Snow Safari 2007In case you're wondering why the i-boy blog has been so quiet, I've been on a bit of a snow safari.
It started last week when I flew from London to Zurich to meet up with my friend Edi Senn. First stop was the
Funny Farm (Hotel Mattenhof) in Interlaken Switzerland. I met up with Tinel who owns the hotel and set us up for the first few days. We were up on the Shilthorn and in Wengen for a couple days, and the conditions were far from ideal. Up until a few days ago, the winter season in the Alps had been pretty weak.
On Wednesday, we made tracks for Zurich to meet up with everyone for the kick-off of the
Red Bull Hike&Ride. It was my 4th year taking care of the online portion of the event, and it was another very good event.
Jean-Yves Michellod and Loris Falquet won the competition. They're the fist Swiss team to win the event, and they filmed in Zinal and Grimentz "la ou la neige est toujours bonne."
My crew filmed daily videos and posted stories and photos every day of the event from
Verbier,
Grimentz and Zinal,
Les Diablerets,
Les Portes du Soleil, and from the
Kaufleuten club in Zurich. They're all online on the
official site of the 2007 Red Bull Hike&Ride. Big shout out to
Jason Horton and Taylor Clifton from Method.tv for all the work in front of and behind the video blogging camera as well as
Edi Senn and Thomas Korosa from Greyscale.info and
Maurizio Poletto from Collettiva.
Nathan Gallager took some sick photos of the UK team including the one below. For the second year running, the Brit's video was awesome. You can find them all on the
Hike&Ride site.
Grimetz and Zinal are real local resorts, and if you want to get away from it all, I highly recommend it. I met up with
Ian Spare from SnowSlider.com (with whom I had traded emails a few times about the location), and his blog is an excellent doorway into the
Val d'Anniviers.
After working off a massive hangover from the premiere party on Sunday and a long wrap-up session for the event
at EQAL studios in Zurich, I made my way to Gargellen.
I'm blogging from the hotel bar at the
Madrisa Hotel having had 2 very nice powder days here in the Montafon valley. I love
Gargellen. The snow is always good (it dumped 50cm here in the last 2 days), and even when the place is full, there never seems to be anyone around. Yesterday, I twisted up on my Gargellen trail map in celebration of a 35-50cm bluebird day. Endless pow. All day, there were less than 10 people riding "Nidla" where the goods are hidden in plain view.
Later tonight after a nice "sportmassage" from the hotel's lovely wellness center, I'm leaving for the Hotel Hospitz in St Christoph where my friend Helmut scored us a killer deal on a room at the best hotel in town. It has been dumping in the Alberg valley as well, and given their higher altitude,l there will be plenty of pow to be found.
Thanks to
Snow-Forecast.com, I've been keeping a keen eye on the weather. As you can see, we're in for another nice storm over the next few days. It is one of the few sites I'm happy to access premium services. It is cleap and very practical.
If the weather holds, we're in for a epic few days. On powder days, the last thing you want to do is stop to take pictures, but if I take any I'll post them here.
Later,
~G~
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