Notes from skiing trips and other random thoughts
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Only 1½ weeks to go before the next powder opportunity and the preparations starts be done:
To be done
Snow situation looks extremely good, so great skiing should be ahead 
The season opening at Ruka was truly great! The excellent winter weather continued for the whole weekend and slopes stayed on excellent shape and absolutely no quoues on any lifts. Naturally the lack of people on lifts lines had a smallish flip side in the form of quite quiet after ski…
Anyhow, we did our best to contribute for the business of as many restaurants as we could. Short summary below:
- Bistro was as always cousy atmosphere and good gulash soup. After ski at Davy Crocket was empty despite of the happy hour.
- Colorado was the best of the new places. Nice bar with sofas and tasty burritos on dining room.
- Piste offered decent burger in a clean environment; serves the purpose but nothing spectacular
- Rukahovi offered lame reindeer dish; try to avoid eating there
- Riipinen was fabulous. Tasty and tender reindeer file with fresh and friendly service. Recommended when you are on area; remember to book a table next to fireplace.
New skis and boots were also excellent. Either my skills have seriously improved over the summer or the new gear makes riding easier. I seriously suspect the latter…
This was a good start for the season. Now planning of the next gig can continue with higher motivation.
__
Sami Uskela
from Nokia N97 mini
The season has been opened! And I like it
The new skis cut the snow like a charm and new boots fit (almost) like a gloves. Big thanks to Heka for good recommendantions. In addition, the slopes are in excellent condition and scenery is so beautiful with all the snow.
Ruka has really changed my last visit. The number of restaurants has multiplied and Rukahovi has completely new extensions…
Now its time to gather strength for tomorrow.
Once again it took more that enough time to find time and energy to get key things to remember from Zermatt trip on one place, but here we go – and still all the photos and videos are distributed around different memory cards and hard disks 
First thing first: skiing in Zermatt can be truly fantastic when there is fresh snow (like our last day) and wind is not preventing lifts from running. Most of the tourists seems to be looking for something else than off-piste powder from the place – so no need to fight for good spots at sunrise; on the contrary, plenty of virgin snow available directly from the lifts even on afternoon. The ski-able area is huge and lift system efficient, but there is plenty of traverse and transits; you can easily spend half day in just moving between ski areas… but the scenery is just breathtaking – if you can see it. Strong presence of Matterhorn gives plenty of unique photo opportunities.
After enjoying the slopes, powder, sun, and scenery there is are plenty of nice small restaurants to eat or drink. The best entertainment was definitely on Hennu Stall, where we found a fabulous band (which we later found out to be part of Scenit Group). Real party atmosphere, nice people, intoxicating drinks – everything you need for fantastic after ski party!
On the cost side, I would say that rumors on extra expensively of Zermatt are not exactly accurate. My share of total cost of 7 days of skiing was roughly 900 euros (without flights):
|
EUR |
|
| Accommodation at Zermatt |
328 |
| Hotel at Zurich |
44 |
| Train pass |
88 |
| Lift tickets |
310 |
| Food, wishy, wine, beer, etc. |
130 |
The train traveling in Switzerland can be expensive if you go for list priced tickets, but the “Swiss Transfer Ticket” gives good value for the money. Check also other ticket types from http://www.swisstravelsystem.ch to see what fits for you. There should be also “Fly Trail Baggage” system to send luggage directly to right railway station when you arrive to Switzerland by plane, but at least Finnair personnel were completely unaware of just service. So better double check from your carrier if that really works.
Our accommodation at Apartment Pasadena – rented via Hotel Alfa – was perfectly located (see map below) next to Coop, railway station, ski lifts, ski bus end stop, and all other relevant facilities. Even while the better skiing was this time on lifts located on the
opposite end of the village, still living close to railway station seems to be better option (much better access to groceries and other services).
View Larger Map
Final day in Zermatt was pure white gold – skiing 5 000 m vertical on deep, fresh powder with direct access to and from nice chair lift was an excellent way to end the a skiing holiday
More detailed reporting with more elaborated multimedia features later… Now have to get back to speed in office
Snow storm up there – luckily there was sunny spot for a weissen
Anyway, should be snowing for whole night…
… This time with sunshine
We went again to familiar powder run in Cerviniaä there west still room for new tracks. The we roamed around Cervinia side, which seems to offer almost endless spots of untracked terrain.
On the way back we stopped at Hennus stall, which had fabolous live band playing really engaging rock for whole evening.
good skiing and live rock – That’s life
finally we found the snow, it all had gone to Cervinia side of the mountains. But there it was half a meter soft and fresh powder. We found fabolous run just below the Plateau Rosa gondola. So we took 3 runs there just adding to our own tracks – there was practically no other off-piste skiiers… I start to like the place
Today the most of the lifts were closed due to very high wind (>100 km/h on top). moreover, visibility was quite poor also on the slopes which were open. Hence, we mostly opted to sample various pubs and restaurants on the way to village which all were good
Well, to be honest we got some good turns on afternoon…
First day of skiing around Matterhorn behind. Luckily the clouds were high and thin today so we were able to get overview of Zermatt skiing area no spectacular skiing but hopefully there is some fresh snow coming for tomorrow.
On the down side I managed to find a stone, which ruined my brand new skis and trousers the ski edge is not that sharp anymore and now I have holes in both knees of trousers…
