Married To The Game

Hell yeah I did!

I spent 4 days in the Swiss Alps. I chose the Matterhorn Glacier for the portion of the Alps to board. It has the best Spring skiing and is about a 7 hour train ride from Aalen. Skiing the Alps was on my bucket list and I feel so lucky for having this chance. Seeing the Alps from the train was crazy. Like nothing I have ever seen before. Nothing compares. And it just confirmed for me once again, that snow, skiing and riding will be in my life forever. I won't live anywhere or do anything that prevents me from enjoying extended periods of time on the mountain!

The beginning of my first run down! I don't know if it was b/c I had so much practice this Winter or what, but this was my best snowboarding trip yet. Everything seemed so much more fluid and natural to me than any other time. I was relaxed and my turns were so much sharper and I was faster and my head was clear. Maybe there is something in the snow here. I don't know, it is the Swiss Alps after all!

And let me just say that I am a bargain hunter. I didn't have any of my gear with me and I found pants, gloves and goggles and they even threw in a new (horrifically ugly) ski jacket for 25 euros! That's a new record for me!

This cable car can hold 140 people and if you follow the cable lines it goes straight into that point of rock. It's so funny what humans can do. They think they want a cable car to expand their ski resort so they just blow a hole in a mountain. Once you get to the top of that point you have the option to ski down into Italy or stick to the Swiss side.

Once you get to the top, there is still one more step. You have to walk down this hallway, which is just the inside of the glacier, and wait for one more cable car to take you to the tip top.

The beginning of even getting to the top of the glacier is such a confusing process. You have the option of buying 1 of 2 tickets. 1 ticket will allow you to ski just the Swiss side or you can buy the international ticket and ski into Italy as well. The first day I bought the international ticket. Thank god I hooked up with my roommates from the hostel. They were a really kind French couple from Geneva and they had a better idea of what they were doing. It even worked out that I have an invite to stay with them for a few days before i fly to Paris in August. They even paraglide and they said they would take me when I come out!

We all bought our tickets and then waited in line with a bunch of pushy and loud snow lovers. It is cutthroat if you want to make it into the same gondola your skis are parked in. The first time, I sliced my thumb right open on my snowboard and bled the entire ride up, just trying to fight my way through! Battle wounds;)

It takes about an hour to get from the base of the village to the top of the glacier in one of these gondolas. It stops periodically at different levels of the mountain, but during the Spring, it is better to just stick to the glacier b/c the

snow is too slushy and it's too hot to stay any lower.

I would like to take this time to say that I definitely DO NOT look like a "gaper" here;)

"Kick-ass button?" I think so!

Not that I wish an avalanche would happen when there are people in proximity to it, but how cool would that be if that was an avalanche I caught on camera!?

This was the very first trip up. Can you see the fear on my face? When I was planning my trip to the Alps, I called the tourist office and explained to them that I had grown up skiing and that I have skied the East and West, but with all of that experience, was there still a chance I could die trying to take on these mountains.

I seriously said that and all they did was laugh at me!

Of course I stopped for a coffee at a local chocolate store. If you couldn't tell, I love taking pictures of chocolate displays b/c they are always so pretty.

They are always displayed and wrapped beautifully.

I wish someone would make a coffee table book about the prettiest chocolate packages.

Kind of like Kramer's idea about making a coffee table book about coffee tables!

I am pretty sure this after shave is the second coming of Sex Panther

that Paul Rudd wears in Anchorman!

The Swiss Alps were great, but take a look at the prices on this menu.

9 francs for soup. That is even more in US dollars. A beer is even worse.

Shout out Rebecca! I haven't found you any unknown, antique books,

but I will take pictures of every library I find! I am surprised this village had one!

This is a graveyard dedicated to fallen mountaineers who have tried to take on the Matterhorn Glacier.

This is what a typical road looks like in Zermatt. I like the traditional style buildings. The flags that are strung between the stores are advertising a major concert series that was going on that week. Who would have thought the week that I decide to ski the Swiss Alps Seal, David Gray, OneRepublic and Roger Hodgson (voice of Supertramp) would all be performing live right down the street from my hostel! They must have known I was coming!

These are your two choices of getting around in Zermatt. This is a completely car free town. The taxis run on electricity or you can flag down a carriage. In order to get into the village itself you have to take the "Glacier Express," which takes an hour, completely up-hill from the nearest city of Visp.

This is a side street that memorializes the old village of Zermatt. They keep the cabins intact so you can see what life was like way back in the day.

It was a lot of piste skiing. The off-piste was great, but by 1pm the snow started to get slushy making it more difficult to get through un-groomed trails. The weather was awesome the entire time I was there. It was 70 in the village of Zermatt and 30 at the top of the mountain. I got a serious sunburn on my face and neck as a result. But that seems like the perfect combination right there - sun and skiing!

Me and the Matterhorn Glacier that is the force behind all the magic that goes on in Zermatt!

View from my room window!

This just speaks for itself!