A little place I call… the Alps
Have you ever had a day where you think, “This minute has got to be the highlight of my year,” but that thought comes every thirty minutes? Those are pretty great days.
Today I went skiing with several of my Olympic coworkers. Thanks to some friends in Sestriere, I learned we could obtain free ski passes for the entire Italian Alps. A bit of name-dropping (”Laurajo sent me”), I was able to get eight passes with just my accreditation. This morning, our international group met in the lobby. Joff and Tim, from England and Australia work in Commentary Control, Cabo is a camera operator from Finland, Andrea is an audio assistant from Pragelato, Italy. David, Kevin and I are camera assistants from France and the US.
To give some background on our current weather in the Piemonte region, we have had over two feet of snow in the past two days, and it was still lightly snowing this morning when we left. We got our skis in Pragelato, all day for 14 euro. Public transportation was less of a hassle than normal, and we were at the first ski lift by 10:45.
We knew that the weather had treated us perfectly, but the first ski lift ride showed us that in a way that was impossible to describe with words. It was mainly an echo of “Wow”s from each lift to the other, as we took in the trails we were passing over. Completely untouched powder, trails running dozens of directions, every tree dressed up in a white snow uniform. We were extremely fortunate to have the company of Andrea, who has been in ski clubs since he was nine, and grew up in Pragelato. He skillfully lead us across the mountains, through Sestriere, Cesana, Sansicario, and Clavier. We were a few hundred feet from the French border.
It’s really hard to describe how amazing the skiing was, and it’s frustrating because even the memory is so much more exciting than I can express. The ski lift system is great. Because there was so much snow, it wasn’t really a thing where I chose a slope to descend, only a general direction, and whether I wanted to ski down steep, packed snow, or through fresh powder in the forest. When I reached the bottom of a slope area, there was always a lift, and never a line (everybody else says queue).
I just took an hour long break in writing this to share pictures with the others who want skiing, and I am now exhausted. I wish I could further describe how great it was. Gigantic mountains always surround us, skiing above clouds, watching them move across the valley, and seeing the wind clear them away before your eyes. One trail was about 30-40 minutes long, and it was slow enough to take pictures as I was gliding down. It was on the very edge of the mountain, and through a few trees you could see at least three mountain venues, which are rather spread out.
Perhaps you are aware of a small Olympic competition called the Super G. We skied down that very course, only minutes after it had been freshly groomed. The competitions were finished at that venue, and we had the whole place to ourselves. My GPS said that I reached over 40mph. I only had one minor fall today, and it was in several feet of powder and my skis didn’t even pop off. It’s really hard to stay on your feet when you’re up to your knees in snow. It’s what I deserved for venturing off the unpacked snow.
Tomorrow is our final day of competition, although the race will be quite long. The 50km mass start will last over two hours. We begin to strike in the evening, and Monday is my last day. Hopefully I will have time and energy to write more about skiing soon, I have not been this exhausted in my entire time here, but it’s also such a great feeling. A quick transatlantic award of 20 man points to Michael George for e-mailing me an MP3, unsolicited, simply knowing how much I miss music. I really do hope to write soon, so I hope I have time tomorrow. Goodnight!