On 16th November 2002, we both sneaked away for our second skiing weekend and our first (but certainly not last!) of the new winter season.
The destination on this occasion was the glacier resort of Breuil-Cervinia, situated right on the border of Italy and Switzerland. Cervinia is a beautiful resort right under the gaze of the Matterhorn mountain, one of the highest locations in the European Alps.
This early ski weekend was taken courtesy of mutual cheap flights from Ryanair! It was one of the rare occasions where we were both able to catch flights to Milan Bergamo from Frankfurt and London, which arrived and departed at pretty much the same time (normally unheard of, especially with the budget airlines!)
Our extremely busy weekend started early on Saturday morning (around 3am!) when Kirsty and myself set off from Heidelberg and Malmesbury respectively. We arrived in Milan around 10am where we immediately headed off to the Valle d'Aosta in our hire car.
The weather was attrocious on route, where we had to put up with torrential rain for the entire three hours it took us to reach our destination. The one benefit of the rain were the spectacular waterfalls that fell from the steep mountain cliffs as we neared the completion of our journey ... very impressive!
By the time we had wound our way upwards towards Cervinia, the temperature had dropped sufficiently for the rain to change to snow and the scenery changed (almost immediately!) to a completely snowy landscape!
On arrival in Cervinia, we were initially disappointed to find that the heavy snow and poor visibility meant that the mountain was closed entirely and therefore we would be unable to ski! So instead we headed over to our meeting point, where we were due to meet Gianni, the owner of our evening's accommodation. He duly arrived in his Land Rover and took us up the windy, single track road to Baita Layet, our mountain retreat!
We spent a lovely afternoon and evening at our mountain lodge, where we enjoyed the hospitality of our host and Kirsty got the opportunity to practise her (very impressive) Italian skills! We were treated to an amazing four-course dinner consisting of traditional, local delicacies, including valpellineuntze, a thick soup of cabbage, bread, beef broth and Fontina (a local cheese, which is a cross between Gouda and Brie). All of this was washed down with the assistance of a fantastic bottle of local red wine!
After a lovely night's stay, we were ready for our skiing (after all, the reason why we'd travelled so far!) and so we headed back to the resort in the Land Rover. On arrival at the cable car, we were again disappointed to find that most of the mountain remained closed, but were advised that a couple of lifts were open. After travelling so far, we were not put off (in fact we would have walked up the mountain to get there!) and duly headed to the cable car.
It was here where we encountered the most bizarre coincidence! Kirsty caught sight in the lift queue of two Italian friends, Bruno and Tobias, whom she knew from her year out in Mainz! It was unbelievable since they had travelled to Cervinia just for the weekend themselves with a group of friends, and from pretty much the other side of Italy!
Once we got onto the mountain, we were certainly no longer disappointed. Around 150cm of snow had fallen within the past couple of days and we were greeted with the view of untouched snow as far as the eye could see! It looked like a huge coating of icing sugar had been laid over the entire landscape and all of this was complimented by the amazing view of the Matterhorn and surrounding mountains!
The pistes were in fantastic condition and due to the time of year were pretty much the quietest we have experienced, at certain times having the entire piste just to ourselves! The runs were pretty long as well and there was certainly enough to keep us occupied for the day (including a couple of (quite deliberate!) excursions off-piste!)
After a full day's skiing (and after the lifts had stopped!), we grudgingly headed back to the cable car to our vehicle. Once we had said our farewells to our Italian friends, we departed Cervinia and set off on the long journey back to the airport. The trip passed very smoothly (apart from a brief tour of the local villages around Bergamo as we tried to return to the airport after refuelling!) and we arrived in plenty of time for our flights!
We said our goodbyes and went to our separate aircraft, completely exhausted but exhilarated after another fantastic weekend!
[Click here to see Oscar get up to his usual "must get on the photograph at all costs" tricks!]
