I wish I was Jeff. He does all the coolest stuff. For instance, he takes pictures of things and places. In this case, Switzerland. In order to take such pictures, you have to GO there. That’s the really cool part. The pictures are just the way he either shares the experience with us, or thumbs his nose goin’ “Nyeh nyeh, look what I did.” How you take it is entirely up to you. I know Jeff, and I can tell you that he’s a happy soul who’d be pleased to share the whole trip with us, not just photos, but it wasn’t in his budget. So take it in the spirit it’s given! Here are photos of High-Altitude Switzerland, about which Jeff had this to say:
“We skied Zermatt a couple of days before heading out past the Matterhorn for the Haute Route.
We skinned to huts and ate and drank and made merry.
A storm came in which derailed one of the 6 days that we were supposed to be hut touring. That only means that we HAD to spend an extra day in a small mountain village in Italy with friendly people and lots of food and beer.
It was torture. We consumed well over 6000 calories per day and I still came back 2 pounds lighter.
After we came out of the mountains and ended the trip in Chamonix, another storm came in and dropped a foot of powder on the ski resorts. Our last full day in Europe was spent destroying powder lines in knee deep, blow-in powder on 2000′ runs. Something you can only do in a couple of places in the US.
Okay, so there is a rule at the high mountain huts that you can’t bring your ice axe or crampons into the living spaces of the huts, so they have these racks and shelves.
This photo [bottom left] was taken in the entryway of a hut that sits above 11,000 feet about a quarter mile from the crest of the Swiss Alps. It’s surrounded by glaciers and cliffs.”
Note the Hubris sticker on the ice axe, please. The stickers are getting finer vacations than I do these days, and I’m so proud of them. Also, glad that a helmet sticker can hold up to that kind of use.
I can’t decide whether I hope Jeff put that Hubris sticker up in the Geneva airport or not. If I get an angry email from someone written in German or Italian or, y’know, the Swiss dialect thereof, I think I might worry.