Unexcused Absences

We didn’t ski a single turn last winter because we spent January through May in the Bahamas. This year we were due for some skiing, but that would mean giving up a couple months on the Miss Adventure. It’s to my continued annoyance that I can’t be in two places at one time, so we had to choose. Hence, Vail.

China Bowl, Vail

Vail is possibly the most famous ski area in America, maybe second to Aspen. The area is adjacent to, and four times as big as, Beaver Creek, where we spent five winters in a row up until our 2015/2016 winter in the Bahamas. This year Heather found (and rented for us) the second-smallest condo in Vail, located across from Solaris Plaza and a six minute walk from Gondola One.

Our condo; second floor, far right, foreground

We flew out the day after the MLK long weekend, with the plan to stay until the first weekend of spring break. Since we didn’t want to be inconvenienced by actually working at the resort, with only 43 potential days of skiing in our schedule, we chose not to re-apply for our on-hill jobs that we had at the Beav (Vail and Beaver Creek are all one big happy company, so getting work at Vail would have been easy).

Vail Village

The weather in Colorado did not look promising at the beginning of the season. Vail had to delay its opening, and was plagued by warm temperatures and no snow all through November. Fortunately, in December, Al Gore relented and allowed some cold and snow to hit the Rockies. The Colorado resorts received almost an entire winter’s worth of snow in the seven weeks starting early December. And, because timing is everything, we arrived for that last week of heavy snow, during the best conditions of the season.

Lots of snow in the West Vail Mall parking lot

We tried to ease our ski muscles into shape, we really did, but the skiing was so terrific that we worked ourselves to exhaustion the first five days. Our fifth day was easily our second best powder skiing day ever, topped only by an incredible session in the French Alps in 2013. The powder in the back bowls was deep and plentiful. For some reason the resort was not crowded at all – possibly because the locals had already enjoyed 6+ weeks of continuous powder skiing. It was close to noon when we took the series of photos below in Siberia Bowl and Inner Mongolia Bowl.

Heather gets some quality powder time

Bolshoi Ballroom in Siberia Bowl

That’s me sampling a pristine powder field, Inner Mongolia Bowl

After the storm track returned to normal (one snowfall every 7-10 days), we got down to some serious socializing, and met up with our friends Greg and Susan, Audre and Dimitri, Elizabeth and Michael, Ellen and Emil, Harry and Debbie, Jeff and Christine, plus Praz, Megan, Jen, Guy, Sean, Kevin, “Tahoe” Joe, “Other” Kent, and Mike. We had several visits to the spa at the Four Seasons, courtesy of our friends who own a condo there, and we took evening walks through Vail Village and visited our favorite restaurants (the Minturn Saloon, Crazy Mountain Brewery, Tiamo, Moe’s BBQ, Vendetta’s, Blue Moose Pizza). Plus there were parties and gatherings and we basically didn’t have a free minute for a month and a half.

Heather enjoys an afternoon skate

The Vail Chapel covers all the bases

A clearing winter storm

We did wander over to Beaver Creek once or twice a week for either social skiing or the Monday Town Series races. As in previous years, we were very un-American and had no car, but the public transportation in Eagle County is fantastic and the lack of car never really bothered us. The Race Series was very good to us, and we won some great stuff, including race gloves (that I traded with a friend who had won a backpack), a boot bag, thermal base-layers, two restaurant gift certificates, a hard-sided ski carrier, and a GoPro (actually we each won a GoPro but we sold one at a nice discount to a friend).

Heather stirs some powder on Grouse Mountain, Beaver Creek

Early morning at the Beav

Kent cruises Raven’s Ridge, Beaver Creek, in a foot of powder

Our goal at the start of our visit was to ski every single day, at least 10 runs and/or 15,000 vertical feet (as measured by Vail’s Epic Mix iPhone app). Part-way into the season we upped our goal to 12 runs and/or 18k vert per day (it’s good to have goals). Along the way I decided to see how long it would take to ride every single lift in Vail once and (only once), all 24 of them. One day when Heather was at a PSIA clinic I caught first chair in Lions Head and then worked my way around the resort. It turns out it takes 30,218 vertical feet and four hours 45 minutes to complete the circuit.

Either “Daft Punk” or a very cold day at Vail

The weather gods continued to smile, because our last day we woke to 8 inches of fresh powder. This was on top of another 10 inches over the previous couple days, so the slopes skied a lot deeper than 8 inches. By quittin’ time I had amassed 829,622 vertical feet and 548 lift rides over 43 straight days. Heather had two days when she wasn’t feeling well and didn’t ski, so she ended up with about 45k feet fewer. But because we’re chronic over-achievers, at least when it comes to vacationing, we averaged over 19k feet and 12.7 lift rides per day. I feel that what we lack in personal ambition, we more than make up for with vacation acumen.

Final turns of the 2017 ski season

We finished our winter out west with a camping trip to Moab, Utah, with our friends Greg and Susan, plus Jen and her dog Miller. Greg and Susan are serious over-achievers when it comes to outdoor stuff. They have an entire cargo van filled with mountain bikes, tents, sleeping bags, cooking gear, coolers, and food. We camped on the mesa above the town for two nights. The first night was perfect, if a little cold; calm wind, clear skies, and temperatures around freezing. The second night was a lot warmer, but also a lot windier, and wasn’t quite as pleasant; a fine film of Utah dust had covered everything by morning. But, we had spent the previous evening at the fantastic Moab Brewery, so no one was too put out.

Taking Susan’s Jeep seriously off-road

Our campsite on Slickrock

A canyon vista near Moab

Back at Susan and Greg’s house near Beaver Creek, we had one final day to do laundry, pack, and visit the Gore Range Brewery (there’s a pattern developing here, I just can’t put my finger on it). Then it was an easy flight home, and with a six-day turn-around we will hopefully be on our way to the Bahamas to take our trawler, Miss Adventure, on her spring cruise through the Exumas and other Bahamian Out Islands.

Champagne powder, Inner Mongolia Bowl

More powder; Heather in Siberia Bowl

Still more powder in Blue Sky Basin

Jen (& Miller) at Crazy Mountain Brewery

“No matter what the cows say”

A hike near Moab

Heather negotiates with Miller regarding appropriate puddle-time

Snow in Vail Village

“Reverse ski tracks” from a windstorm

One more powder pic; me in the “white room”

It’s hard to believe, but we recently completed our fifth straight ski season living and working at Beaver Creek, home to the industry’s most expensive lift ticket ($159). This year was completely the same, yet totally different.

Beaver Creek has hosted the World Ski Championships three times

The “sameness” includes working in the same departments (ski school and race operations) and doing the Monday Race Series and seeing all our usual friends (Greg & Susan, Guy, Praz, Megan, Elizabeth & Mike, Audri & Dimitri, Sean and Kevin) and shopping at City Market and visiting Crazy Mountain Brewery and living in Avon without a car. The difference was of course that Beaver Creek hosted the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, as reported earlier. And I checked off my personal goals for the season of skiing 50 days straight without interruption (actually got 51) and 750,000 vertical feet (actually got 822,382).

This season’s numbers on the left, lifetime numbers on the right

But beyond the numbers, some really cool stuff happened this season. We met new friends (Jay, from the Korea 2018 Olympic Organizing Committee, and Jen and Geoff, a lawyer and artist trying out the ski bum life, and Steve and Sherri, refugees from Silicon Valley – Apple, Aldus/Adobe and Norton Utilities – who live in a gorgeous home in Vail). We had a chance to ski Beaver Creek’s “White Glove First Tracks” not once, but twice (courtesy of Heather’s ski school clients one day and our friend Megan who works for Guest Services another day). This is a program where wealthy people pay even more money ($125 on top of the $159 lift ticket) to load the lift an extra half hour early, ski for an hour in Larkspur Bowl, then retire to Beano’s Cabin for a light breakfast and hot chocolate. Both our days just happened to be powder days, as if first tracks on groomers isn’t good enough.

First tracks in Larkspur Bowl

We also pulled in a substantial haul of logo gear from the Championships. As mentioned in the previous post, I traded my 2015 jacket for an awesome Colmar French Ski Team jacket, but we also collected hats, goggles, shirts, sweaters, gate panels, sweatshirts, mugs, water bottles, posters, a complete ski outfit, and the big stadium banner (which we’ve already hung on the wall at the weekend house).

Partial inventory of our haul of free stuff from the World Ski Championships

The best gift of all was from Mother Nature. She mostly held off with the snowfall during the Championships, then opened the heavens for 13 out of 17 days immediately following. Working a race is doubly bad when it snows, because we have to a) spend the day shoveling snow off the course, and b) do so while mad that we can’t be out skiing the fresh snow. So other than one day (Feb 5), when we shoveled for several hours in a valiant but ultimately doomed effort to prepare the track for the ladies’ Super G race, we had a blissfully snow-free race fortnight. And she really smiled on us at the end of our season, because we woke up on our final day to a full foot of fresh snow. To put that in perspective, the total snowfall through the end of the season, after our departure early March, was only about one and a half feet. Someone was really looking out for us.

Screenshot of the Beav’s snowfall history, courtesy of OpenSnow.com

And speaking of fresh snow, on our second-to-last day (March 3), after our White Glove First Tracks and our Beano’s Cabin mini-breakfast, three of us headed over to the Stone Creek Chutes to see what was cooking there. We found some nice deep snow, quite a bit more than the reported 7 inches, so we lapped the Chutes a few times before lunch. Such an amazing almost-end to the season. Our final day, March 4, we actually skied in Vail with our friend Praz as our personal tour guide. We gave the back bowls a good workout and he knew enough secret spots that we were still skiing deep powder after lunch.

Taking my French Ski Team jacket for a cruise in the Stone Creek Chutes

So that wraps up our fifth season at The Beav. We are so glad we did this while (somewhat) young. We both agree that it’s something we should have done in our 20’s, but maybe it’s even better doing it in our 40’s – we don’t have to live in poverty, packed four to a room with a bunch of pot-smoking dropouts, and I suspect we appreciate it more at this mid-life stage. We are more than a touch misty-eyed about this season in particular, because we will be taking a year off from skiing and hope to spend the winter of 2016 in the… well, stay tuned, I’ll share all the details soon.

Snow showers and sunshine at the Spruce Saddle Lodge

My Race Department “office”, the EpicMix racecourse

The snowstake (showing 12 inches) at 5am on our final day

With Megan at Beano’s Cabin

They serve everyone at Crazy Mtn Brewery

The Stone Creek Chutes

Possibly our last skiing at Beaver Creek for over a year

It’s been a crazy two weeks of competition and festivities, plus another ten days of work leading up to the events, and we finally have a chance to take a deep breath and look back at the highlights of our experience.

A bit of background; Vail and Beaver Creek bid on and won the rights to host the 2015 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships (WSC – held every two years) over four years ago. The level of complexity to pull this off was staggering – from February 2 to 15 our resort hosted close to 500 athletes from 68 nations, plus around 1,200 international journalists and broadcasters, plus guests from all over the world, with everything put together by a dedicated paid staff and about 2,200 volunteers. Vail constructed a giant stage and awards plaza plus a qualifying race course and stadium, and Beaver Creek built two downhill courses, a massive finish stadium, and three giant temporary structures holding the broadcast facilities, the “poor” VIP tent, and a two-story Gold/Platinum VIP building.

The massive finish stadium at Beaver Creek

We spent the week leading up to the Championships working on the hill with both the professional race crew and as part of the volunteer Talon Crew, hanging A-net, shoveling, raking, setting up B-net, shoveling, anchoring A-net, shoveling, sideslipping, and did I mention shoveling? Some Italians (Andrea, Nicola, and Alessio), who thought it would be fun to fly a third of the way around the world to volunteer for the WSC, taught us how to say “shovel the snow” in Italian – “spalare la neve!”

Setting up ‘A’ net

Once the races started, our daily schedule was insane; wake up at 5 so we could load the chairlift at 6:30am, then attend the morning meeting at the mid-mountain lodge, followed by a full day’s work until about 4pm – lots of shoveling snow, or “spalare la neve”, or “pelleter la neige” (French), or “schaufeln den schnee” (German – we had a bunch of Germans and Austrians on our crew). Then it was time to visit the Beer Tent (excuse me, the “International Cultural Center”), usually followed by a festive dinner in Beaver Creek Village (the Coyote Cafe, or Blue Moose Pizza, or the Dusty Boot Saloon), although sometimes we went to Championship Plaza in Vail for the awards presentation and a free concert, and then home to bed by 9pm. Repeat (almost) daily.

An early, snowy morning with a bunch of other volunteers – I’m the one in the red/white/blue jacket

The good news is that we did have some days off to enjoy the races as spectators. In particular we got to see the Men’s Downhill, where the USA’s own Travis Ganong skied to a somewhat surprising second place, with Steve Nyman just off the podium in fourth place by a mere 3 hundredths of a second. The crowds were amazing, at least by US standards; the stadium sat 3,500, and another six thousand or so were in the two VIP areas or standing on the hillside above the finish line. The energy was breathtaking.

A downhill racer flies above the crowd

VIP areas (left), stadium (center), and overflow crowds (foreground)

Red Tail stadium filled to capacity

We got to see Ted Ligety come from 5th place after the first run and absolutely kill his second run to win the Giant Slalom WSC title for a record third time in a row. We also watched Eagle-Vail’s own Mikaela Shiffrin give everyone a scare in the Slalom. She was fastest the first run by about a quarter second, but after the first two intervals on the second run had ceded all that advantage and more back to her nemesis, Frida Hansdotter of Sweden, only to kick on the overdrive at the final pitch into the stadium and win the race by a third of a second. Needless to say the 10,000 fans in attendance went absolutely bonkers.

Slopeside crowds gathered to watch Mikaela Shiffrin

The organizers also put on a daily free concert in Vail, with some pretty big-name acts. We (OK, I) had hoped to see KC and the Sunshine Band, but we had a better offer of dinner with friends at the Gore Range Brewery that night. We did get to see both Philip Philips and the amazing Barenaked Ladies, who finished up a rockin’-good program with a killer cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love”.

Barenaked Ladies in concert

Some other highlights of the fortnight:

•  Meeting a whole bunch of fun new people on the Talon Crew, many from half-way around the world – in particular our new Italian friends and Manfred from Bavaria;
•  Attending the big press party thanks to our new friend Jacques, who works for the TV broadcast folks, and who also gave us a tour of the TV production facilities;
•  Getting our picture in the Denver Post  (this is deep in the archives, it may take a minute or more to load) while we were shoveling Golden Eagle Jump during a snowstorm (alternate link here);
•  Meeting (and taking a selfie with) Michael Williams, who was 100% of the Jamaican Ski Team, and getting two coveted JST baseball caps;
•  Travis Ganong (USA) taking an unexpected Silver in the Men’s Downhill, and then us winning his race bib (#22) in the raffle during the end-of-event volunteer party;
•  Watching the women race from our on-course station at Golden Eagle Jump (normal World Cup events at Beaver Creek are only for the men);
•  Being given tickets to the Silver VIP tent by a special friend;
•  Another special friend getting me into the Lech-Zurs private party room where we feasted on Austrian food and beer;
•  The excitement of hearing dozens of different languages spoken all around us on the hill (by the coaches and racers) and in the village (by visitors and guests);
•  Being surrounded by the world’s best skiers – everywhere we looked on the slopes were world-class racers skiing around on their days off;
•  The shared experience of hard work and hard play with our fellow Talon Crew workers;
•  Witnessing one of the most sublime race performances of all time, Ted Ligety’s second run of the GS (or watch the Austrian broadcast here);
•  I never asked his name, but I likely rode up the Centennial chairlift with legendary Norwegian ski racer Kjetil André Aamodt, who was in town for the races and to be inducted into Vail’s International Ski Racing Hall of Fame – we chatted about living in the Vail Valley and he said he was thinking of moving here to coach ski racing;
•  Seeing all the racers and coaches from all the countries not normally associated with ski racing, countries like Monaco, Malta, Macedonia, and Montenegro;
•  The final party for the volunteers, where we won not only Travis’ race bib #22 as described earlier, but also a downhill race gate panel and a giant 2015 banner that had hung in the finish stadium.

Us with the entire Jamaican Ski Team

We capped the event with an amazing experience the last day of the races. Heather had her favorite ski school clients in town that weekend, so she was busy working with them. I was not scheduled to work, so I was standing beside the Men’s Slalom course to watch from up close. Just before the races started, Heather texted me that her clients were taking her to the Platinum VIP building as their guests to watch the race, and they might have an extra ticket and was I interested in joining them? (Um, yeah…)

A few minutes later I got the word to join the party, so I skied down and Heather met me with a spare ticket and I walked into the plush confines of the very important people’s gathering, where I was escorted to… Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper’s table. Apparently Heather’s ski school clients are tight with the Governor, so tight that he was staying at their house over the weekend.

Platinum VIP building with Gov Hickenlooper (left, facing camera) and Heather (right foreground)

So I got to both “hob” and “knob” in the big leagues during the Men’s Slalom Finals. The big bonus was that an unheralded Frenchman, Jean-Baptiste Grange, won the Gold in a thrilling race a half second in front of the favored Felix Neureuther of Germany. Since I love all things French, it was exciting to see. And speaking of all things French…

“Coach’s Corner” at Golden Eagle Jump

During the women’s GS midway through the Championships, we were on course at our usual station at Golden Eagle jump, surrounded by a couple dozen coaches. Heather asked the French women’s coach if he would be interested in trading his awesome Colmar French Ski Team parka for my not-so-awesome J. Lindeberg 2015 shell. Amazingly, he said yes, but only after the final women’s race Saturday. Background; I have been coveting the French Ski Team jackets since our first World Cup race back in late 2009.

Me with my prized French Ski Team jacket

So Saturday found me desperately looking around the race course, the finish area, and Beaver Creek Village for this coach. I had no luck all day long, and had given up and had just sat down with a friend in a cafe in the Village, when the coach walked right by not 5 feet away! I jumped up and followed (ok, stalked) him back to his hotel, and asked as graciously as possible, “excusez-moi de vous déranger, voulez-vous échanger votre veste de ski?” (sorry to bother you, would you like to trade your ski jacket?). “Bah oui” (surely!). So right there on the spot he takes off his most awesome Colmar French Ski Team parka (why an Italian clothing company supplies the French Ski Team is a question for another day) and gives it to me in exchange for my 2015 jacket. He was in a hurry and I never got his name, but he made me one very happy boy.

So now the races are over, and the thousand-strong TV crew have packed up their gear, and the foreigners have mostly gone back home, and things are pretty much back to normal here at Beaver Creek, and we’re frankly more than a bit sad; the build-up and the races were amazing. Working at this event was everything we could have ever hoped for, times ten. So Vail and Beaver Creek, let’s get started with a bid for the 2025 World Ski Championships.

NASA control room? No, the inside of one of the three TV production trucks

The external patch panel for one of the TV production trucks

The broadcast compound; TV trucks in the foreground, temporary 3-story building in the background

Dessert bar in the Platinum VIP building

The new 2015 mural on the side of our condo building

Not quite “backstage” but at least “side-stage” at the opening ceremonies

Ski patrol hauling ~300 pounds of ‘A’ net on the men’s downhill course

A look at the Birds of Prey race venue from Larkspur Bowl

Race bibs at the Men’s Slalom start

Red Tail stadium February 1

Red Tail stadium the day of a race

Inside the Silver VIP tent

The time since our return from France has passed by in a blur, with trips to the Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show, the Bahamas, Beaver Creek for the annual World Cup ski races, followed by the holidays in Virginia with associated game nights, movie nights, cookie-decorating night, pot-luck dinners with friends, and the always popular Caddyshack Trivia night.

Now we are back in Beaver Creek for the rest of the winter, helping to prepare for the Alpine World Ski Championships. The WSC comes along every other year, and is normally held in the European ski powerhouse countries like Austria, Switzerland, Germany, France, and Italy. But every one to two decades the Championships are held in the USA, and the past two in North America have been held right here at the Vail/Beaver Creek areas (1989 and 1999). The only other North American host was Aspen way back in 1950.

Countdown to the 2015 World Ski Championships

Over the past six years of working with the Talon Crew (the on-hill course workers who help prepare and maintain the race tracks) we have become quite heavily involved, with favorite wife Heather building and maintaining Taloncrew.com, the official website, and your correspondent filling in as Crew Chief a number of days when, in desperation, the leadership turned to me to lead up to 20 of our fellow volunteers through the days’ work projects. Now, suddenly, the 2015 World Ski Championships, which Beaver Creek has been working on for close to three years, are only one day away.

K & H with Mikaela Shiffrin

Celebrating a successful training session

About 10 days ago we were powder skiing late morning on Grouse Mountain, a section of Beaver Creek with expert-only trails, when a couple of folks with US Ski Team jackets approached us. Would we mind slipping the training course (pushing the powder off to the sides) for Mikaela Shiffrin (Olympic Gold Medalist, World Champion, and overall World Cup Slalom Champion skier)? Her coaches had set up a private training course on lower Grouse Mountain for her to train slalom. Heather said “sure”, while I said “how much” (naturally). So we skied over and took a couple laps pushing the snow out of the way and got to watch her race up close (amazing) and then got to meet the young lady herself. An unexpected bonus to an already excellent day.

After that it’s been pretty much a blur of hanging A-net, shoveling, sideslipping, and general course prep, while every day more foreigners show up (broadcasters, coaches, racers) and the excitement builds. Tomorrow it’s a training day for the women on their new downhill course, followed by the opening ceremonies in downtown Vail, and then it’s game-on for the next two weeks as the most important event in ski racing happens outside our back door. NBC and Universal Sports have an extensive coverage package for the races, so check your local listings and then look for us on the slopes – we, along with about 2,200 other volunteers, will be in the red/white/blue ski outfits.

It is with some trepidation that I write of our visit two months ago to Les 3 Vallees in France. We’ve just spent the past three ski seasons at Beaver Creek, including the amazing winter of 2010 – 2011; however, this past March near Albertville in the Alps was, without a doubt, the absolute finest skiing of our lives.

Locals say that 2013 has brought more snow to the Alps than most folks have seen in living memory. It’s been 50 years since this much snow fell here, covering the slopes with over 6 feet of base.

The vastness of Les 3 Vallees

Les 3 Vallees is large — the largest ski area on earth in fact. At 40,000 skiable acres, it dwarfs Vail (whose total area is a bit over 5,000 acres). Compare the size of Les 3 Vallees – which is roughly 13.5 miles in width and 7,000 feet of vertical drop – with our home ski area at Beaver Creek. If you made Vail’s Blue Sky Basin three times the height, and could ski to Edwards through Beaver Creek, you’d start to get an idea the scale of Les 3 Vallees. Compare that to our home in Virginia, and it’s as if you could ascend from Arlington a mile and a quarter and ski over to Reston — for lunch. In other words, it’s vast.

After a lovely first day on the slopes (complete with delicious European lunch fare at Le Bouc Blanc in Corchevel) the snow started falling quickly and furiously. Nearly a foot had fallen outside our Meribel Mottaret condo overnight. Our plans for tree skiing in Corchevel the next day quickly changed as we were forced off the Pas du Lac gondola at the mid station – the upper mountain was closed for avalanche work. Shrugging, we exited the gondola – and plunged into foot-deep powder. The next run, we dared to venture off-piste and quickly found ourselves in over-knee powder. Over and over, we turned off the groomed runs to plunge through the light, fluffy snow. Once the ski patrol dropped bombs and cleared the upper mountain of dangerous snow, the higher lifts opened. As the lower mountain’s power tracked out, the upper mountains offered us fresh power – again.

Closed for avalanche work

The same evening, snow fell once again. While the snowfall in our village seemed about 4 inches, the next day on the hill it was clear that another foot of light powder had fallen – on top of the previous day’s dump. We headed to Mont Valon, where a vertical drop of 2600 feet of off-piste powder awaited us. The turns were bottomless — powder often reached our waists. Under a blue-bird sky, we skied the mountain again and again, finding fresh lines each time. Here’s a short video segment of some sweet powder skiing (I’m in the orange jacket, and Kent’s in red).

Epic conditions

After the five days of amazing skiing, including two big powder days, a sudden snow shower hit Thursday evening. Friday morning, although temperatures had warmed, we once again hit creamy, untracked power (albeit heavier than the previous three snowfalls), descending thousands of feet off-piste in untracked snow. Our last day, we made the grand tour of about 60% of the area. We skied through three valleys – speared by by 10,000 foot peaks – and crossed rocky ridges to vast, treeless valleys with ski runs snaking down. We skied a single run from the top of the Val Thorens glacier down over 6 miles and 4500 vertical feet (not even to the end of the run) to the valley below.

Our week in Les 3 Vallees luckily coincided with the best conditions seen in 50 years, allowing us to enjoy three days of amazing power skiing, daily European lunches and runs that went forever. Although I do not use these words lightly, it was truly an epic ski vacation.

On the Le Praz gondola