Planes, trains, automobiles, and cheese

After an awesome flight cancellation and change of plans we crushed some pow in Tahoe before getting on our way to Switzerland. The flight across the U.S. and the Atlantic Ocean only took a day and half, and we arrived promptly at 7:45 am in Geneva with only a 13 hour time difference from Lake Tahoe... Since public transportation is well organized and efficient in Europe, we were able to jump right onto a train in the airport. In the photo below, Lynn poses with our gear as we wait for our train to Verbier. The city of Geneva sits on the edge of Lake Geneva, Europe's largest lake, I think... The train ride is quite beautiful to say the least, kinda like riding a train around Lake Tahoe, if you switched the Sierra Nevada for the Alps...The Alps are way bigger than the northern Sierra.We finally arrived at our first stop, Verbier, Switzerland. The ski resort of Verbier is huge, huge like Whistler/Blackcomb, but set in the Swiss Alps. The architecture here is very interesting, and virtually every building is the same style, not exactly sure what you call it, but all the houses and hotels look almost exactly the same. We had booked a hotel on the internet prior to arriving, since it is Easter weekend we didn't want to get shut out, and the cheapest place we could find was far from cheap. Verbier is expensive, very expensive, now I know how people must feel when they come to Lake Tahoe...

The ski resort itself is incredible. There is tons of great terrain, but since it is April, only the highest north facing snow is still skiing well. After attempting to recover from our 13 hour jet-lag we headed out to see what we could find. A few laps into the day we got the lay of the land and we started venturing on some short hikes to find the powder stashes. Like anywhere else, hiking seems to deter people and we found some great cold powder only a 5 minute hike off the beaten path... In the photo below, Lynn hikes just above the tops of the lifts, and high above the valleys below...

And dropping. Lynn drops in on one of the sweet couloirs just off the beaten path at Verbier. In the valley far below you can see the trams and gondolas that go all over the place at this mega-resort. I'm pretty sure this one resort has more gondolas than the entire state of California. This chute was one of many along this easy to access ridge, and it was powder, and so were all the others...

After a day of exploration and powder skiing there's no better way to unwind than with cheese. Luckily, all the restaurants serve around here is cheese. What's on the menu, cheese? I'll have mine with extra cheese please.

And so begins our european adventure. It snowed last night but was overcast all day today. Tomorrow is supposed to be clear, and we'll be skiing some more powder here in Verbier. After skiing tomorrow we'll be jumping on a train and heading to the steep skiing mecca of Chamonix, France in the evening. In Chamonix we'll be meeting up with our friends, and 9 year residents of Cham, Dave and Rosanna, as well as Tahoe skiers Jon Morrison and Emily Turner. I think the skiing is about to start getting interesting....