A long ski weekend

On the weekend I went skiing with the lab. It was my very first trip with a post-bus. In Switzerland, where the trains don't go, there are buses that connect the little towns. We wound our way up the mountain and had a great view down the Rhone Valley.

The skiing conditions were fantastic, and while I was on a lift up I saw a small animal. I think it was a vole. I skied back down to it and took some photos.

He even came up to my skis and started chewing on my camera strap.

Here's yet another picture of Carly skiing in the alps. I swear it's a different background!

At lunch time my lab settled down at the bar. It was beautiful and sunny.

Here's another picture of our lunch area. The Swiss are big on beach chairs in the snow. Or maybe it's a european thing.

The ski conditions were so fantastic that I was able to do my tele-turns the entire day. My legs were burning when I was finished and I knew I wouldn't be able to ski the second day. So instead, on the second day I skinned up the mountain instead. It was 800m and my new boots have given me blisters. However, the views were yet again fantastic, even though I was skinning up a ski run. Well, the first part was in the trees.

When I got to the top I met up with lab mates for lunch. And then we did some more time in the sun. I did one run while I was at the top and my legs were so tired from yesterday I was losing control after about 5 turns.

After an afternoon of sitting in the sun we skied down.

The valley was really beautiful.

On our last day, we spent several hours at the thermal springs. Here they had many different pools at different temperatures. There were benches with bubbles, and reclining seats in the 34 C baths with bubbles. There were cold plunge pools and even a hot 43 C pool with the black unfiltered mineral water. It wasn't stinky though, unlike the hot pools around Vancouver. However, after sitting around in hot water all afternoon I was very sleepy on the drive back!