Three S’s that combined in the last weekend of March to make me (Small) soooo happy!
This past winter was European winter number three for this Australian girl and DAMN was it long! The first winter I spent here was full of firsts and novelty - not so tough. The second, SmallTall celebrated christmas (and the following 7 weeks) in Australia - you can hardly call only February a winter. But this winter was different…routine, rain, Tall away in Egypt , renovations (more about that will follow), more rain and NO SNOW! I always had this romantic idea of a European winters including white Christmases, natural ice skating, sledding and, of course, snowboarding. Little did I know The Netherlands had little of this and was instead grey and wet! BAH! Definitely reminded me why the warmer seasons are my favourite.
Thankfully for me, Spring has sprung! Which is so great but, in the last days of winter, I realised that I STILL hadn’t had a chance on the European ski slopes. This was always a dream of mine and I even applied for dozens of mountain jobs my first winter here (pity you need 3 languages minimum). Lucky for me, I have a great friend in Zurich who is always up for an adventure. We first met some 10 years ago while he was on exchange in Australia and, since then, have met up every few years and even spent a couple of months travelling Europe together in 2015. Winter may have been over but I was assured that Switzerland still had the goods even in Spring!
I first saw proper snow at the ripe old age of 18 and it was love at first sight! Soon after I was quickly hooked on the speed and adrenaline that snowboarding offers…I still think it’s gotta be pretty close to flying. I spent the following three winters chasing the snow in Australia and New Zealand while studying and working my graduate year.
After that, my travels became more permanent and snowboarding just no longer fit the backpacking budget. After 5 years I can’t tell you how excited I was to get back on a board and fly down the side of a mountain again!
We decided to head to Titlis Mt through Engelberg which is only a few hours by train from Zurich. Thankfully the first lift was a gondola (a first for me) but I have to say that the first run was pretty wobbly as I tried to remember how I used to feel so comfortable with my feet strapped in place. My tailbone only copped it a few times (ouch!) as I made my way down snowy slopes that were in surprisingly excellent condition for the end of March. Although Australian and New Zealand mountains offer a pretty amazing view, Switzerland is next level! The summit of Titlis is 3000m high (I believe my highest peak to date) and boy does it pack a punch! I could have stared at that view forever, it was truly unbelievable!
It didn’t hurt that we had about the best weather possible. Mid-slope huts offered sunny decks that were t-shirt temperatures and the summit was only just below 0 with the clearest skies my Swiss buddy had seen on Titlis. Certainly different than my mid-winter white-out snowboarding experiences.
We only had two days on the slopes which gave me just enough time to start getting the hang of it again before we heading back to my friends house in Zurich. It was short but oh so sweet and totally worth the grey winter! One thing’s for sure - spring snow might be my new favourite thing! Although, I’m still very happy to see the temperature rising and the days getting longer. What about you guys - are you winter adventurers or do you hibernate until warmer, sunnier days come around?
Tall lent me his GoPro Hero 7 Black for the weekend and it was my first time really playing around with it. It’s really proving to be such a handy tool in all conditions. After 3 months it’s already been from 30m below sea level all the way to 3000m above! I made the video on the journey home using the GoPro Quik app. It’s not faultless but it sure is handy while on the go! Any other app recommendations out there for processing GoPro footage?
