Snowboarding in Switzerland

Bonjour! Last week, I spent a long weekend in Switzerland snowboarding with Hayley and Kat. Our co-worker's (Sam's) parents have a condo in the resort town of Leysin, situated about 2 hours from Geneva near the French/Swiss border in Switzerland. Hayley and Kat were in the middle of their two week holiday in Switzerland, and I went to join them for the weekend.

See some sweet pics here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/bbergey/LeysinSwitzerland?feat=directlink

My journey started mid-afternoon on Friday. I left work a bit early and made my way to Luton airport. Although flights are often cheap from "London," it means you have to use airports that are actually outside of the city. After dragging my carry-on backpack and heavy snowboard bag on the tube, I caught a train to the nearest station and then a bus to the airport itself. I arrived in Geneva after dark, grabbed a sandwich and pretzel roll in the airport, and caught the next train to Aigle - my connection to Leysin. After arriving in Aigle, I spent an hour in a nearby cafe before catching the next train to Leysin. This entire area is in the French portion of Switzerland, and since I don't know any French, I just pointed and pretended to get along with "Bonjour" and "Merci" like usual. The train journey from Aigle to Leysin was on a cog train and took about 25 minutes. It went from an elevation of 365 meters with no snow in Aigle to 1263 meters in the village of Leysin, where it was dumping new snow. They already had a few storms pass through over the week providing huge amounts of fresh powder, and this storm meant my timing was even better. It had been dark during the entire train ride from Geneva, so I was excited to see the surroundings the next day.

When we woke up the next morning, it was still snowing. Nice, big flakes. Unfortunately this meant I couldn't see any mountains. But it did mean that the slopes were going to be incredible! The three of us walked down to the lifts around 10am to start our day. My two-day lift pass cost me the equivalent of about £60...not too bad. Leysin is one of the smaller and lower resorts in the Alps and my hopes had not been high for the snow conditions or terrain. However, it ended up being one of the best weekends I've had snowboarding. I did the first few runs with Hayley and Kat, trying to offer help and taking some pics. When they went in for a break, I decided to go off on my own for a bit and explore the mountain. I went to the furthest lift on the backside and the conditions were incredible. It was Saturday, but I only saw a handful of others and I had fresh tracks for every run.

The landscape itself was dotted with old wooden cabins and the occasional Chalet flying it's Swiss flag. The old Chalet's are incredible wooden buildings that provide food and services for skiers. My favorite had homemade desserts and loaves of freshly baked bread along with a cozy inside and plenty of outdoor seating with incredible views. Although there are few "on-piste" runs (groomed or well known trails) marked on the map, the "off-piste" (non-groomed, moguls, or trees) options are vast and the conditions were some of the best that I have experienced. One thing I noticed about the map is that it is much less detailed than those that I am used to in North America. It often only shows one or two runs per lift and no off-piste detail.

A ski pass at Leysin also allows you to use the resort of Les Mosses, connected by a shuttle bus. I thought I would take advantage of that, but never saw a reason to leave Leysin since the conditions were so great. It also looked like most of the lifts at Les Mosses were drag lifts, and I didn't feel like giving effort both up and down the mountain.

The weather on Saturday slowly began to clear up, which provided excellent views of the surrounding mountain range and the valley below caked in fog. I eventually stopped for some lunch and enjoyed some goulash (meat stew) and freshly baked bread. I then met up with Hayley and Kat for a few last runs of the day. We all enjoyed a few post-boarding beers and hot wines at the chalet near the bottom of the lifts and then walked down to the village to stop at the grocery store. We bought some stuff for dinner, including some great regional cheeses and some fresh bread. We still had some time to kill before meeting Kat's friend at the train station who was coming to visit for the night, so we checked out another local pub before heading back home. Kat's friend, Isa, lives in the town of Neuchatel, a 2 hours train ride away. Lucky for us, she brought with her some local sausage called Saucisson Neuchateloise. It was excellent and went very well with our pasta! That night we enjoyed a great meal in, a few beers, and even watched Hunt for the Red October on VHS. I had never seen it before.

We woke up on Sunday to the most perfect day you could imagine. Not a cloud in the sky and, in all, around a foot of fresh powder from the last 24 hours. The others were a bit tired (and sore) from the day before, so I headed down to the lifts on my own to get in an excellent morning of fresh tracks on the back side of the mountain. The slopes were a bit more crowded due to the weather, but still nothing that stopped me from carving my own lines all day long. I also discovered that the very top of the mountain was open, which hadn't been open the day before. The resort actually has "two" summits. The first, at 2048 meters, is La Berneuse. There is a glass building with a balcony at the top where you can enjoy food and apparently a revolving bar. The other top at 2205 meters, Chaux de Mont, provides excellent views and difficult skiing. I did two runs from Chaux de Mont, and they were by far my favorite runs of the day.

I met up with Hayley and Kat when they were ready to go in the mid-afternoon and did a few runs with them. We took turns taking pics and videos of each other on the runs. I even tried a few jumps in the terrain park. I probably got a whole inch or two of air. Hayley and Kat eventually headed back down to the bottom Chalet while I did one last run. Even though my legs were shaking by the time I was done, I had put in a great weekend of snowboarding. We enjoyed one last slopeside beer and headed back to the grocery store and our place for another dinner in. We were pretty beat by the end of the second night, so we eventually turned in pretty early.

The next morning, I was up at 4:30am to catch the first train out of Leysin and back to the airport. I enjoyed one last piece of French food, a fresh croissant, and boarded the plane on my way back to London. I want to thank Hayley and Kat for letting me crash with them for the weekend and an excellent time! I can't wait to board my next European resort!

PS - There were other pics taken with other cameras, as well as quite a few videos. Once I get all of them, I will post another blog!