Skiing in the Alps

During my short stay in Geneva - personal holiday, nothing related to professional issues, except skipping work - I have fulfilled one of my long time dreams, at least partially: skiing in a foreign country, in a well know place. Initially I hoped to do it in Austria, but now that I was here I though it was worth a chance.

[This review is addressed to fellow skiers, and is written from the perspective of experience on the romanian ski slopes of Valea Prahovei: Predeal, Sinaia, Brasov, Busteni]

I skied in the skiable domain Grand Massif, which is just the next valley to Chamonix.

Was it gamechanging (in the sense that skiing will never be the same for me, and that skiing in Ro will never be attractive anymore) ? - No.

Was it exceptional and truly awesome? - Only the view.

Was it fun and freedom? - Definitely.

I picked an unusual solution for going skiing in the Alps, because usually people stay in closer resorts when they go skiing. I didn't have the time or money to do that, and I wanted to be able to visit Geneva also (aside from going at the Motor Show), so I decided to set base in Geneva - actually just next to it, in Annemasse / Gaillard, over the French border (but crossing the French - Swiss border here does not require anything, there is no customs, there's nobody at the crossing point). Being unusual, I had to use the inter-urban bus to get there, which only departed at 7.55 from Annemasse. And I was alone on it. I really thought that something is wrong. Moreover, I saw no snow on the way there (~60 min). Arriving there, however, I discovered the ski resort was functioning normally.

I did not part well equipped on this quest. In Paris, I only had normal city clothes. And of course no skiing equipment. I wore jeans, a t-shirt, a hoodie, a scarf and a winter coat (this last one was suited for the task). And my Nike cap. For comparison when I ski in Ro I have a wool sweater and ski pants. I also had my laptop backpack (without a laptop), with one more t-shirt and a thin sweater.

However, logistically I was quite well prepared. I had two mobile phones, charged, one with nokia maps; sun glasses (not what I would normally use for skiing, but what I normally use for bicycle); cash; I got a map of the domain with the ski pass. I had some food with me: bread, one orange, two black chocolates, swiss cheese.

I went up (and rented equipment) from Morillon - the closest to Annemasse among the stations of the bus. Looking on the map, I saw the main action (most difficult tracks and most tracks in general) is in La Flaine, so I decided to go there. To that end, I used the following steps: Morillon gondola lift; Sairon chairlift; down on Crete slope; Biollaires chairlift; down towards Lanche; Lanche chairlift; down (to the north) on Silice and Sortilege; Vernant chairlift; down on Tourmaline. This got me to La Flaine, where I took the gondola to Les Grandes Platieres, at almost 2500m. From there I skied. Yes, it was a long way, but it is really cool to go across such a huge domain.

Now, the view from Les Grandes Platieres.... it's awesome. To the north, notably, you can see the Mont Blanc and Aiguille du Midi. Luckily, the weather was perfect: not a cloud in the blue sky, a warming sun, perfect for fun and skiing.

There are 4 types of slopes. Easy (green); medium (blue); difficult (red); very difficult (black!). While going towards la Flaine I was extremely ( e x t r e m e l y ) disappointed in the tracks. Both medium and difficult. Now, easy is something like a street, you have to actually use your sticks to go forward. Medium is a slightly downhill road of snow. Brasov/Drumul Rosu is much more challenging. Moreover, even if not in full season, medium tracks are full of people and you can't even go too fast because you can bump into somebody, there's really a lot of people going quite slow.

Difficult tracks are significantly more fun. People are too afraid to use them so they're quite empty. Now, the problem is that they're actually boulevards of perfect snow, sometimes not too abrupt (but sometimes yes). There is no hump, no ice, no nothing. Only a wide road of perfectly leveled snow. No matter how nice that may sound, it's boring like hell, and the only thing I found them useful for (well, apart from exercising my turns, balance, etc) was going really really fast - they are wide and perfectly smooth so there's nothing that can possibly happen (apart from losing balance maybe).

Fortunately, I found the black slopes. Namely the Black Diamond (Diamant Noir, from Les Grandes Platieres down), which I did 3 times, and Agate (from Tete Des Lindars, to the right of the map), which I did once.

Black Diamond starts very nice. It has humps. It's exciting. And then there's the second part. Now that's an adrenaline rush. That's steep. Really. Steep. And humped. This part reminded me well of Brasov/Subteleferic and Sinaia/Kanzel, but was not as long as any of them. It was really, really cool. The third part was just true fun again.

I said at the beginning that this trip was not a game changer. And it wasn't What I can say, knowing this domain - which I think represents quite well what you can find around here - is that, in terms of difficulty and excitement of tracks, it has nothing to offer over what Ro has. And I'm happy about that.

What _is_ cool here is that there's really a lot of freedom. You really have many slopes. Don't think they are very long! They are longer than in Predeal, but definitely not longer than in Brasov. But they are many, and that kinda brings fun in the game. It's true, apart from the black ones, they are quite boring. But you can have fun by just going very fast.

The cable installations (airlifts) were very cool. Now in Ro we have gondolas and 4-seat chairlifts, which is cool. Now, here there were really big gondolas, taking about 15-20 people inside, and various types of chairlifts (all on the same constructive principles as in Ro): 2-seat, 3-seat, 4-seat (just like in Ro), 6-seat (fun!) and... 8-seat! Now an 8-seater is fun. many of them (especially the 8-seater) had a sort of moving carpet that took the skiers on after passing through the synchronization gates (that open when it is the right time to go into the chairlift) and that moved slightly slower than the chair, so that the chair came from behind (after turning around) and took the skiers smoothly. This was because the chairlifts were really fast and would have hit you otherwise. Technology is fun!

There was also this really weird airlift that deserves a special mention: la telebenne. This was weird. And unpractical: you had to climb from behind, so you had to actually catch it and climb, and you had to climb down while stepping back. Not a good idea - probably of french origin.

I saw people skiing there. I talked with and heard people in the chairlift. And I found the same problem that I found with western civilization in general: a complete lack of... mood, for anything. They were skiing, bu they were not having fun. They were doing it like it was their job, their duty. They were careful. A lot of people were helmets while skiing on medium (e.g. very easy and flat and boring) slopes. They were very serious about it and in general scared to go on anything a bit more difficult. There was no fun. No soul. I was the only one to actually go fast and they looked at me like... like they didn't understand (like I was crazy).

There were some non-French people too. I spoke to some Englishmen and a Dutch. The dutch thought (I spoke English) that i was from Britain. Cool.

Towards the end of the day I felt exhausted. At about 15.30 I started heading back to Morillon. Airlifts were closing at 16.45, like in Ro. I had to go all the way back: from La Flaine, up with the Telebenne; down on Bisac; Grand Vans 8-seater chairlift; down on Dolomie; Corbalanche chairlift; down on Peirce-neige, l'Arete, Stade, Sairon; down to Morillion with the gondola.

It was a good skiing day. I skied good. An d I am proud of my skiing. And I enjoyed myself.

Oh, and btw, costs: bus ride: 6.5 euros; equipment: 24 euro; cable transports all day, entire domain: 40 euros; assurance: 2.5 euros; bottle of water: 3.5 euros.

It was good.

I can't wait to get back to Ro. But maybe I'll come back around here some time.

Pictures (taken with a Nokia E51):

First image - a 'medium' slope.

in the center of the 7th image, The Mont Blanc

To the left of the 8th image, Aiguille du Midi.