ski: avoriaz

Today was the last of our five Saturday outings with the ski club, and it was a fantastic day. All of yesterday's miserable rain added up to nice fresh powder in the Alps. Besides the deep, soft snow, the sun even made a surprise appearance in the morning. Conditions were perfect. More snow fell and some fog worsened visibility in the afternoon, but it was a great day on the slopes. It was one of those days that I had to be practically dragged away kicking and screaming. At least there was an apéritif waiting at the bottom.

A big thank you to the incredible instructors and organizers of the Cern Ski Club outings. These five weeks went too quickly, but there's still a lot of ski season ahead. 

ski: les houches

Today we skied at Les Houches, familiar territory from hikes and snowshoeing, but our first time for the slopes. I had low expectations for the day, with snow and rain in the forecast, a small skiable area, and the highest runs at only 1900m, but that didn't stop the club from having a great time. We practiced carving on wide, quiet pistes, and wove our way through trees on fresh snow. It was fun to ski  the famous Kandahar, the downhill run for the first winter Olympics in 1924.   The sunshine even lasted until the mid-afternoon, and the views of surrounding summits were fantastic.