Gressoney Day Two - Colle Bettolina

We took a bit of a later start today in order to give the snow a chance to soften up.  A blue bird day here -- not a cloud in the sky.

The day started with three lifts to get ourselves onto the other side of this valley and then skins on for a 1.5 hour climb.  It's usually shorter, but today we had to put crampons on our bindings to help keep us out of trouble on the hard pack.

Climbing with crampons was slow going -- can't really glide the ski -- but boy was I glad to have them at a couple of exposed choke points on the route.  It was nice having some extra insurance from sliding off of the mountain.

After an hour and a half we reached the top and Nigel ice axed out a platform for us to put our skis on (tough to do on a 45 degree pitch with very hard snow).

Eric took some great shots on the way down (can't wait to get Andy and Jeff's also):

Here's a very quick highlight video (internet speed is SLOW here, so keeping these short for now):

http://vimeo.com/37578733 

More tomorrow!

Gressoney Ski Day One -- Slick!

Breathtaking scenery, majestic mountains and WARM.  After record snow in the early winter, we were psyched to make our way over here.  New England isn't alone with the 2012 weird winter -- it stopped snowing here on February 2 and hasn't snowed since in nearly a month.  The wind is blowing and if you're a skier you know no new snow+wind+warm+cold at night=boilerplate.

So, as grandpa used to say, "time to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear" (for you non-rednecks, that means we're trying to make the best of it).

Andy, Erik, Jeff and Jon

So what to do while we wait for the snow to soften?  Cappuccino break, of course (or in Andy's case, Hot Cocoa / Chocolate Syrup).

Our guide Nigel is doing yoeman's work trying to find some good terrain.

Nigel's a Brit, spends time in Scotland and is apparently fond of Highland turf.  He managed to find some Scottish Highland turf skiing for us on the way down (click below):

The remnants stayed on my skis for the rest of the day:

It really steps up tomorrow!

Italia - Day 1 -- all about the food...

A backcountry ski trip has been on my leap list since reading about the Haute Route ten years ago.  Several things finally made this possible this year:

1.  AndyK is turning 50 and it's been on his bucket list
2.  I have the most amazing wife in the world and she was completely behind this.
3.  Lots of frequent flier miles needing to find a place to go to work
4.  A connection with an old friend - John Hamlin -- who connected us with a guide and his favorite area in the Alps.

So, an ice ax, carabiners, harness, avalung, skins and a variety of other great gear got crammed into a bulging bag and we headed for Milan on Saturday.

I've got a tradition of sorts when landing in Europe -- have a strong espresso and a chocolate croissant, then stay up all day (US nighttime) in order to sleep hard the first night.

After a little over two hours of transfer, I made it to Gressoney, Italy.  A very small mountain village, but one of the lifts serving the largest backcountry (off-piste) areas in Europe is right outside our door.

The bad news:  60 degrees at the base turned the snow to mush.  When it freezes at night, it becomes rock hard again.  The answer to such maladies is, of course, food once again.  A wonderful Pizza / Bar is next door.  So I settled in and waited for the guys.

Not a bad way to start the trip.  A relaxed afternoon in the sun.

Follow that with a dinner spread that looks like this and I'm gonna need to burn some calories!

More tomorrow!