the 360 degree view . Oxygen
deprivation made it even more of a trip . My girlfriend who grew up in Italy
had fun taking pictures of me with a blue face . At almost 13,000 feet I
hate to admit I felt sick like I was going to pass out .Didn't have that
problem at any of the other places . It took over an hour to ski down from
the top , very strange feeling when your used to going up & down in 10
minutes in Vermont .Weird having to bring your passport skiing to get to the
Swiss side at Zermatt . The swiss were also well behaved on the lift lines
and there seemed to be some tension between them and the Italians .
Chamonix was last and I might as well mention the views . I didn't get to
take the train so I can;t comment on that . We were able to to ski all 3
sections without taking it , I think you only take that for a particular
area which was closed .
The weather was great all 6 days and we got about a foot of fresh before the
1st day out , great timing , thanx mother nature . A family friend commented
that it was a shame that it was so cold , I thought he was nuts as it felt
like spring skiing to me compared to the Northeast . None of the places
really had skiing on/off like we have here so I guess we Americans are
spoiled and or lazy in that respect . The food was very different . They
seem more concerned with the way they look than just about anything else
..The women looked like they were going to a ball the way they were dressed
in full make-up and jewelry etc . In the N.E you can barely tell a man from
a women. They should consider organizing there lift lines better , I found
that extremely stressful. Overall it was an experience of a lifetime that I
will never forget and hope to go back again next year . But I also don't
feel like I'm being deprived skiing in the N.E . I sort of missed the jumps
in the terrain parks and we have much better mogul fields . My snobby
girlfriend claims that they don't consider that 'real' skiing , I just call
it plain old fun .


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