Skiing the Planet

Six Pictures

2012-03-02T14:36:00.000-08:00

Everyone has probably seen the Facebook meme on six pictures for what your friends think you do, what you think you, and what you really do. I wanted to make one for skiing:

But many of you complained that this is completely unrealistic, and that the real situation is more like this:

But people keep pointing this is still not quite right. OK, OK, I confess. Maybe this is it:

But of course, those who know me know that I drink very little if at all, and never beer. Or so I claim. I usually drink these if I can get them:

Cisco's

2012-02-28T11:41:00.000-08:00

Entrance to the Cisco's

Many of my good friends work for Cisco, the networking company. But it turns out that Cisco's is also the best restaurant & after ski bar in Andorra. Cisco's Funky Bar and Restaurant is located in Arinsal, next to one of the ski lifts for Vallnord, Andorra's most challenging ski area. We were here on a weekend trip, on site less than 48 hours but still managed to ski both in Andorra, Spain, and -- accidentally -- in France. But more on those adventures later.

Cisco technology demo, hanging from the roof

It is always difficult to know beforehand where to find the best bars. Local research is more important than browsing recommendations from the Internet. Zach did the research in this case. After two interviews a pattern started to emerge, particularly when the second opinion was given by an extreme skiing competition finalist. We saw these guys do insane things on the mountain, so perhaps they have saved all their good sense for selecting the best after-ski places. We decided to start our evening with a dinner at Cisco's.

Neon sign

Sign outside

The food is tex mex, and excellent. I recommend the chicken with the secret Cisco's sauce. Afterwards you can check out the bar in the second floor. It is small, but packed and usually hosts the most interesting skiers from the slopes.

The funky bar

Chicken with Cisco's secret sauce

Important Parameters

Cisco's can be found here. Main courses are 10-20€, a full dinner with appetizers, drinks, and dessert went for about 30€. A dinner includes a free drink at the bar later. Their staff is very friendly.

The staff has the right attitude

The T-shirts were not on sale, but we got this picture.
(The waitress wanted to remain anonymous)

Cisco's entrance

Trip to Andorra

More stories will follow, including avalanche-surfing and cliff-jumping videos from the competition, revealing the best nightclub in Andorra, and off-piste route instructions for an excursion to France. Stay tuned!

I Love Cisco's

"Come in for a Stiff One!"

Specials!

Cisco's after-ski

Posters

Two More Countries

2012-02-23T14:46:00.000-08:00

Courmayeur, Italy

I'm heading out today for a two day trip to collect Spain and Andorra. Still, plenty of other places in Europe that I have not skied in: Turkey, UK, Iceland, Denmark, Bulgaria, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, ... It still feels like the planet has an unending supply of unexplored ski destinations.

I'm doing this trip because my friend Zach happened to be going that way and it is fun to ski together. And Andorra has been on my high priority list. Also, I rarely say no to an opportunity to ski. (Except when Zach pointed out that we could participate in the extreme skiing competition that happens to take place in Andorra this weekend. No thanks. I'm only partially crazy, not a total lunatic...)

It has been a good week otherwise, too. I've already skied on two evenings in Kauniainen.

Rope skiing to avoid crevasse falls, near Monte Rosa, Italy

My upcoming trips include a family trip to Åre in early April, and possibly something in France on the last days of March and something in Slovenia in mid-April. I still wish I could organize something in Russia and Estonia. I'm wondering if Estonia could be done as a day trip from Finland. How many ski areas are there? Could they be skied in a day? Any locals reading this and willing to advice or even join such an exercise?

Graphic signs in Kirkwood, California

Oh, and does anyone have after-ski recommendations for Andorra?

Christmas tree a la Veuve Clicquot in Zermatt, Switzerland

Peuramaa II

2012-02-21T14:19:00.000-08:00

Peuramaa, Finland

A couple of days ago I went to Peuramaa, in Kirkkonummi, southern Finland. We often go there from the office after work, given that the place is just a few kilometers down the road. I've written about Peuramaa many times: it has what I call the playground for the skiers.

But I wanted to write about the place again, because I noticed something new.

We went in the evening. It was snowing, badly enough to make the traffic a chaos everywhere, making me arrive quite late. What strikes me about these visits is the darkness. The winter days in Finland are very short. Most of these small areas operate only in the evenings, as the skiers have school or work in daytime. Of course, the slopes are lit with powerful lights. But even in the middle of a bright ski slope you can see the darkness elsewhere. On many ski areas the lights have a yellow or orange tint. In Peuramaa some of the side ski slopes and small off piste routes are not very well lit. I think it is great. The scenery is wonderful and creates a special feeling. Very different from skiing on big mountains in bright sunshine.

Peuramaa

The other thing was... powder. Most of the visitors in Peuramaa are focused on the jumps and other special facilities. And those facilities are mostly in one place, even though this year Peuramaa has built a new ski slope with more jumps and rails. For some reason no one else than our group seemed interested in the other slopes with fresh snow.

As is usual in Finland, the new snow cover was not too deep, maybe 10-15 centimeters. On some wind-blown place maybe to my knees. But it was fun to ski, still. And we got to ski most of it, given that everyone else stayed near the one slope with the jumps.

Peuramaa

In the following there are a few additional low-light pictures from different ski areas:

Mt. Shasta, California

Nuuksio, Finland

Hirvensalo

2012-02-19T15:24:00.000-08:00

Bad weather day in Hirvensalo

I dropped by the Hirvensalo ski area in Turku on Sunday, when the rest of my family was still visiting Moominworld. This is a small ski area run by the local ski club, Tusla or Turun Slalom. It is only four kilometers from the Turku city center, easily accessible by city bus. It is a typical southern Finland ski area, just 60 meters high. What is nice, however, is that there is more than one parallel slope and that all the slopes are steep enough to make turns fun.

Not a good first impression, where's the ski hill?

When I was in Hirvensalo it had been snowing heavily for the whole day. Many of the ski runs were covered with fresh snow.

Åbo Hors Piste

The forests next to the slopes offer some small off piste routes. I wish I had had more time to explore these. But I started late and then burned an hour trying to put my contact lenses on. (Even after a year of using them while skiing, I still have significant trouble putting them on or taking them off.)

In any case, there is a forest with some routes on skier's far left, above the children's slope. I did not explore this area, but I did check out the forest to the skier's left of the lift that starts near the cafeteria. This is a pretty dense forest, and has some cliffs that everyone seems to avoid. But it can be skied. The other forests seemed to have some summer mountain bike trail structures that might offer interesting twists to your off-piste experience. And as always, be careful when skiing near trees; bumping into them is a bad idea.

A view of the three main ski slopes

Important Parameters

On a weekend, one hour lift ticket costs 19€ and a day ticket 29€. The cafeteria is clean and modern, and offers fast food and packaged sandwiches. There was no soup on the menu, so the Goulash index can not be calculated. But the best thing is that the cafeteria offers Pepsi Max, my favorite after ski drink!

Pepsi Max after ski!

Verdict

An excellent local hill with good services and steep runs.

Entrance

Moominworld Cliffs

2012-02-18T18:31:00.000-08:00

Skiing towards the Moominhouse

My family is very supportive of my skiing ~~obsession~~ hobby. I get to make many trips and spend a lot of weekends skiing. One of the things that I am doing in return is trying to accommodate whatever wishes the kids might have. Like my youngest son, who likes the Moomins so much that we spend as much as eight days per year at Moominworld, the theme park. This is not your typical commercial amusement park. No rides. Their main attraction is visiting the Moominhouse and hugging the Moomins. A unique place, the best amusement park that I can imagine for small kids. But the Moomin song ("muumihumppa") plays all over the place, the park is on a tiny island, and I know no one else who visits it more than a day per year.

Moominhouse

We usually make four two-day trips to the park. I try to find something to do in addition to staying in the park, to get some exercise and to not get bored. In the summer renting a bike and going around the small, beautiful town of Naantali is recommended. But now we were going in the winter.

Yes, Moominworld is open in the ski vacation period, for a week every winter. This year they are open from February 18th to 26th. Their attractions include ice skating, grilling sausages, and - you guessed it - hugging the Moomins.

This time I wanted to see if I can combine this trip with some skiing.

WARNING

This is a really stupid idea. The things that I describe below are dangerous and possibly illegal. The island of Kailo has no skiable terrain. Even if you find some, you'll be making at most one or two turns. More importantly, the island is full of cliffs, and venturing anywhere beyond the marked paths can very easily lead to major falls. I do not recommend this to anyone, and absolutely not to any kids.

Routes

The below map shows the four possible routes:

Moominworld ski routes

Official Moominworld pulkkamäki. You can find this next to the Moominhouse to the left (south) of the main walking path towards the house. This is the small kids' sled slide. Not for adults or for skiers, too many small kids toiling around.

Moominhouse descent

Moominhouse Descent. From the back of the Moominhouse there is a trail that passes first the Moomin boat and then climbs to the hill south of the house. The trail ends in the cafeteria area between the Moominhouse and Mamma's Kitchen. Just before getting to the cafeteria and to the official pulkkamäki you'll see the Moominhouse through an opening in the forest. This area slopes slightly towards the house, and can be skied. It is an easy path, except at the very end where you'll have to be careful to find a good way to come down to the yard.

Beginning of the Moominhouse descent run

Cliffs above the beach drop

Beach Drop. Another trail connects the cafeteria area to the Moominworld harbor. A bit before getting to the harbor the forest opens up to cliff areas. These cliffs can be skied down to the path that leds from the harbor to the sand beach. Aim ten meters left of the small hut on the border checkpoint between Moominworld and the beach. However, route finding is difficult, and cliff falls are a danger.

Tricky end of the beach drop run

Fence above president's cliff

Entrance to the president's cliff

President's Cliff. This is the grand off-piste of the island. In the summer, the trail from back of the Moominhouse leads to an observation deck at the highest point of the island. From here one can view the summer house of the president of Finland, across the sea.

A fence separates the platform from the cliffs that drop 15 meters to the sea. You can enter the area by going under the fence. However, route finding is extremely difficult and even the best route is basically a vertical cliff. FALL DANGER! GOING HERE IS NOT ADVISED!

But going down is not as difficult as coming up. Even in the winter, ice may not be strong enough right next to the island, so going back the same route is practically the only option. In the summer this route would probably be easily climbable, but on ice and snow it is dangerous. I got back up, but I really wished I had brought my crampons and ice axes.

President's Cliff

Not skiable

Going back up, because it was the only route

Important Parameters

Moominworld entrance is 23€ in the summer and 16€ in the winter.

The recommend hotel to stay in the area is the Naantali spa. If you have Diners Club points, staying in this five star hotel can be free. For dinner, I recommend Tammikellari. They serve snail appetizers, which are my favorite ski food.

Outdoors pool at the Naantali Spa

Signs leading to Moominworld

Kailo is about a kilometer walk from the parking areas

Recommendation

Not for skiing. This is a dangerous place. Otherwise much recommended!

Moominhouse

Out of Bounds in Les Arcs

2012-02-12T16:32:00.000-08:00

North ridge of Aiguille Grive

I was more worried about falling on that vertical wall than the police catching me, but both were real concerns. And then I caused an avalanche. This is a story about my four day trip to Les Arcs, France. With my friend Jarmo on the trip, I knew that our days would be packed full of the most difficult skiing we could find. We ended up climbing a mountain or two every day and skipping lunches because we were too busy skiing. Just the exercise I needed!

I am an outlaw. In violation of French laws and local regulations. I have not taken the national park educational course that teaches how to avoid disturbing the local fauna. The ski patrol or the even the local police could come at any moment and throw me into jail. And apparently they are very eager to do so, because it gives them an excuse to go skiing some good powder while catching such a big criminal. Even if I know how to behave in the delicate environment.

But the police are not my main worry at this point. I'm worried about the entrance to the east face of Aiguille Rouge. The rest of the slope looks skiable, but the entrance is... tricky. The entrance is an almost vertical wall, requiring side-stepping for about ten meters before the the slope levels to a more reasonable gradient. And the entrance is narrow. I am glad I have my new, shorter skis with me.

Entrance

We are somewhere between the Les Grandes Pentes off-piste and the Le Couloir du Génépy (the one closed by ministerial decree since 1991). Our local friend drops in first, making everything look easy. Then again, he spends most of his time on these slopes when he is not flying helicopters to off-shore platforms. Maybe he is more used to this than we are. We follow and eventually make it to the slope without falling, and with only mild shaking.

Climbing down, carefully

A small amount of climbing was needed to get to Les Grandes Pentes

I do not know what the scissors are doing in this sign. But just to be safe,
I'm not taking anything out of my pants to pee at this spot.

Two Kilometers of Vertical, on Every Run

Dropping on to the east side of Aiguille Rouge leads us to the open bowls of of the Reserve Naturelle des Hauts de Villaroger. There are plenty of route variations, but they all take the fall line in the beginning and later veer to the left, eventually making it to the small village, Villaroger. A few hundred meters of walking or pushing is needed before reaching Villaroger. But the payoff is huge. The vertical difference from the top of Aiguille Rouge (elev. 3226m) to Villaroger (elev. 1200m) is a whopping two kilometers. Depending on the chosen entry point into the off-piste routes, this means 1800 to 1900 meters of vertical on the out of bounds part. On one run.

Given the large space, route variations, and the location far away from the ski area, there is usually plenty of untracked snow to ski. Towards the end of the route, all paths join and become a bumpy, icy, tiresome ski run. Return to the main ski area by taking three long, slow, and very cold chair lifts (Replat, Plan des Violettes, and Droset) from Villaroger. But the upper parts of the mountain are well worth the pain. These off-piste runs are also exceptional in the sense that not much hiking is required to get to them. The Aiguille Rouge ski lift takes you to these areas, as long as you know how to switch to the other side of the ridge. Wrong route selection can lead to a bad day.

One route that I wanted to do but did not have time (or guts) is the Couloir en S. This is the most famous of the ski runs off the Aiguille Rouge. It is also 1900 meters high, but starts with a healthy 45 degree couloir for the first few hundred meters, with a need to switch between couloirs in the middle. It would have been interesting. Maybe next time.

Another entrance to this same area took us from the top of the Grand Col lift to the col, an easy climb of 100 meters. Climbing a little bit higher we can take a steeper run to the right of the col. From here we enter the Itinéraire du Grand Col, a route that takes us further into the natural reserve than what can be reached from the top of Aiguille Rouge. There is a small hut at the top of the col, as well as a possibility to stop at the Refuge de Turia. As with all the backside routes from Aiguille Rouge, route finding is difficult. You are far into the wilderness area, there are rivers to cross and forbidden areas of the natural park to avoid, and there are obviously also mountain dangers. A guide is necessary.

Views on the off-piste run from Grand Col, near the Refuge de Turia

Helicopter practice on Aiguille Grive

More helicopter practice

Aiguille Rouge Powder Fields

But the east side is not the only place on Aiguille Rouge for off-piste. The front of the mountain also offers interesting options. The most obvious route, the "Les Câbles", is straight down under the ski lift. We did not try this route, but it seems steep and interesting, though also quite quickly tracked out. The route is shown on the left on the picture below.

Aiguille Rouge routes on the front side

The route that we did try started straight down under the lift as well. After a few hundred meters we took a long traverse to the left, crossing three ridges and the Arandeliéres bowl in the middle. The route is shown on the right in the picture. The traverse is airy; the slopes underneath are rocky and steep. But at the end of the traverse there is a wide area that usually has plenty of untracked snow. Definitely worth skiing, close enough to the lifts for added safety. Avalanches and falls are a danger in this area, but it does not require quite the same self-sufficient expedition setup like the other side. Avalanche danger was only moderate or small when we were visiting Les Arcs, and having checked with the ski patrol this route was OK except for some rocks. Those rocks did some damage to my already suffering skis, however. It is hard to predict when you will hit a rock under a seemingly deep powder cover.

Off-piste under the Aiguille Rouge lift

Les Lanches

Backside of Aiguille Grive

Aiguille Grive, 2732 m, sits right next to the top of the Transarc lift. An 40-minute hike is needed to climb the 150 meters to get to the top of the main ridge of this mountain. From here you could ski back to the ski area or take one of the backside routes towards the cross country ski center in Les Lanches. The first route that we did here is shown in the picture below. We started from the top lift station (the first marker), climbed to the top of the ridge on Aiguille Grive (second marker) on the obvious route, then skied down to the bowl slightly to the right first and then down.

Aiguille Grive Off-Piste (click here for a bigger map)

When we reached the bowl, there was a couloir to the right of the beautiful peak (third marker). While skiing this couloir it is important to stay on the fall line or slightly to the right; the left side leads to impassable cliffs. At the end of the couloir, we traversed to the right, keeping roughly on the same altitude (1600 meters) until we reached Notre Dame de Vernettes, a lonely chapel built in the 1800s. This is a wonderful spot to have a lunch or break when the weather is good. We pressed on, the visibility was not good at this altitude and we had more skiing to do that day. From the chapel, keep to the right and ski upwards for twenty minutes by following the track towards the Combe ski lift (the last marker).

Climbing to the Aiguille Grive

Holy weather near the Notre Dame de Vernettes

Another run that we did here started from the top of the Grand Col chairlift. We traversed to the skier's left, skied the steep slope and crossed a bowl, and then climbed up for half an hour to reach a ridge that we followed for a while, and then skied its steep right face (the one facing Aiguille Grive). This run ends at Les Lanches.

A bus stops at Les Lanches every half an hour to take you back to the ski area. Get off at the bus stop between Peisy and La Villaret; the slow Lonzagne ski lift will transport you back to the rest of the ski areas. Like the other routes, this route is also difficult to navigate and there are dangers if you end up in wrong place. Hire a guide for this trip.

Les Lanches Off-Piste (click here for a bigger map)

The start of the Les Lanches off-piste, near the Grand Col ski lift station

Lac des Moutons, descending the west face of Commune de Haut

Views from the ridge between Combe de Commune and Combe de la Chal

Avalanche Run on Aiguille Grive

On the last day I did not have time for a major tour, so I went up on the Transarc and climbed a part of the Aiguille Grive, then traversed the face under the peak to reach the north ridge. This took about 40 minutes of climbing, and at the end I was on top of a very steep ridge. On the lowest part of the ridge there was a passage towards Vallandry. I did not take this route, but climbed a bit higher to ski back to the Grand Renard slope running towards Les Arcs 1800.

At first I had attempted to climb the rocks at the very top of the ridge, but found them too smooth to make progress with my ski boots. I reverted to walking in the snow just below the rocks, which turned out to be easy. Even if at places I felt like sinking into the snow.

Sunshine on the north ridge of Aiguille Grive

Climbing a steep ridge. The other side is a cliff.

The run from the ridge is not very high, under 100 meters. But no one had skied it before, so the snow was fresh. And the slope is steep. So steep in fact that when I skied it, the uppermost layers fell away in a series of avalanches. Small ones, I could feel them but it was clear that I was not in trouble. (And I was close enough to rescue forces should they be needed in the case of a bigger avalanche.) I was more concerned about hitting rocks under the snow which might send me cartwheeling.

Avalanche! Well, a small one.

Nevertheless, this small ridge was my best run on this trip. I wish I would have had time to do a couple more climbs. The ridge had space for dozens of attempts on fresh section of snow. In addition, I had chosen the least steep route on my first attempt, and the other ones would have been more interesting. And with some training, I could have skied at a higher speed, making the runs look better. As it was, we had an airplane to catch and had to leave.

Grand Col

Entering the Les Lanches route from Grand Col. Steep.

Important Parameters

Les Arcs can be reached by car from the Geneva airport, the drive takes about two and half hours. We stayed in the Les Arcs 1800 village. This village is recommended for its liveliest evening life. Like the other villages in this area, it was small and rather artificial, however. A cheaper option would have been to stay at Bourg Saint Maurice, the bigger town down in the valley.

This park allows you to test your avalanche rescue gear

Vegetable soup at the Cafe Bulle on the slopes costs 3.50€, half of pizza or a sandwich costs under 6€. These prices are reasonable for a ski area in France. Dinners at Les Arcs 1800 range anywhere from 10€ to 30€, depending on the choice of the restaurant.

This exciting environment needed just ten meters of climbing to get to
(but with two meters of soft snow, those ten meters took ten minutes)

You can find more information about off-piste routes in this area from pistehors and from the book Les Clés de Paradiski by Didier Givois. The book is mostly in French but has English summaries. It is available from Amazon. There is also a small list of routes in the resort worker's guide.

My camera decided to take a photo on its own

Verdict

Les Arcs is certainly worth visiting for any type of skier. For the skiers that want to stay on piste, there is plenty of variation and the area in general feels more accessible and compact than, say, Les 3 Vallees. Most of the area is for actual skiing, not for long traverses to get one place to another. For the off-piste skier, there are a large number of easily accessible routes, and the number of skiers taking the advantage of these routes is small. So plenty of snow left! Recommended. But remember to do this only if you have the equipment, expertise, and guides necessary to do it safely.

I am either about to fall, or I am testing my new 3m long skis

Views from the Helsinki-Geneva flight on FlyBe

Desperately Seeking After-Ski

2012-02-11T09:56:00.000-08:00

A morning view from our hotel room at Les Arcs

I have been spoiled. After visiting La Folie Douce, other after-ski places feel inadequate. But here I am, in Les Arcs, just a few tens of kilometers away and having a hard time finding some after-ski.

Les Arcs 1800

Red Hot Saloon

The most widely recommended place in Les Arcs is the Les Arcs 1800 village and the Red Hot Saloon bar. Even with typical party goers dancing with not one but two beer jugs in their hands, it is still not as crazy as La Folie Douce was. And it is half-empty right after a ski day, it is completely empty around 6PM, and only comes full later in the evening. Still, when it is full it seems to be a fun place. Not necessarily my type of music or crowds, however, and since I had already tested my camera for beer-proofness, I really didn't need to be around those dancing beer jugs. Time to move along...

Crowds in the Red Hot Saloon

Entrance to the Red Hot Saloon

Warm and inviting -20C terrace at the Red Hot Saloon.

Ambiente Cafe

Ambiente Cafe

I was depressed, alone and ready to hit the bed, walking towards my hotel when I saw the Ambiente Cafe. This cafe is near the Transarc ski lift station, the premier ski lift at Les Arcs. This cafe is a small place that I had just bypassed on my way to the rest of the restaurant area around Villards.

This bar was not full of crowds, either. But they had live music. Music that I liked - rock. I went wild and drank several Coke Zeros, ended up staying in the place quite a while. Recommended!

Live music at Ambiente Cafe

Other Options

I found that the resort worker's guide has the best information on Les Arcs, be it about Off-Piste or After-Ski. Consult it for further bar recommendations. I also tried the bar at our hotel, Le Grand Paradiso. They too had live music, a different band every night. But for the life of me, I can't stand very loud jazz music for more than a song or two. Ok for a quick drink, not OK for discussion, and since it was not my music I didn't want to hang out just to listen.

But our hotel also had saunas! Unfortunately these are not always available in every place that I go, but a sauna is a must for us Finns and also makes your muscles relax after a hard day of skiing. The hotel was otherwise very nice, albeit expensive. It did not matter for us so much, as we were there just for a couple of nights. But I did meet several other people who had chosen to stay in the Le Grand Hotel Paradiso for a few nights rather than in some other place for a full week.

Jazz band at Le Grand Hotel Paradiso

Saunas!

Snails. More snails. The "Snails on its few leaves" appetizer.

I am either playing the violin, or climbing the north ridge of Aigulle Grive

Spotted on the way to the ski area. No comment... and no, we didn't stop.

Snails for Speed Skiers

2012-02-02T15:59:00.000-08:00

Snails for lunch

Gotta love the French. Their country has many issues, but when it comes to the really important things, you know you can trust them. And when I say important things, I mean, food, of course.

This week I'm skiing a couple of days in Les Arcs, and we had lunch in a small cafe in the middle of the ski slopes, near the Arcabulle ski lift. Nothing special about the cafe. A modern, ugly dome construction. Too few seats inside for a cold day like we had today. The usual Coke chairs outside.

But they had Escargots de Bourgogne on the menu. And that was just one of the two snail meals they had on the menu, right next to the pizzas and sandwiches. Interestingly, this cafe is right next to the world-famous Les Arcs speed skiing track. I wonder if the speed records have been made with snail-powered lunches?

Happy skier

The cafe dome

Chairs outside, Aigulle Rouge on the background.

The snails are my favorite food, so I was delighted to have them for lunch. And we really needed the meal, it was already 2PM and we had spent the morning out of bounds on the rocky slopes of Aigulle Rouge (destroying my skis even further). And I needed a meal before a long conference call that I would have to take in the evening.

In any case, it is great that there places that serve something else than the usual hamburgers. As a result, I am proud to announce that the Les Arcs slope restaurants have earned the first ever "Approved by: The Planetskier" award. This is an honorary nomination for ski areas, bars, restaurants, or hotels that go beyond the usual. It is a prestigious distinction and only given for those establishments that provide truly exceptional service to the skiers. (Or ones that give me free stuff. I'm cheap. Anyone?)

Russian Ski Stars

2012-01-30T01:00:00.000-08:00

Алексей Логинов (Alexei Loginov)

I climbed a mountain, and found a ski movie actress from Russia on the top!

I met with Катя Коровина (Katya Korovina) and Алексей Логинов (Alexei Loginov) from powderday.ru on their mission to shoot a short movie from Les 3 Vallees for Russian viewers. Katya is Russia's #2 free skier, and judging from what we saw, Alexei is also an incredible skier.

Катя Коровина (Katya Korovina) climbing up

Here is what Katya has to say about her project, Powderday Geographics and the movie:

Access

We went up the Rocher de l'Ombre, a small peak between the Grand Couloir in Courchevel and the the Saulire gondola ground station. The Rocher de l'Ombre ski lift ends at the bottom of this peak, but it is best to approach the peak from above, by taking either the Saulire or Grand Couloir ski runs. After coming down the Grand Couloir, turn slightly left to reach a pass between the towering mountains and couloirs on your left side and the smaller Rocher de l'Ombre on your right side.

I think the Russians intended to ski the other, front side of Rocher de l'Ombre, but when I peered over the knife edge ridge, it just looked too rough for anyone. Mostly rock, only patches of snow. In the end, the film crew skied the backside just like I did.

Rocher de l'Ombre, with the Courchevel village behind

Talking with the powderday.ru crew

Skiing down on soft powder

As a side note, this area is some of the best off-piste skiing in Les 3 Vallees, at least when considering areas that are easily accessible and visible from the ski runs.

The Grand Couloir is true to the normal use of this name and is the easiest run. I wish I'd have had time to do it, though. I have done the Sous Pylons after a big snow dump, and it was incredible, if short. Perhaps I will have them on some future trip to do all the couloirs that are easily skiable. This link gives an excellent overview of the couloirs in the Saulire area.

The difference between having balls and style (left) and not having them (right)

More Powderday.ru Videos

Here is one video from Powderday.ru. Incredible skiing!

Photo and video credits (c) 2012 by Jari Arkko and Ari Keränen. Vimeo video credits by powderday.ru.

Magnifique Après-Ski!

2012-01-29T05:16:00.000-08:00

The essence of La Folie Douce

France. The traditional wisdom is that France is not the country for great after-ski. The Austrians can do it. The Swedes can do it. The French can not.

Except in La Folie Douce, situated a lift ride above Val Thorens at 2600 meters. This bar boasts to have the dance floor on top of the world. There are higher dance floors elsewhere, but not with this kind of action and intensity, or with the crowds. Even on a mid week bad weather day in off-season, their large terrace is packed. On a better day even the nearby hills fill up with people who want to join the party and listen to the music show.

Mister FLUOOOoooh, the MC

When we asked around for after-ski recommendations in other Les 3 Vallees villages, we got blank stares. After-ski? Even the bartenders in our own village said that they did not know any good after-ski places. How can a bartender not even suggest their own bar as a good after-ski place? This just shows how bad after-ski is in France. However, after a while a pattern started to emerge. Most people that we asked from pointed us towards Val Thorens. The Internet told us that La Folie Douce is the place.

As we descend towards the site from higher up in heavy fog, we can barely see the next piste markers. But the music begins to emerge from the fog. We no longer need the markers, we can just ski towards the sound.

Me, dancing on a table. Sort of.

The nearby mountains provide a convenient overflow area for the party

The Show

La Folie Douce runs a music show complete with singing MCs, saxophone players, dance girls, and champagne showers. On our visit, Mister FLUOOOoooh was acting as the MC and Fabien Kisoka was on the sax. The dance girls are from the audience.

Mister FLUOOOoooh, with a dancer from the audience

The saxophone player, Fabien Kisoka

Action on the Dance Floor. Table.

While La Folie Douce is at 2600 meters, the dance floor is in practice at 2601 meters, given that most of the people are dancing on tables. The tables are extremely slippery, however, particularly for ski boots. I was not afraid of falling while skiing on my trip, but I was afraid falling down from the tables. I was glad that I had a helmet on, but I missed my back protector. Oh well, at least I had my big backpack (complete with shovels and other necessary bar gear) with me.

And if you decide to stay on the floor for safety, be aware that there might be stage divers to the crowds below or falling table dancers. And since about half of the dancers seem to be hanging on to bottles of alcohol, there is always the danger of beverages raining on you. I had my new camera tested here for beer-proofness. The test passed.

There's usually someone either on stage or on the floor who strips semi-naked. I decided to not include too many of those pictures or videos on this blog, but you can find plenty of material about this place in the Internet.

Proper equipment for the after-ski?

The bar serves alcohol

Access

Entrance to the bar is free, but they occasionally check backpacks for alcohol. The checks seem inefficient, given the number of people drinking from their own hard liquor bottles.

You should also be aware that since the bar is not in the village, people have to ski back to Val Thorens, often after having spent a couple of hours drinking that hard liquor. This presents some dangers. On our exit from the bar we were hit by a stray snowboard. Luckily no one was hurt. Be aware of the dangers, however, and look around you. Do not stay in this area longer than you have to.

Are you ready? Are you READY? ARE YOU READY?

If you are not staying in Val Thorens, getting back to your own area is a problem. The Bouquetin telecabine starts next to the bar, but the last run is at 4:30 pm. You have to take this if you need to get back to Meribel. There is no backup bus transport, and the taxi for that 60 kilometer trip will be expensive.

If you are staying further down in the valley, for instance in Les Menuires, then you can ski down from Val Thorens by taking the Plein Sud, Cairn, and Bd Cumin and ski trails. Even then, if you leave when the bar finally closes, the darkness and an army of snowcats may make the trip uncomfortable. In addition, when you reach Les Menuires you will be at the bottom of the valley and the lifts will not be operating. My recommendation is to step up to the road near the Reberty and Masse 1 lifts and wait for the local bus. This succeeded for us on two nights out of three. On the third time my friends had to walk up an hour to reach our cabin.

Another option for going back to Les Menuires was to take the Bouquetin ski lift and then ski down either the Alpage or David Douillet ski runs to reach the different ends of the Les Menuires village.

The bar is easily reached from Val Thorens by ski lifts

Essential Parameters

The party begins at 2 pm every day, and runs until about 5 pm. Champagne glasses are 10 €, beers 6 €, diet Cokes 5 €. They also serve food, but I did not try it. There is also a VIP area for those guests that prefer to pay more and avoid the crowded terrace.

Champagne, 140 € per bottle

Or, get it for free

Recommendation

This is the place for after-ski in Les 3 Vallees and even the entire France. Possibly the best after-ski place in the world. I certainly have not seen anything like this before, but I confess that I still have a few after-ski bars to test. You might want to go to Val Thorens just for this, even if you don't care about the great skiing in the Les 3 Vallees area.

More champagne

Fun in the Alps

2012-01-22T15:49:00.000-08:00

Early morning view from our cottage

I am spending a few days in Les 3 Vallees with friends from work. We just arrived to the site despite many troubles on the way (more on those later), but I wanted to send a couple of pictures. And a link to an awesome video from Mikko Alatalo featuring 80's fashion and other goodies on the topic of going to the Alps:

Our cottage in Les Menuires, Les 3 Vallees

"Baguette Finlandaise": costs more, otherwise the same?

Seasons Pass!

2012-01-15T10:01:00.000-08:00

This is how we do seasons tickets in Kauniainen

I have a seasons pass! ... for Kauniainen. Getting one makes sense if I go to my local hill at least ten times this season. I'm thinking that if I have a ticket I'll be more likely to drop by in the evenings, instead of going swimming or walking. That's a good thing, as I have realized that I need to get into better shape and do more sports on a daily basis. Being able to ski will help with the motivation for that.

But as I went to the ski slope today, I was scared more than I have been in a long time. Not due to dangerous off-piste adventures ahead, but due to testing gear. I have a new helmet, new pants, and most importantly, new touring skis, boots, and skins with lightweight but suspicious looking Dynafit bindings. I did not want to blow a knee when I have two big ski trips coming up in couple of days. I've never skied with Dynafit bindings before, so this was a first. And the system is indeed worrisome. According to Dynafit, this particular binding is "the lightest freeride binding in the world", at only 530 g per pair. I do not plan to ski on these skis normally, they are reserved for those occasions where I have to climb up big mountains on my own. They are optimized for that, not for descents or for aggressive skiing. Go up light, come back carefully. As expected, I found that going up with the new skis and skins worked well, never had it so easy before. The skins stick to the skis perfectly, yet I can edge where needed. Going up steep slopes is no problem. And it felt effortless. Granted, Kauniainen is only 50 meters high, but still.

Top of Kauniainen

The downside, however, is that the bindings are not as adjustable and flexible for ski release for the downhill part. I realized that I still have some work to do to learn how to adjust mine in the right way. Another downside is that the Dynafit system is not compatible with usual boots and bindings. So whenever I take these skis, I also have to take special boots. Unless I'm particularly planning to just climb big mountains, that usually means taking two sets of skis and boots on a trip.

Snowmaking in the progress, still

I was also scared for another reason. The slope opened yesterday and I had understood that even today they would not be open until later in the day. This would work well for me, as I could go up without having to worry about the hundred kids from the ski school. However, as you know I've been visiting this ski slope at inappropriate times before, and a couple of days ago there was a serious accident when some drunken person went to the ski slope in the night, and, after attempting to climb to a moving snow cat, was seriously injured. The ski area personnel might not look so leniently on off-hour visits any more. I hope the injured guy recovers well. And to all kids & stupid adults (like myself): lets be careful out there. Use your brain. Stay away from moving machinery, avalanche-prone slopes, cliffs and anything else that might hurt you. Stay in control at all times, know what you are doing, look around, and go slow when needed. Even on open slopes. And use protective gear, for your head and back.

Fortunately, the area was already open by the time I got there.

My new helmet is Atomic Xeed. It replaces a helmet that I bought for 30€ from Lidl that is getting too worn out. But it was a surprisingly good helmet, nevertheless. The new pants are replacing my Halti pants which, after 15 years, have too many holes in them.

New skis and skins

Strictly speaking, the skis are not new, I already bought them some months ago. But this was their first test. I also had my ski shop modify the K2 "Backside - tools for adventure" skins for the K2 superlights. These skis are an old, lightweight and narrow ski model and the new skins do not normally fit them. Moreover, K2 skins have are not easily modified as they attachments are sewn. But the shop found some spare parts to make the modifications. The result was very good. If you are looking for an expert ski shop in the Helsinki area, Skiservice should be your choice.

And big news on the food side, too! This year, "Cafe Alpenhütte" has soup in their menu. At 3.5€, their Goulash index competes well with most western ski areas. Take Zillertal in Austria, for instance. They may boast a 1600 meter vertical compared to Kauniainen's 50 meters, but hey, even if Zillertal is one of the cheapest places food-wise in western Europe, their soup still costs 1€ more than in Kauniainen. As this cafeteria will also serve "pinaattilätyt" (spinach pancakes), "makaronilaatikko" (macaroni casserole), and luomulimu (ecological soft drink) it is clearly the destination for the gourmet traveler.

Menu at Grani

Fortress Islands

2012-01-08T09:09:00.000-08:00

King's gate

This makes absolutely no sense. Spending four hours to make one run down a hill of ten meters. And destroying my skis in the process.

Yet, it makes perfect sense. I am in Suomenlinna, a fortress island outside Helsinki. Suomenlinna is one of the most beautiful places in Helsinki and a particularly good place for photography in snowy winter nights. Moreover, I really needed the exercise and I could not motivate myself to go out to the darkness unless there was something interesting.

Boat to Suomenlinna

Finally, I have not skied in Suomenlinna yet. I could add it to my list. And grow my list of vehicles I have used to get to slopes. That list already contains shoes, snowshoes, skis, cars, trains, ski lifts, snow cats, helicopters and horses. But no boats.

Suomenlinna harbor tunnel

Lights for the ships that squeeze through Kustaanmiekka

Fortress Islands

The fortress islands are a preserved, UNESCO world heritage site with fortifications. Their beginnings date back the year 1748, when the construction began. Regurlarly scheduled boats - part of the city public transport system - take you to islands for 2.20€.

In the summer the islands are a green oasis full of tourists. In the winter... they are a dark, lonely and cold place. My kind of place. I see a few people near the harbour, but there is absolutely no one else on the big island that has the hills. Except a few lit castle windows. Probably one of the few people who live here. Or maybe a ghost of a dead soldier. Or a guard that is about come and stop me.

The brewery building next to the harbor

Skiing

The first view to my ski slope was full darkness:

Dark, very dark ski slope

There are small hills on the biggest island, the Susisaari/Kustaanmiekka area. Most of the hills are man-made, the one that I skied houses a bunker, for instance. Highest altitudes from sea are around 20 meters, but my hill was only about 10.

Preparing for the skiing after the long climb

Since this was the first day that Suomenlinna had snow this year, snow cover was ... minimal, maybe 3-4 centimeters. I thought it would be enough to ski on the grass, and the hill that I chose seemed optimal for this purpose. But when I made my first turns on the steep part of the hill there wwas a loud screeching noise. My skis would soon require servicing, again. I wonder if there's any material left in the bottom of my skis.

Even my small hill was interesting, very steep. But with more snow, there would be far more interesting skiing and snowboarding places. You could ski the rocky hills towards the sea, jump from the fortifications, and do many other interesting tricks. Take powder skiing pictures as you ski through castle window holes, ski in front of huge cruise ships, etc. Maybe I should come back when the winter gets really going!

Danger, Will Robinson!

A warning is necessary. Suomenlinna is a dangerous place. There are natural cliffs, man-made sudden drops (such as grassy field suddenly ending in a ten meter fall), rails, old gun fittings, sea, slippery rocks. If you come here to ski, or even to just picnic, please be aware of your surroundings. Watch your kids.

My tracks on the hill

Practicalities

The current weather in Suomenlinna along with a webcam can be found here. Suomenlinna can also be reached through a tunnel, but the entrances are hidden and only open for emergency vehicles. (Still, years ago tunnel trespassing was one of my hobbies...)

Afterski

There aren't too many other skiers, if any. Or ever. But Suomenlinna has a nice restaurant, Suomenlinnan Panimo. They brew their own beer and offer reasonably priced meals. An extremely pricy restaurant, Walhalla, is on the Kustaanmiekka area. However, I can recommend the Siwa shop near the harbor for most purposes. A picnic meal in the island is the greatest option, at least when the weather is nice.

Brewery building

Chilly boat ride on a winter evening

Helsinki city center views from the harbor

Chasing Bears and Powder in Alaska

2012-01-04T08:20:00.000-08:00

Alaska. My friend TJ was surprised that I would fly as far as Alaska to do a side tour on my round the world business trip. I told him that from my perspective, Alaska is close by if I'm already stopping in California. But as I was sitting for sixth hour in the Alaska Airlines plane bound for Anchorage it started to dawn on my that TJ may have had a point. Alaska is far away.

But the moment I stepped out from the airplane I felt like home. The air outside tasted frosty, snow made everything beautiful, the cars were making the same noise as they traveled over frozen ice contours in the road. And the same dark emptiness, not many people around. All this is like Finland. No, I take it back. This is how Finland should be. Better than home! None of those global warming signs. Realiable snow for Christmas. Reliable snow for November. The Christmas part seems exceptionally important, as I am writing this blog couple of days before Christmas and its noon, it is dark, and it is raining heavily in Kauniainen, Finland.

An evening view to the valley from Alyeska mountain

No, Alaska is better. I did not change my mind about this even when another friend told me that Alaska is the redneck capital of the world. I felt I fit in nicely. What was his problem? The state is known for intelligent educators who can simply complex topics such as history or the Internet ("series of tubes") for the common man.

I was not going to feed myself the bears

Night skiing in Alyeska

Alyeska

But back to skiing. I was destined for Alyeska, the top ski resort in the state. No, make that the only ski resort in the state, at least if you only count large ones. There are a few small ski areas, but Alyeska is the only large commercial operation. Then there are of course countless mountains to take on your own or with the assistance of helicopters, snow cats, snow mobiles, or dog sleds. My long business trip had made me too tired to even consider such extreme activities so I was headed to Alyeska instead. Actually, to be honest, I did ask but all such operations were still closed at that time of the year.

Ski area entrance at night

Alyeska sits on the famous Chugach mountain range, an hour's drive from the Anchorage airport. The village is close to sea level but next to Mount Alyeska. It has 760 meters of lift-served vertical. A kilometer if you are ready to hike to the Headwall. Alyeska gets over 16 meters of snow on the average, per year.

This snowfall was very visible on my visit. It was the opening day for the ski area, and I was worried they might delay the opening. But there was plenty of snow, including half a meter of powder that had just arrived. On subsequent days we got a daily dose 20 centimeters of fresh, dry powder snow.

Gondola at Alyeska

Alyeska has one gondola from the base on the Alyeska hotel side to almost to the top of the mountain, only Chair 6 runs higher. This is a good for the first-lift-of-the-powder-day or for bad weather days, but otherwise the chair lifts are a faster way to get up the mountain. There are altogether only six chair lifts and two magic carpets, but the lifts still lead to over 70 different runs.

My love for Alaska took a big hit when I saw one of the lifts, the "Finnland" magic carpet. They named the kids lift according to my country, and with two n's to boot. You could argue that the small lift was roughly the size of the biggest ski hills in Finland, but still. I'm expecting the diplomatic ties between Finland and Alaska to be broken any day now for this. Or maybe a quick military invasion? Alaska is kind of disconnected from the rest of the US anyway, and together Finland and Alaska could form the strongest nation of rednecks in the world. And be much smarter about naming our ski lifts.

The root cause of the diplomatic incident between Finland and Alaska

Traveling up the "Finnland"

Skiing

The ski area consists of the upper and lower bowl areas where a majority of the ski runs are, and the headwall and north face areas where most of the interesting extreme skiing is at. Unfortunately, the latter two areas were not yet open on the early days of the season. The direct runs on the north face seemed skiable and I did consider skiing them on my last day, just to limit the damage from that eventual pulling of my lift ticket if the snow patrol would catch me. But I decided against it, mostly because I was alone, and because route finding through the woods seemed challenging. And because of the bears. The sign at the base warned against skiing closer than 300 meters to bears. I did not want to hit a bumb on that run and wake up a bear sleeping underneath.

Even so, the open areas provided some excellent skiing as well. The lower bowl is mostly traditional ski slopes cut through the woods, although there are a couple of areas where you can ski through the wooded areas as well. Good skiing, excellent snow, but nothing special. The upper bowl, on the other hand, offered very interesting skiing through the cliffs and steep bush areas around Chair 6. Oddly enough, there are plenty of short, marked couloir black diamond runs in the area that is marked as blue in the ski area map. This is an area where the powder stayed on for the longest time. But it also challenges both your skiing and route finding abilities.

One of the many black diamond runs in the upper bowl

Route finding was made more difficult due to the sometimes cloudy weather. Strangely, the area was easiest to ski in the evening, when artificial lightning lit up the slopes. Skiing in Alyeska reminded me of skiing high up north in Finland. It is very cold and dark. The first lift runs at 10 AM when it is becoming lighter and warmer, but they run all the way to 6 PM on artificial light.

This is as high as the sun gets in Alaska

A view from the North Face side of the mountain

Ski patrol hut in the dusk (2PM)

Chilly ski lifts

Evening ski lift ride

My kind of ski area

I skied through this slope on the next run

Important Parameters

The base elevation at Alyeska is only 76 meters. The highest ski lift, Chair 6, takes you to 840 meters.

There are only a few accommodation options in the village. For convenience and to relax after arduous meetings, I chose to stay at the main hotel, Hotel Alyeska. This is a great location, as you can walk straight to the gondola from the hotel and the main restaurants and bars are inside. However, it is also very expensive. But it is a five star facility, my room was better than almost any other hotel room I've been at in the western world. Maybe from that perspective 140$ per night was not that excessive. Luckily I stayed only a couple of nights. For comparison, I am going soon to Les 3 Vallees with friends from work, and we are paying roughly the same sum for the accommodation per week as I was paying here per night.

It is comfortable at Alyeska hotel, even sitting outside

Transport from the airport to the ski area is not very convenient, because of the long way and because the only available options are rental cars and taxis. One way taxi fare to Alyeska is 90$.

There seemed to be an excessive number of accidents in the ski area. Almost every time I got out of the ski lift, the patrol was taking yet another rescue sled into use. This seemed to be mostly some people who did not know to ski at all, perhaps the opening days and the thanksgiving weekend had something to do with. And despite a relatively small number of people on the mountain, there were a few bottlenecks where reckless speeding had caused accidents. Hopefully no one was seriously injured, however. And the patrol was taking their job very seriously, one one of the bottlenecks they had several people checking skier speeds and warning the ones that were skiing too fast. I wish more ski areas did that.

Yet another ambulance

In the winter months Chugach Powder Guides runs a heliskiing service around Alyeska. Similarly, there are organized snowcat tours. These services can be week-long dedicated trips, or day trips where you stay at the resort otherwise. As is usual in North America, the prices for these services are exorbitant. You have to be rich to afford to pay 5 000$ to 10 000$ for a week of heliskiing, or 1000+$ for a day trip. Read my future blog entry to find out where to go in the world to do the same at a fraction of this cost.

Afterski

Alcohol freezes beyond this point?

Verdict

I rate Alyeska as one of the great ski destinations in North America. Not at the same level as Whistler-Blackcomb or Jackson Hole, but certainly comparable to Snowbird, Squaw Valley, Breckendridge and many other well known places. The long travel is an obvious downside. And Alyeska is only one lone area. If you get bored in Snowbird (but why would you?) you could drop by neighboring Alta. There is no such option in Alyeska. And based on my experience with skiing in Northern Finland, it is probably similarly cold in the middle of winter in the Alyeska.

It is cold and dark in Alaska. Very cold.

But the good things about Alyeska are:

Plenty of snow, through three seasons.
Enough challenging terrain, and easy access to double black runs.
Also plenty of intermediate and beginner ski runs.
The best snow cat, ski touring, and heliskiing options in Northern America.
Lifts, hotels and other facilities that are of excellent quality, second to no one else on this continent.
The weather, nature, and feeling in this place is different from most other places in North America. You really feel you are far in the north.

Still, as I was visiting Alyeska I only met Alaska locals. I did not even meet anyone out of state, let alone anyone from some other country. Alyeska is the undiscovered gem of North American skiing. Do visit it some day.

Sarah Palin paper dolls. Recommended souvenir from the Anchorage airport.

Alaska. They have humor, too.

Skiing the Garbage Hill

2012-01-02T15:17:00.000-08:00

Getting high in Helsinki

Janne and I skied the Garbage Hill today. Garbage Hill (jätemäki), or Malminkartanon huippu as it is officially called is the highest point in Helsinki, 90 meters above the sea level. The city's longest stairs, 426 steps took us to the top. The reason for the hill's name is that it is completely man-made. It has been the dumping ground for excess dirt since the 1970s.

It started snowing today, and by now the snow depth is about two inches. Not enough to ski the steep forested parts of the hill, but enough to slide through the walking path. The winds at the top were fierce, however.

Skiing here can be quite good if the conditions are right. Think one meter of powder on a good year (but we just had two, need to wait a couple of decades for the next ones).

Obviously our visit to Garbage Hill today was not that great skiing, but okay for an evening's outdoors exercise. Plus I needed to test my new camera.

I have some ideas for further trips near Helsinki that are perhaps more interesting. Contact me if you want to join.

Cool boot fitting exercise at the top


Stairway to heaven

Bono, Have You Been to Africa?

2011-12-26T03:05:00.000-08:00


Lesotho

During the Christmas time, the radio stations keep playing the old charity song "Do They Know It Is Christmas Time". Bono sings:

"And there won't be any snow in Africa this Christmas time."

Well, duh. First off, there isn't much of a winter anyway when much of the continent is near the equator. But more interestingly, a big part of the continent is on the southern hemisphere. Winter lasts from June to August. Even in areas on the equator, like Kenya, the warmest time is February-March and coolest July-August. It is only far up in the north end where winter comings at the same time as in Europe.

So, dude, there is no snow in Africa because you have the wrong time of the year. And its a damn warm place anyway, you'll find snow only at the far ends or at the highest mountain tops.

There. I feel better now.

Photo credits (c) 2011 by Jari Arkko and Tero Kivinen. Video credits by YouTube and Mercury Records Limited

Frost Is Enough

2011-12-24T07:35:00.000-08:00

Holiday season decorations at family Arkko

First and Last and Always is not just an album from Sisters of Mercy, but also my approach to skiing on the local hill. In May, I was the last person to ski there. Now I am about to be the first one to ski it this winter. The plan was great: we walked through the slope on the previous evening, and the scenery was absolutely beautiful. An inch of snow on the ground, all plants covered by frost, bright artificial lights lighting up the scene. All I need is grass and some frost. The slope should be skiable

Except that the as we arrived to the hill the next day, the frost was gone. The snow was also disappearing fast, given the rain and the warm temperature. Oh well, the slope would probably still be skiable, even if it was not as pretty as it had been on the previous day.

Janne

Janne and I started climbing. Janne, 9 years, wants to lead, and wants to be the first one to ski the hill down this winter. Who does he get those crazy ideas from?

A view of the ski hill in Kauniainen

As we reach the top, it turns that the skiing is not easy. There is too little snow. Hidden in the grass there are recently cut stumps of small trees and bushes. Not to mention rocks, abandoned flower pots, and water lines for snow making. Turning is not easy. And where there is enough snow from the snow cannons, it has formed crusty shapes that are not easy to ski either.

Skiing the grass and everything it hides

We do make it down, however, and return to the top a couple of times.

My friend Jarmo also shows up, not with his skis but to take a few of the pictures in this blog. (He is acting like any responsible ski owner. No sane person would take his own skis to this slope.)

My traditional Christmas skiing session is complete. And my skis are still relatively unscathed. All is well, I'm ready for Christmas and there is still couple of hours left of December 23rd to do all that Christmas shopping.

The lesson? When the conditions are perfect, drop everything else and go skiing. The next day rain or some other reason may make it impossible.

Climbing up

There was more snow near the snow cannons

The Snow Machine

2011-12-14T14:59:00.000-08:00

The tube that brings the snow

My plan was to go to Nagano, the area for premier ski resorts in Japan, but the webcams looked depressing. A call to a hotel in the area confirmed that there was no skiing, despite claims otherwise on their websites. But my flights were set, so I was to stay the weekend in Japan, snow or no snow. I knew there were several indoor ski halls, but I had already gotten enough from indoor skiing recently in Beijing, Peer, Neuss, and Hong Kong. Desperation sets in. Could I fly to Hokkaido? Are there are any other open ski areas in Japan?

Fortunately, my friend Itsuma came to the rescue. He pointed out a small ski area of Karuizawa, 200 kilometers from Tokyo and 80 kilometers from Nagano. It is open. For real. I make the decision to go.

Of course, going was not that easy. I am carrying almost 70 kilos of luggage, I have no clue about the language, and the trip involves buying tickets, making seat reservations, and changing trains. But Itsuma comes to the rescue again. He prepares a slide set to guide me through the journey, complete with relevant excerpts from timetables, suggested routes through the central station, and pictures. (Thank you!) This is yet another example how nice people are in Japan. Always willing to help and always smiling. What a nice country to visit!

Armed with a printout of the slides and some local currency I find my way through the system and after a few hours arrive at the Karuizawa train station. It is raining, but I can already see the ski slopes!

Karuizawa ski slope

Karuizawa

When I manage to carry my heavy load out of the station, I spot Karuizawa Prince Hotel's minivan. Perfect. They can take me to the hotel. I end up using these small cars six or seven times during my visit, usually carrying just me, leaving in a couple of minutes after I ask for a ride, costing nothing, and the guys even carry my skis from the lift to the parking lot. I guess these services are part of my stay at this expensive hotel at 250€/night. Oh well, this is probably still less than I would have paid if I had stayed in a hotel near Tokyo. And I'm glad I'm here only for one night.

Strangely enough, the hotel and town are full of people. And they do not appear to be dressed for sports. It turns out that Karuizawa's main attraction is not skiing but shopping. The town center is one big shopping area, apparently specializing on fashion.

Narrow a course

The Ski Area

The ski area has two chair lifts and two runs open, but the rest of the mountain is completely free of snow. No wonder, given that it is +15 Celsius and raining heavily. But how did they manage to open the two slopes, then? The answer is in the snow machines. Karuizawa does not employ usual snow cannons that require freezing temperatures to operate. They employ gigantic ice machines that manufacture snow no matter what the temperature is outside. The machines are placed in containers around the mountain.

Snow spray

I was not able to determine what was inside the containers, but various cooling and vacuum techniques have been used elsewhere in the world. The vacuum ice maker technology is particularly interesting. It works by exposing cold water to vacuum, forcing some of the water to evaporate and the remaining part to partially froze. The resulting frozen slush can be separated to cold water that can be fed back into the process, while the ice particles can be blown out to the slopes through long tubes.

More tubes

Karuizawa is able to keep two slopes open with this technology. The slopes are small, just 40 meters of altitude difference. Both slopes are served by a chair lift.

I think I understand what they are trying to say

In the winter Karuizawa is a more reasonable ski area, with a 215 meter altitude difference and 11 different slopes. The longest slope is one kilometer, and the steepest slope goes up to 30 degrees inclination.

Sunny day at Karuizawa

More snow

Skiing

Given that the two open slopes are small, the skiing is not very interesting. But it still feels good to ski outside. The snow making system provides some additional entertainment, as it tends to generate high snow dunes where the tube ends. These forms are fun bases for jumps.

In good weather and during weekends there are long lift lines. When it is raining cats and dogs... not so many lines.

Snow is piling up

A couple of kilometers from the ski area resides the mighty 2568-meter Mt. Asama. This is an active volcano, last erupted in 2009. It would be a tempting ski descent destination for volcano skiers, but can only be done in the winter, if at all. There seems to be very little information about skiing this mountain in the Internet.

Lift lines at Karuizawa

Important Parameters

It feels like spring outside the hotel

As far as I was able to determine, the Karuizawa Prince Hotel is the only accommodation next to the slopes. The hotel exists in two parts, the East and West hotel. The East one is closer to the small slopes that were open and also houses the local spa. I did not visit the East one, but I liked the West one.

The main building at the base of the Karuizawa ski area

On-slope food is available in the restaurant next to the base building. Interestingly, while the kitchen is staffed with waitresses that bring the food out, the ordering process takes place through a machine. A soup costs 500-600 Yen, or 5-6 €.

Press here for food

Two items of ancient technology appeared from the darkness

You can take the high-speed Shinkansen train from Tokyo main station to Karuizawa, the trip takes roughly an hour and is very comfortable.

My train has a bigger nose than yours

Helpful signs make it easy to choose the right style nose for your train

Ski Destination Japan

Japan would be great ski destination, except that I am here too early for the season. The most interesting skiing is around Nagano, the site of the 1998 winter olympics. The area that I wanted to visit in Nagano was Happo One. Alternative, there is good skiing on the island of Hokkaido in the north.

Afterski

Really. I had a lot of fun in the afterski at the Marron bar at the Karuizawa Prince West Hotel. However, I was all alone. Not recommended. It is possible that there would have been more interesting bars in the shopping center, however. By the time that I realized there is no one in the bar, I was too tired to walk back to the shopping center. Sleeping is good way to spend your evenings, too.

Busy bar scene

Epilogue

I have now skied in 38 different countries or states. As I am writing this, I'm sitting in the Haneida airport in Japan, waiting for a flight that takes me to North America for business and a new state to be conquered on skis. Incidentally, I looked at my itinerary two minutes after Narita Express had closed its doors, and ended up on the wrong airport. Luckily I had enough time for the extra two hour detour by bus.

My transport back to the right airport

One of the many sunrises on this trip

Snowtube

2011-11-21T07:15:00.000-08:00

Slope Infinity

2011-11-12T09:27:00.000-08:00

Practicing skiing on the trainer. This was surprisingly hard.

I am feeling more than a bit silly. A moment ago I was walking in the streets of Hong Kong, carrying my skis, wearing my ski pants and feeling a little bit silly. The outfit did not fit in the hot and humid city streets and it was inconvenient to carry the skis in the crowd. But now it turned out that I can not use the skis at Slope Infinity. And it was also warm, so shorts or other light pants would be have been a better idea than the ski clothing.

Slope Infinity is at 148 Electric Street, Hong Kong

Oh well, I have already gotten plenty of experience from feeling silly and being looked at on the streets. What is that guy doing?

But what is important is that Slope Infinity was open. This is half an hour earlier than they would normally open, but they were kind enough to open it earlier so that I could do a test run and still make it to my flight out of Hong Kong. This was my first visit to Hong Kong, lasting eight hours (including a night). Clearly, the most important thing to do was to try the skiing.

The bottom surface of the skis

So what is Slope Infinity? As the name says, it is an opportunity to do an infinitely long ski run. I soon found out that my muscles are not trained for infinite use, however. The set up is basically a downward sloping treadmill, a fast moving plastic carpet. This is something that I had not seen before and I thought I had already tried all kinds of indoor skiing. It is an attractive setup because it takes only a small amount of space, needs no refrigeration and can be controlled in various ways to find a suitable speed and steepness for the skiers.

But it is also special in many ways. The feeling is different, like going to a gym instead of the mountains.

More importantly, the plastic carpet sticks harder to skis than snow. The first implication is that regular skis cannot be used. Slope Infinity uses special skis that have minimal friction on this surface. Regular skis would be in danger of melting on these slopes.

The second implication is that your handling of the skis and turns will be different. If you are not careful, the carpet can catch your ski and drag it backwards, making you fall. Turns have to be done very carefully, at least when the carpet is running at a high speed.

Finally, no ski lifts are needed. If you need to go up the slope, put your skis in snowplow mode, or turn sideways to the slope. The moving carpet will take you upwards.

Skiing on the big slope. Skier: Anthony, my instructor.

Slope Infinity has two slopes. At first I thought that the big, main slope was the interesting one. But it turns out that it runs at a relatively slow pace and is at a relatively shallow angle. You can make some turns, but they will be slow. I found the small trainer slope far more interesting. A challenge, in fact. The trainer is a treadmill-size slope where you attach yourself to harness from the roof to prevent falls from taking you to the dangerous end of the carpet. There is a handrail right in front and behind you, so movements will not be big. But the angle and speed of this trainer slope can be adjusted, and at least for a beginner on plastic slopes, it can be made to run very fast. It was a challenge for me to keep myself out of the handrails and not letting the carpet yank skis from me.

I can imagine that skiing regularly on the trainer would improve my skiing. Snow is so forgiving that using the trainer would force me to pay more attention to exactly how I use my skis. Even if the specific moves differ a bit between snow and carpet, for instance on the carpet we do not edge the skis very much.

You can go up with the snowplow technique, stopping the sliding

The big slope has another use, however. It is a good platform for teaching kids and beginners, given its gentle angle and speed. Two small kids entered the slope right after I had left it, and seemed to be learning quite well.

A whopping 2 meter altitude difference

Important Parameters

My half an hour in the slope cost 460 HK$ or about 43 €. This is not cheap, but it is a very special experience and comes with a personal instructor who guides you to the right moves. Compare this price to the cost of renting equipment and a ski instructor. For repeat customers that do not need the instructor, an hour at the training slope costs 290 HK$, which is a very reasonable price.

I am skiing on the big slope

Slope Infinity is at 148 Electric Road, Hong Kong. I stayed the night in the nearby Causeway Bay Empire Hotel at a typical big city hotel price, though in my case I had to stay somewhere during the weekend anyway on my three week long business trip, and the other options were in similar or even more expensive large cities.

The main ski slope - or is this the beginner run?

I had no time to eat anything while in Hong Kong, so I cannot report on what the Hong Kong Goulash index might be. In general, everything else except hotels should be relatively cheap here, however. I'm guessing there is no special after ski, given that almost no one seemed to know about Slope Infinity in the surrounding areas. The hotel staff had not heard about this place, for instance (but they have now).

Recommendation

Slope Infinity is a specialty in the ski world, for sure. But it is an opportunity to ski in an otherwise snow free part of the world. I would come back if I have future trips to Hong Kong. In particular, I liked the friendly staff, the ability to use the trainer for improving your ski technique, and the challenge that makes skiing on the trainer harder than on snow.

Entrance to Slope Infinity

Taxi ride with skis. This is starting to become a familiar exercise.

Opening Tour

2011-11-06T14:11:00.000-08:00

My plans for the round the world trip have solidified. Slope Infinity will open their indoor slope earlier than normal so that I can make a visit on my short stop in Hong Kong on November 12th. I will ski in Happo One in Japan on their opening day on Nov 19th. And Alyeska, Alaska on their opening day on Nov 23rd. Fingers crossed that my travel goes without issues and that the areas open as planned.

Opening day at Happo One, Japan

I would also have part of one day free in Beijing, and could in theory try skiing there. Unfortunately, I've already been twice to the indoor place in Beijing, and it seems that the real ski areas do not open until late November or December. If anyone knows a ski area that is already open, let me know!

Opening day at Alyeska, Alaska

Otherwise, the only question is whether I should take one or two sets of skis with me on this trip. I recently purchased light weight touring skis and boots. My skis are K2 superlights, boots are Garmont Helix's and bindings are Dynafit touring bindings. These are all extremely lightweight, so they are good for going up. But they are good only for that and for a careful descent. The binding release mechanism is limited, so for safety reasons I would rather ski mostly on my regular skis.

The question is, am I likely to find myself in a situation where I need the light skis? Not according to my plan, but ... many things can go wrong on my trip, bad weather could delay the openings beyond my visit, flight delays could change my plans completely, etc. In Alaska I have three days to ski, so it would also be possible that I'll find some off-piste touring possibilities. However, the drawback with dragging two sets of skis around the world is that some airlines may charge for the additional weight. I won't be paying anything on Finnair, but I am less sure about the others. I'll be flying on Cathay Pacific, Dragon Airlines, Japan Airlines, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, and British Airways. There will be at least some legs where I have to pay $10 per extra for one kilo of luggage, so getting the weight down will be important. Unless they respect One World Emerald frequent flyers somehow... from past experience with some of these airlines, I'm guessing that is not going to happen.

Resting on the sofa and getting used to the new boots

By the way, the first picture above is about Lonely Planet guides for this trip. I really love these books. I keep buying other books as well, but while the Lonely Planets are short on colorful pictures and they make boring reading from cover to cover, they also have the largest amount of information. Almost without exception there is more information about hiking, skiing, and climbing opportunities than in any other general purpose travel guide.

I bought the Alaska guide almost a year ago, and it is only now that I get to use it. Incidentally, some of the other books that I have about possible future places include Moscow, Turkey, and Iran. Unfortunately, recent news indicates that a military attack against Iran may be in the planning, so traveling to Iran at this time may be too risky, even for me. Too bad. I hope that the situation is better in the future, it would be a great place to visit. For instance, Tochal, a local ski hill near Teheran, has a ski lift that goes all the way up to 3,740 meters.

The new skis

38,000 Kilometers for Nothing

2011-10-22T02:04:00.000-07:00

Map of my route, courtesy of the Great Circle Mapper

I am about to take yet another round the world trip, a three week and 38,000 kilometer journey. It may be for nothing.

Don't get me wrong. There are important meetings along the way. But when I travel I also want to do some fun things during weekends and evenings. Skiing, if it is at all possible. In the last two years I have been on some kind of a trip almost every week, and only left my skis home on three of these trips. But this time it is very difficult to find skiing. My route is challenging. My schedule is too tight. It is the wrong time of the year. I might complete this trip and not find any skiing at all, or only visit one or two indoor ski places. Or make lengthy and costly side trips only to find out that there are no open ski areas yet.

My route

My route takes me through Beijing, but this time I have no time to visit the local indoor ski place. Besides I was there just a few weeks ago. For some reason, I was able to acquire a round-the-world trip ticket that stops twice in Hong Kong, however, and they have Slope Infinity, a different type of indoor skiing. I hope that the few hours that I have on my first stop will allow me to make a visit.

I also have a day and a half in Tokyo. But weather and ski area opening dates are the unknown factor here. Apparently, some areas might open mid-November. Japan has fast trains and good air travel; it might be possible to reach these places. How would you like skiing in Alts Bandai, Fukushima Prefecture, for instance? A shiny example of Japanese ski destinations, I'm sure. As a backup option there are indoor ski locations around the country, for instance, in Yokohoma.

Pu'u 'O'o

But what I really wanted to do on this trip is to make a stop over in Hawaii. Unfortunately, One World round-the-world tickets did not seem to make that possible. What I wanted to do is to drive up Mauna Kea, climb the snowy parts, and ski down. This would have added yet another state and yet another volcano to my list. But even at 13,000 feet, Manua Kea is unlikely to have snow in November. Maybe on another trip, January and February are the best times to visit this mountain. Of course, such a trip would not be completely without dangers. As the Hawaii ski club says: "Due to safety and environmental-impact issues and health concerns, the Hawaii Ski Club no longer sponsors group ski trips to the Mauna Kea volcano". To catch the snow, one may have to travel at a few day's notice. The high altitude, road closures, and likelihood of high winds conspire to make successful access to this mountain an unlikely event at the right time to find the snow.

Napau

In any case, Hawaii is always a recommended place to visit. Volcano sightings are guaranteed, you might even get a view of the red stuff. I made another stop here in a similar business trip ten years ago: 29 hours on the islands and still had time for an inter-island flight, driving a couple of hundred miles around the Big Island, acquire a hiking permit from the rangers, hike 20 miles, and camp alone one night on the slopes of the Pu'o 'O'o. The company saved on hotel costs that night.

Camping out near the Pu'u 'O'o volcano. Alone.

But now I am flying over Hawaii, direct to San Francisco. And this is where I will attempt to find some real skiing, by flying to Anchorage, Alaska after my meetings are over. The Alyeska ski area might open on the day that I am going there. Assuming the snow has arrived by then. I might find out that I dragged myself and my skis there for nothing.

Puu Huluhulu

Speed Skiing in Germany

2011-10-16T00:13:00.000-07:00

The ski hall is a very visible landmark in Neuss

There are no speed limits in German highways, right? Wrong. I got a speeding ticket yesterday on my small 650 kilometer detour to ski in Jever Skihalle.

"That guy is spending all his time on the ski slopes". I get that a lot. The reality is that I have two or three good trips per year, but all the rest is squeezed in already incredibly tight time schedules on business trips. Spending late evenings on the road for a precious few minutes of skiing. In this case I am on a family weekend trip to visit museums in Germany, and my schedule was, if possible, even tighter. I applied for a permission to disappear at 7 PM. However, since we are in Sinsheim the nearest skiing was 325 kilometers away in Neuss, Germany. In the good old times this would be an hour's trip, but today stau and speed cameras are making it a slightly more tedious. My trip takes three hours one way, two hours on the site, and back in Sinsheim at 3AM. And even with all this slow crawl through the highway system, I still got a ticket. For exceeding the speed limit by 11 kilometers an hour. Completely accidentally, of course.

Evening on a German highway

Incidentally, during this year I have collected tickets from California, New Hampshire, Poland, Slovakia, and now Germany. Luckily not all have lead to an actual ticket that I had to pay, in some cases we were left off with a warning. I've also had an accident in India (not my fault) and scratched my car twice while parking. Not a record that I am particularly proud of, but I drive a lot and most of these cases were mistakes. Such as not knowing we had to pay highway tax, crossing a forbidden direction sign to find space to turn our car around, or missing a reduced speed sign. But I know I will never again rent a car in Brussels, because every time I have done it I have ended up damaging the car while parking.

Indoor skiing at Neuss

But back to more important topics, i.e., skiing. This is day three of my season and the third country I have skied in. So far only indoor skiing. Not good, but better than nothing.

Jever Skihalle is a modern indoor sports and entertainment complex near the Dutch border between Düsseldorf and Köln. They house skiing, tubing, climbing, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and a classy hotel. When I arrived Friday evening at 10PM, a steady stream of party goers were arriving to the nightclubs and bars. The ski slope is the most visible landmark around, but otherwise skiing appeared to be like a small side note at the time. I entered through the nightclub door, for instance, and had to find my way through the building to the ski area.

Jever has one main slope and one beginner area. The main slope also offers a snow park with some rails and jumps. The beginner area has a tubing area and an ice bar.

A view from the top of the main slope

The main slope is nice for two reasons. One, this is yet another indoor ski area that likes to run its snow cannons during the opening hours. I think this is awesome, as it creates a winter feeling, reduces visibility to the structures, and creates a more realistic skiing experience. Not to mention that skiing on fresh snow is nice. Two, they have the only indoor quad chair lift that I have seen besides the one in Dubai. The lift in Dubai is painfully slow, but this one runs at the same speed a chair lift would run on a real mountain. At least a non-detachable ski lift. The lift can take 5000 people up the "mountain" per hour.

The main entrance

The main slope is OK to ski, but it is a bit too short and a notch steeper gradient would have made the slope far more fun to ski. Now it feels like making a turn slows you down too much. There is race training on this slope, but I suspect the racers too would like a bit steeper slope. Short slopes are OK, as long as the skiing is fun. As it is, the Jever slope is fun to ski for a while but I would probably get bored after a couple of hours.

Top of the main slope

There are ten or fifteen other customers on the slope during my visit. I think that is quite a reasonable turnout for late Friday evening. The chair lift can definitely handle a large crowd on weekends.

On the chair lift

After-ski

I was amazed by the after-ski possibilities. As mentioned, the main door takes you to the nightclubs and bars. Never mind that probably no one from the bar crowd had been skiing earlier, there was definitely a big party.

Note the mountain views in after-ski

If I didn't have to drive back to Sinsheim, I would have checked my gear to the garderobe and gone to the bar.

After-ski

Verdict

My overall verdict for this indoor site is as follows. On the plus side:

Real winter feeling, excellent snow
Best lift system that I have seen indoors
Best after-ski that I have seen indoors, competitive even with the real ski resort after-ski

The sign at the main entrance

On the negative side:

Steeper ski run would be nice. Of course, this applies to most indoor ski slopes.
Main ski slope is narrow and crowded due to the snow park being on the same slope.
Road access is patrolled by speed cameras.

Important Parameters

Never Skihalle is at An Der Skihalle 1, Neuss, Germany. They are open every day of the year from 9 to 23, which is important to people like me who only make it there late in night. An evening ticket costs 25€, a day ticket 29€, and for some reason they sold me a one hour student ticket for 18€. The ticket cards cost an additional 4€, but if you return the ticket you get those euros back. They rent not just ski equipment but also clothing. Skis and poles alone are 7€/day and an all-inclusive packet is 16€/day.

A soup in the Salzburger Hochalm restaurant costs 3.50€. There are plenty of on-piste and on-site restaurant and bar options.

The main ski slope

The main ski slope is 110 meters high and 300 meters long, and the steepness at the top is 28%. Skiing down the slope takes about 25 seconds.

Other Slopes

I have now skied in 9 of the 40 slopes and 5 of the 15 countries in the Wikipedia list of indoor ski slopes, as well as one country (Indonesia) and slope that is not on that list. On this trip I actually wanted to tick off another one, Snowhall in Amneville, France, but I ended up not being too interested in spending another night driving. Hopefully future trips will allow a visit there. Snowhall is the world's longest indoor ski slope at 620 meters. It should be easy to arrange a visit on some future trip to Belgium, Germany or France. I should also visit the remaining ones in the Netherlands and Germany; there are a few left. I am also hoping that I can visit Japanese indoor ski areas some day. I already tried this in 2009 in Hiroshima, but the slope there was closed just before my visit.

It is snowing at the top!

The Forbidden Drive

2011-10-08T15:37:00.000-07:00

Views from the trail

Unfortunately, this is not a story about skiing. I made a mistake, did not do my research. I am on a business trip through Stockholm, London, and Philadelphia. And I failed to look up possible skiing destinations along the way, missing the fact that there are indoor ski areas in the UK. If I had more time between my flights in and out of Heathrow, I could have visited one of them and collected yet another country that I have not skied in. Doh! Oh well, maybe next time.

Boat race next to a balloon from the zoo

As a result, this blog is about biking. As you may know, I don't collect only ski destinations. I also collect cities that I have biked in. Today's tour was in Philadelphia. The city itself is not that friendly for bikers (but certainly easier than New York or Paris). But there are plenty of park areas that are great for biking. I made a 50 kilometer tour through the Schuykill and Fairmont parks, ending up in the Forbidden Drive, a winding dirt road along the Wissahickon Creek. This was a nice bike tour, with plenty of nature, forest, rivers, but also people and interesting buildings and cafes. The name "Forbidden Drive" comes from the many attempts to open this trail for vehicles. I am very glad that they have not done it and it remains a quiet, beautiful park area today.

Biking towards the Forbidden Drive

I rented by bike for 50$ per day at the Breakaway Bikes, on the corner of 19th Street and Chestnut. Their service was friendly and hassle-free, and the bikes were in excellent condition.

Schuykill river views

I ate lunch at the Valley Green Inn, which was a friendly place, albeit with a somewhat US-centric and limited menu mostly consisting of sandwiches. For comparison, their soup of the day costs 5$.

Chamonix? Not quite...