In case we forgot to tell everyone, Amy was accepted into the Physician Assistant Program at the University of Utah. Congratulations honey! She was among the first 10 students admitted, out of more than 700 applicants. Our friend Christin McCurdy was also accepted. Congrats! to Christin as well. Amy now has a friend to carpool with during the summer. Classes start in this May.
In anticipation of her acceptance, we made plans to do some traveling this spring. Once school starts, she is out of commission for 2 years. First up was Mexico in February. (see last post.) In April we are sailing in the British Virgin Islands.
For March, we planned a trip to France to see our friend Mark Truskett, who is living in and working as a ski-tour guide in Chamonix. We invited Matt Davy, a firefighter and DVSP friend to join us. He flew to Paris, took the TGV to Geneva and the Mont Blanc Express into Chamonix.
Amy and I originally planned to visit Chamonix 3 years ago. Unfortunately, she tore her ulnar collateral ligament (skier’s thumb) and was forced to wear a cast. This derailed our skiing plans, but didn’t stop us from riding our bikes to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. (another great trip).
I booked tickets in December to fly to Geneva in March. We left on the 12th at 6 am. Darrell was kind enough to take us to the airport at 4 am. We flew from SLC to Minneapolis to Newark to Geneva, Switzerland, which is about an hour from Chamonix by car. Mark was kind enough to pick us up at the airport at 7 am.
Mark drives a Short Bus
We spent the first day walking around Cham, booking our ski passes, eating french pastries, window shopping at the many ski and mountaineering shops, and drinking red wine which helped ease some of the jet lag. A valium also helped.
Chamonix is the birthplace of alpinism. But we didn’t come to climb; we came to ski these mountains. Toward the end of the day, the setting sun lit up the peaks in warm alpenglow.
Mont Blanc massif at sunset
On saturday, we skied at Les Grands Montets which translates to The Big Mountains ski area. From the top of the telepherique, you can ski 7000 feet into the town of Argentiere. For perspective, this would be comparable to stacking Jackson Hole on top of Snowbird and skiing them top to bottom. It’s unreal. And amazing. And beautiful.
Amy and Edward ready to ski.
We bought the 6-day Mont Blanc Unlimited ski pass for about the same price it costs to ski in the Cottonwood canyons. The MBU, however, gives you access to 20 times more terrain, vertical and acreage. It also allows you to ride a ski bus through the Mont Blanc tunnel into Italy. With that in mind, we decided to ski at Courmayer on Sunday. Mark took us to the train station/bus stop where we were lucky to get the last 3 seats on the 8:45 bus to Courmayer. The ride took about 45 minutes from Cham through the 11.6 kilometer tunnel into the Valle D’Aosta on the Italian side of Monte Bianco. Once off the bus, a rude, ugly British woman was kind enough to tell us to follow the other skiers to the base of the gondola. We had our passes validated for Italy and hopped on the gondola. It took us another hour or so to reach the top of the Arpa funivie. It was worth the wait.
In Utah, most of the ski areas are tracked out by noon on a bluebird powder day. In Italy, it might take a week. The last storm came in on Wednesday before we arrived. We skied fresh powder on Sunday. We noticed that 90 percent of the skiers at Courmayer and Les Grands Montets skied on-piste. That is, on the groomed, hard-packed runs. More snow for the Americans.
We met Mark for lunch at a rustic cow barn called La Maison Vieille, The Old House. The owner, Giacomo was a ski racer and has a way with the ladies. Rumor has it that Penelope Cruz took off her top and bra over the holidays at the bar. Her figure is chalk marked on a bar stool as evidence. We ate a delicious meal of antipasti, pizza and pasta, leaving us enough time for one last run from the Arpa all the way down to Courmayer. I calculated it at close to 6000 vertical. Viva Italia!
Lunch at La Maison Vieille
La Maison Vieille et Monte Bianco (Mont Blanc)
The food, the views, the skiing , the friends were all amazing! This was just the beginning of one of the best weeks ever! Stay tuned for more…
