Monday, March 17, 2014

Bannalp spring touring

Keith and Meggie were in town and dragged their (borrowed) splitboards all the way from Jackson, WY to do some epic tours in the Swiss Alps. Of course, the two weeks they were here there was no snow to speak of and the t-shirt weather melted (and hardened) whatever happened to be there before. Nevertheless, we dragged ourselves out of bed early one morning and headed for Bannalp -- a sweet little area, relatively high with quick gondola access. The icy, lumpy snow sucked for the first-time splitboarders and reminded me why I ditched the snowboard in favor of skis for touring many years ago. We had a leisurely lunch and waited for the snow to soften up -- the sun-drenched slopes served up surprisingly good skiing despite our fears for the worst. Good times were made better with beers and epic views at the end of the ride of course.

splitters are super stoked early in the am

american blue hunting team scoping out the alpine ibex

americans in the sunshine

americans focusing on making the edges stick

X-treme american focus



reflecting meggie's american state of mind
Keith booting up to maximize the down

corn is the new american powder

looks like pow feels like pow



way steeper than it looks I swear

mad american airtime by meggie

this is not an american resort, I promise

meggie shredding the american way