Viva Italia!

Yesterday our group went to Courmayer, Italy. I was way too sore to ski after tumbling down the mountain on Tuesday, and my friend Alisa didn't want to ski, so we took a bus to Aosta. We toured the Roman ruins and had a great meal on a piazza. It was about 60 degrees and sunny. Once we returned to our hotel in Chamonix, we went to Poco Loco, a delicious sandwich shop just down from the hotel. Afterwards, we went to the Casino. Ryan had never been to one, and my friend Dave really likes to gamble. We walked in the door and the French woman working there said "you cannot come in here with those pants." Ryan looked around and said "who, me?" The lady said "Yes, you." Ryan stood there looking stunned and said "are you kidding me?" The lady was not amused. We had been giving him a hard time about wearing shorts the entire trip and finally someone called him on it. He ran back to the hotel and put some big boy pants on. We all got a good laugh out of that one!

Tuesday

I had mixed feelings when the day began. Part of me was excited, but I was also really nervous.  As we walked to the cable car station I played "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" to get us pumped up. We took the cable car to the top of the Aiguille du Midi and then took an elevator to the observation deck. We took some amazing pictures, then took the elevator back down. Next, our guides hooked a rope onto our harnesses and we walked out to the narrow path we had to walk down. The path, at times, was about 3 or 4 feet wide with a straight drop behind us. It took a little while, but we made it down. Within 5 minutes, I fell for the first time. I fell again a few minutes later. At this point, I think I had altitude sickness but my legs also hurt from the boots I was wearing. My ski had flown off and it was buried in the snow. I told the guide that I couldn't do this and his response was " well it's going to be a long day then." There was no turning back and I had about 11.5 miles to go. I continued to either fall or have to stop every few minutes. I held up the rest of the group because they had to stay with the guide. It got to the point that the guide had to take me by the arm and pull me down the mountain. He kept telling me we had to get back before the last train. When we got to the end, we had to climb over a bunch of boulders by the glacier. Then we had to climb up almost 500 stairs. This was the only time in my life that I've been excited about climbing boulders and stairs. My friends told that it looked like it was my first time skiing. Needless to say, a lot of jokes have been made at my expense.

Worst Day Ever

There wasn't much snow at the resorts by our hotel yesterday, so we took a free bus to a resort that was about 30 mins. away. It was a very foggy day and the boots I rented were too small, so I didn't ski much. Today was the worst day. Though it was sunny and beautiful, I skied the most difficult terrain as if it was my first time skiing. I'll update with more details tomorrow. It is a little after 8:30pm and I am going to head up to bed. We are supposed to ski Courmayer in Italy tomorrow. I am going to take the bus with the rest of the group but am not going to ski. I have nothing left after today's experience. Instead I'm going to walk around Courmayer or take a bus to Aosta, Italy. Bye for now!

Hotel Richemond

Our flight seemed to go quickly, although there was a kid on the plane (he was probably around 3 years old) who screeched for about an hour in the middle of the night. He wasn't crying like a normal kid, but instead sounded like a tea kettle. Most of us didn't get much sleep. Ryan stayed up and read all night.

After taking a shuttle from Geneva to Chamonix, we checked into our hotel. Next, we went to Le Carolina(sp?) for lunch. There was a group of 10 of us and we kind of just wandered in to the place. I ordered what I thought was a ham and cheese sandwich. I got a piece of bread with ham on top covered in a ton of French cheese melted all over it. Now I like cheese, but this was A LOT of cheese. The restaurant was kind of pricey, so my non-ham & cheese sandwich cost about $18(US). Ryan is frantically trying to locate some Mountain Dew. I tried to tell him before we left the US that they wouldn't have it here, but he didn't believe me. He settled for a Monster for now. It's good to be right, especially when it comes to Ryan!:)

We've just been walking around a bit and are going to ride the bus from one end to the other just to get a feel for things. We are going to dinner as a group, and then I'd imagine most of us will make it an early night and will head to bed.

I'm having a hard time posting pictures so you may not see any until we get home.

On our way...

Ok, we made it to D.C. We are now boarding for our flight to Geneva. I'll talk to you when we get to France!

Delayed

We are currently delayed.  The bathroom door on the plane is broken and they have been trying to fix it for the past
 hour. They just made an announcement saying they have to get a new door, so that is what we are waiting for now.

Spring Break 2011

I'll be leaving for Chamonix, France in about 40 hours.  I still have a lot to do before then.  Most of you won't be surprised to hear that I haven't started packing yet.  I hope to post pictures and details of my trip on this blog while I am gone.  

There are 16 of us going on the trip.  We fly from Cleveland to D.C., and then from D.C. to Geneva, Switzerland.  From there, we take a shuttle to Le Hotel Richemond in Chamonix.  Our biggest adventure of the week will be skiing the Aiguille du Midi. To get to the run we will ski, we will have to walk down a narrow, snow-covered path.  We will go with a guide and will be connected with a rope as we do this.  The pictures below are from the Internet, but I'll try to send some once I am there in person.