A 5:30am wake up call on Sunday, April 4th had me to the Copenhagen airport at 6:30am for an 8:30 departure to Geneva, Switzerland, and then began the over 2 hour windy drive up 2300 meters to our chalet in Val Thorens in the French Alps.
We stayed in Lodge Mouflon, which is a Danish / Swedish lodge, SNE & SNÖ. I was staying in the top floor with two girls, Willa (who I had gone to Sweden skiing with) and Vivian (Viv). We had a gorgeous room with a fantastic view of the Alps. Day One we unpacked, got our ski rentals, and had a delicious lasagna dinner around a big table with the other 23 students and 3 leaders that came with us.
Monday was our first day of skiing. We woke up around 8 to the smell of warm croissants and dragged ourselves down to breakfast, got dressed, and we were going to be getting a “ski safari” lead by a mountain guide, Herman. Unfortunately, I was having binding issues, and by the time I figured it out I had completely lost sight of the group and never found them for the rest of the day. So, day one was skiing by myself, but if you stepped off trail you could actually ride through powder and it was amazing.
I should also say a little something about my equipment; I seriously lucked out. My board was practically new, sharp edges, and it was fast (and bright orange with an Avatar on it). My boots were literally brand new (which was a blessing and a curse: not smelly, but I had to break them in) but they were the speed zone lacing, which is amazing. My helmet was also brand new, saw it come out of the box, so I wasn’t thinking about all the other gross heads that had skied inside of it. Overall, I was super impressed.
Tuesday was our second safari day where we would be going to explore the other valleys with Herms. I actually made it with the group that day, but Willa, Viv and I had made a plan to head back mid-day and lounge in the sun at one of the ski chalets uphill of our lodge chalet.
Weary travelers, and La Folie Douce (where we relaxed).
Little did we know, the main lift that would help get up home to Val Thorens was not running. It took us over two hours and countless lifts and runs to get back, and at one point when we pulled out the map trying to figure out where we were, Viv just laid down in the middle of the trail and said, “I just want to die.” hahaha we felt like the most weary travelers, and we were still not sure how much longer it would take us to get back, but we had been expecting to be laying in the sun already for at least an hour and a half. Well, the Mountain Gods must have been smiling on us, because we literally moved another 5 meters down the trail and BOOM there was town. We all started whooping and yelling and finally made it up to where we could enjoy the weather.
(the roommates)
Wednesday we had a fun but busy day. After another delicious breakfast (croissants and nutella) we all headed out as a group to the toboggan shack to get into tiny plastic sleds, take a gondola up the mountain, and race down 6km of treacherous tobogganing track.
Boy am I glad we were wearing helmets, because this run was really scary. You were flying down the mountain with nothing but a tiny edge of snow holding you in from flying off down a steep face (or perhaps more accurately, it was more of a launching pad than a barrier). I flipped, slid out, crashed, collided, everything under the sun in the first 20 minutes. Finally, though, I stared to get it and was drifting through corners like a pro. I had a blast, was laughing the entire time, and took pictures and video (check the video below!)
The rest of the afternoon was skiing, then we met as a group at another chalet on the mountain, enjoyed some live music, drank some beers, and then ate fondue together. Once it was dark, we went outside.
The weather had gotten really foggy, and the picture above on the right is about how much you could see (if you squinted). Most of us got large flaming torches, and then as a group we headed down the mountain towards the base so we could finally make our way home. Due to further binding difficultly, I almost lost the group again (without a torch) but luckily I made it down and even got a little video of the experience (check below).
Thursday was our “bad day” weather wise, which really just turned out to be a “variable” day. It was also a really weird day in life because we all decided to sleep in, but then Willa and I woke up with swollen lips (beginnings of sunburn!) and we were freaking out and laughing and WebMDing it so we got a late start.
Weather-wise, we were skiing through grey skies, blue skies, and eventually a cloud where we really couldn’t see anything. I still had a great day out with the girls, we did plenty of skiing but relaxed as well.
We have ridden some of the most unique chair lifts, t-bars, and gondolas here (including a 160 person capacity gondola). The chair lift above has one bar that you lower for a safety, and then a second bar with a bubble that you can lower for wind and cold protection. Brilliant.
Friday was another amazing day. Woke up and went for a run, went back to the toboggan hill with a small group, and we laughed and raced our way down those dangerous 6km. Then we did a little more skiing, and for lunch we had a picnic out on the mountain. We all met up on the hill, ate a bunch of different salads, hot dogs, hamburgers, and drank beers.
And of course, in Danish fashion, we decided to play a drinking game after we had enjoyed our lunches. For those of you familiar with the game, it is a relay similar to “dizzy bat.” Teams sat up at the top of the hill, one person sledded down to their beer waiting below, chugged the beer, put the beer in the snow with their finger in it, ran around the beer bottle 5 times, and then ran back up the hill with their sled (if they remembered it) and handed it off to the next member of their team. It was very very entertaining. After that we of course continued skiing.
Then for our après-ski we went to La Folie Douce again, drank more beers, and were dancing on the table tops to the live singer and DJ. We had a blast, then skiied back down to our chalet for dinner.
Saturday was our last full day and night, so we decided to go all out with skiing, first lift to last lift.
It also just so happened to be a gorgeous day.
We went as a group exploring the three valleys, and a mysterious fourth valley. It ended up being all the girls, our tour leader Frazer, and our poor outnumbered male tour leader, Mads.
Even though we fully exhausted ourselves and completely earned our dinner, we had a great day.
To celebrate our last night, we girls opened a couple of bottles of champagne, went down to our favorite crêperie, and ordered ourselves some delicious treats.
On the left is Viv and I and my favorite French waiter/boyfriend (from the creperie). After tasty treats, we went out for a little karaoke and went to bed.
Sunday was our last day, I went out for a few runs in the morning, and then pretty much everyone was back by noon to pack, take care of some last minute things (like getting a tan) and get ready to leave.
I know I am forgetting a ton of stories and great things that I would like to remember, but I really just had been looking forward to this trip since I signed up to go to DIS, and I really had a blast and met a lot of great friends. Corny The End.
