The Grand Saint Bernard Pass

Pictures coming later. (finally here)

Yes, home to the dogs and the monks. This weekend was my second 'backcountry' ski trip here in Switzerland. This time was more pleasant than the first one, such obvious disappointment was quite the downer.


I was disappointed though, I've gotten out of shape over the summer and had terrible control and no strength whatsoever. However, I really do love being in the mountains, even though this particular trail was a highway.

We started with an early morning drive up to the pass. The road is closed during the winter so the rest of the trip was going up the road. Not too tough but as I said, I've gotten out of shape...

The weather was beautiful and sunny and as we approached the monastery we saw this picture of Saint Bernard leading the way. Further on it got a bit steeper and I practiced my kick turns, we had fun figuring out better techniques and praising our improvements.

There were many many people on the trail and when we got to the monastery it was a bit of a challenge to find a place to eat in the dining hall.

We bought soup and a giant chunk of cheese which tasted a lot like cheddar. In fact, it was the most cheddar tasting cheese I've had since I got there.

Many people who were there had skied up in the morning to go to mass and were eating in the dining hall. I even saw one of the monks in the dining hall. The soup was very fulfilling and after lunch we headed out through the pass to the Italian side. So yes, technically I visited Italy this weekend. Crossing boarders means a lot less here in Europe!

We skied into the sunshine on the other side and down a little ways along the road. At one point we skied in the car tunnel because all the snow had drifted in through the arches.

As we stood on the road we watched the clouds come rolling in over the pass. They rushed through the narrow gap in the mountains behind us and sank into the valley and we could see fingers of clouds creeping over the other peaks. It is amazing how fast the weather can change up here. We skied back and the wind was really strong and cold. I was covered in frost, my hair was white. However, the path was really well marked (as well as being a road) and we made it back without and troubles.

Then we skied down (worst tele turns ever!) and back to Lausanne. The hot shower was really nice, we thought about going to the thermal baths but I'm kinda glad we didn't go because I find them crowded and boring. I also have a Deuter backpack and I hate it. It's this weird shape inside so you can't really stuff anything large into it. I've yet to find the perfect backpack (well, my MEC one that I took around the summer backpacking in Europe is still fantastic but a bit too large for day trips).

In the end, skiing in Switzerland is more chilly than skiing in Vancouver. I'm looking forward to Christmas shopping at MEC!

Persian Canadian Birthday

This weekend was an 80's themed birthday party with many Persians. It was a pretty interesting mix of music, Persian and 80's. I learned how to dance to Persian music and I liked it better than dancing to the 80's, a mixture of elegant and slightly suggestive, hand movements and subtlety. I'll find a youtube video and put it up later.

One of the fun things was dancing with the cake knife - the birthday guest stood in front of her cake, everyone was around her and people were holding the knives and dancing in front of her, teasing her but then dancing away. I saw it on youtube for weddings - stopping the bride and groom from cutting the wedding cake.

All in all, a fun evening. As we stood around the cake we sang Happy Birthday in every language that was spoken there.

More from the trip to Saanan

I just got new sets of pictures and some were so great I am adding more.

I mean, otherwise my weekend was pretty uneventful. I played at another Scottish Ceilidh (always fun) and watched the movie Red with friends in Geneva. The lab was also mostly empty which I love so I worked and made media on Sunday while Wayne's World played in the background. Good times, boring blog posts.

We stopped by some bee hives on the way up.

Some good group pictures.

Another group photo (balancing the camera on the bag).

Here we are outside the hut, it was a really nice day for November, sunny and warm.

The shovel shows skiing promise!

Our great group picture at the top of the col. Yes, it took a while to get this shot! And it's a long ways down on either side...

And then we headed back to the hut for our fondue.

Here I am working on my French and asking for help translating all the signs in the hut. This is Switzerland after all, there were many instructions.

Loving the wine bottle, and even more the down coat.

Liking the smile.

Mountain Fondue

My god I have never eaten so much fondue. I never guessed such a meal would work its way into my social schedule as much as fondue has. Melted cheese sounded disgusting in Canada, like a bad case of Cheese Whiz. However, here it's a convenient social food for large groups and fits in very well with the cold weather.

Anyway, the previous weekend we went hiking around Gstaad and for a November day the weather was perfect and more like early fall. Clear sunny skies and a comfortable temperature. We left the car and walked along the road. I've often seen houses here in Switzerland displaying the cow bells.

We stopped for a lunch in a cow field (ok, it's all cow fields up here but I digress). Here I am, the ugly blue hat makes an appearance and the pose is most unladylike.

There was a lone golden tree and it just looked cool from our lunch position.

Just beautiful up here. Not too wild but the mountains in the distance were snow covered.

The rocks in the alps are very different than the BC mountains. Steeper.

We got to the hut and we had the place to ourselves. It was a pretty posh place for 16 people and a very different hut experience compared to BC. They provided blankets, pillows and mattresses and you just had to bring a sleeping bag liner.

After dropping off our stuff at the hut we continued on to the col. Here's a picture of Pam who was our group photographer, always trying to balance the camera on the bag.

Group photo on top of the col. Once Pam hands over her pictures I'll have more group pictures to post. ^_^

I climbed on to the top of a rocky peak, it was a long way down from there!

That evening in the hut we had our cheese fondue. We brought packages of premixed fondue but the pots were at the hut. The kitchen was very well equipped and there was even a wood stove which we used to heat the cheese. Our leader had called the hut to make our reservation and asked about the fondue pots but the response had a little bit of 'of course we have them, why do you ask stupid questions'. Anyway, not carrying the pots was a big advantage and with the lights out we had a candle lit warm cheese dinner alone in the lovely hut.

The next day was decidedly less picturesque. We took our time in the morning and headed down but in the last hour of the hike the November rain struck with a vengeance. Brrr. Back in the car it was a quick trip back to Lausanne and the end of a fantastic November hike.

Last post of October

Well, it's been a while since I've posted. Life in Lausanne this October has been slower but November is looking to be pretty busy.

A few weekends ago I went for a walk in the woods with 150 of my closest friends. It was a hike organized by the university and we walked around Gruyere and the lakes. With that many people they had to call SBB (swiss rail) to make sure there were enough post buses. And sure enough, with that many people on a small route we all got there.

Gruyere is still very pretty.

Cloudy day, but still very pretty.

The trains were nicely organized weeks ago but today I was sitting on a train for 45 minutes. We were stuck outside the station.

Cow fights in Martigny

My friend Emily is visiting from Canada, poor girl. She just arrived in Paris, then took the TGV to Lausanne and we didn't even go home, just put her stuff in a locker at the train station and then off to Martigny to watch some of the last cow fights of the year. Here we are on the train enjoying a treat. Carly couldn't wait apparently.

The Foire du Valais exposition was much bigger than I was expecting, there were many tents, like a home and garden show, selling vacuums and tools to slice vegetables etc.

Here's Carly posing with the cow couch I always wanted.

There were also farm animals, performances and even a display of the terracotta warriors.

They also had this competition for tradespeople ongoing and they were building roofs and installing toilets.

Martigny is the city at the base of the valley that goes to the Grand St-Bernard pass (where the dogs come from) and they have a museum in the town and they also had a display at the festival.

However, the big excitement was the cow fights. These are Herens cows and bred as dairy cows. The fights in Martigny are the most well known in Switzerland and were held in an original roman amphitheater. The cows were waiting behind the walls (and another waiting pen across the street). There were at least 200 cows involved in the fights.

The cows were brought into the ring and allowed to mingle. If they felt like pushing around another cow for dominance they would stand close, toss up dirt with their hooves and lower their heads and lock horns. However, a lot of the fighting was the cows standing around.

After a while there would be cow pushing, and if the fight got exciting there was cheering from the crowds.

 

And cows who weren't interesting in fighting, or who had lost would be asked to leave the ring. The ends of cow fights were quick and decisive. Two cows would be pushing heads and all of a sudden one would stop, turn and run. The winner might give chase for a few strides but generally wasn't that interested once she had shown she was dominant.

All the cows wore really really big bells and you could hear the clanging all day long.

The cows were very docile around people and I never saw them turn on the people who were handling them. If the owners wanted to break up a fight they would step in and grab the horn and the bell strap and turn the cows head, pulling her away.

Of course, the other main thing the spectators did (besides cheer the cows) was drink Valais wine. You would see someone winding through the stands carrying a bottle of wine with a stack of glasses balanced on top. No one was moving from the stands, clearly people had arrived early in the morning (and paid their 35 CHF for a seat) and they stayed there the entire day. We paid less to stand and watch but I did buy some wine.

At the end of the day we boarded the train and headed back to Lausanne.