Skiing in the Alps

Skiing above the clouds at La Sambuy.

Of course, no vacation in the Alps is complete without a couple of days of skiing. And although it wasn't Chamonix/Mont Blanc, the station de ski de la Sambuy provided us with a more then an adequate mountain. Known more for its freeride skiing than groomed runs, Sambuy still offered excellent conditions for us to take a few days and hit the slopes. Conveniently it was also only located about 20 minutes away from our chalets and our host, Romain, had a few contacts the hill.

On our first day at Sambuy, the guys skied while the ladies decided to try out the snowshoeing trails around the mountains. Romain negotiated a discount rate for our lift tickets and then the three of us (Romain, Andronik, & I) had a fantastic day as the hill was not overly busy and the temperatures held at around the minus 1 mark. Mindy and Anne-Julie had an equally fun time on their snowshoeing adventure although a two hour climb was a maybe a little bit more then they bargained for.

Mindy and Anne-Julie celebrate the end of the snowshoeing marathon.

Our second day of skiing was actually New Year's Day and what a way to kick off 2009! We were joined by a few friends of Romain's as well as his girlfriend, Iris, and this time everyone skied. Anne-Julie's day was cut a little short as she was experiencing some soreness in her knees, but other then that little hick-up, the day was absolutely beautiful.

Mindy and I skied with the group for the most part as the levels ranged from novice skiers to more advanced skiers. It had snowed the previous day so the snow was fantastic with silky smooth powder on the freeride trails. On the last run of the day, Romain, Andronik, and I had the pleasure of skiing down with a member of the mountain's Ski Patrol who took us an excellent freeride run that we had previously not seen. It capped off a truly magnificent experience.

Mindy is geared up and ready to go.

I should also mention that as Mindy and I left our ski gear in Canada, Romain not only outfitted us, also five others for our New Year's Day ski. And of course, as Romain works for Nike, we were sporting the newest fashions from the Nike ACG line.

Group shot from the New Year's Day ski extravaganza.