When I was skiing in Grimentz over this last holiday break, we were fortunate enough to receive a foot of fresh snow. The next day, which was perfectly sunny and gorgeous, I spotted this guy hiking up the mountain above the lifts for one of the first rides in the fresh powder.

I was nervous about putting this post up while I was on my ski trip, and still feel like it might jinx me for next year, but damn am I glad I’m in one piece after this ski trip. In le Plange, the group I was with was racked with injuries. In the end I think there were 2 broken wrists, a dislocated shoulder, concussion, torn ACL, and broken leg. Of course lots of these people were beginners, but it still made me mighty fearful of a bad fall. My second day in Grimentz that fear was only reinforced when I watched this mid-mountain medi-vac. I really love skiing, but when I stop to think about the potential injuries, it seems really damn crazy.

Oh well, knock on wood. I’ll still be back on the slopes next year.

We stopped skiing fairly early on our first day in Girmentz. Just early enough to run home, grab sleds, and catch the last lift back up the mountain. The video tells the tale of how we came down.

Returning from Amsterdam my buddy and I took a long detour specifically to visit Warwick Castle. When I got home, my Polish flat mates made fun of me for a long while because, according to them, obsession with medieval castles is a uniquely American condition because we don’t have any. Whether that’s true or not, I still hold that castles are universally enjoyable (except of course by medieval peasants), and worth a visit whenever you have the chance.

After Geneva, I headed towards Montreux to meet up with some friends before heading back up into the Alps. I spent the afternoon wandering around the exceptionally impressive Château de Chillon. Even though the castle was never involved in serious conflict, it has a compelling place in the history of Western European commerce, and the Swiss independence.

By far the most interesting part was learning that people like me who love castles, essentially ruin them from being restored to their original condition. Chillon, for example, used to be completely white-washed. But, since we have this romantic notion of medieval castles being bare stone, there is a major lobby pushing against restoring the castle to what it would have looked like in it’s heyday. Authentic looking or not, it was still an impressive place, and filled my need to check out a castle every couple of months.

I think I had more fun ringing in 2009 than I’ve had for just about any New Year that I can recall. The evening festivities started with a torch-lit descent of some 150 people, many of them skiing in unison with torches and flares which they then piled into the bonfire you see in the picture above. Along with the skiing, there was free hot wine and a drumming group.

It had been snowing lightly since sundown, but as midnight approached the snow picked up. 2009 was welcomed into existence with the return of the drumming group, people partying in the streets, and people breathing fire, as captured in this video, which sadly doesn’t include the look of wonder on my face:

After we’d partied ourselves out, and our ski weary legs wouldn’t let us dance any more, we wandered on home. Normally a couple of drunk kids walking 2 km home in sub-zero temps would draw some serious complaints, but with the foot of fresh snow, we were just loving it. Hope 2009 keeps it up at this pace. Happy New Year everyone!