I went with my housemate to a Christmas market in Montreux. Holy crap was this place packed. I had some roasted chestnuts, yum!
At the Christmas market, they always have a celebrated country and this year it was Canada! They have a great love for Quebec here in the french side of Switzerland and there was maple candy for sale. There was also a fake Mountie. He had a pen in his gun holster. Everyone knows mounties carry tasers.
The next day (or was it a few days later) I headed on to Grindlewald. In the summer I had made it as far as Interlaken, but this time I went further up and further in. The scenery was fantastic but I didn't go all the way to the top. I want to try a ski trip for that (you pay extra to take the cog train up). However, I really do want to go there, it is one of the largest glaciers in the world and it has a medial moraine. Yes, I've always wanted to see a medial moraine in the flesh so to speak.
On the train ride up I had a great view of the fold mountains. I watched a show that said Africa collided with Europe and the top of the matterhorn is Africa, the middle part is the sea that was between the two (hence the folded sedimentary rock) and the bottom is Europe. However, between Africa and Europe is Italy so I'm not sure where it fits in in the squish sandwich. I also have realized how much I love the geological time scale. I'm not interested in say the reformation of Europe so much. Oh there goes Ikea. I'm writing this on the trainride to Geneve.
When I got to the village of Grindlewald, I didn't do much except wander around. It is going to cost a lot to get my boots fitted. It would probably be only a little bit more money to fly back to Canada and have them fitted for free at MEC.
I have also bought telemark skis, well, they are actually used regular skis and are completely chewed up. However, I'm sure they will work fine for me. If I knew my boots weren't going to cause problems and that I was going to be skiing my brains out this season I'd probably buy more specialized (light) telemark gear. However, I'm sure I'll survive doing this and hopefully I'll meet people and find places to ski backcountry.
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