The pictures say it all....gorgeous day, lots of sunshine, and the mountains, what more can you ask for?  Many hours spent above 4000m meant my stomach and head were not so happy, but i'm slowly getting used to it.

 

It's been a dream of mine all winter...every time I drive to the  Valais, I see the epic north face of the Dents du Midi staring at me, welcoming me to this mountain paradise.  Two weeks ago I got the opportunity to ski down it!

After an early start from Lausanne, we reached our starting point of ~1500m, and started our hike up (it's always fun walking on grass in your ski boots...) around 1700m we found some snow, and started skinning our way up to 2300m, the base of the couloir. 

 

 

That's when the fun started...a tight couloir with an average slope of 43deg, we trecked up the next 700m with crampons and our skis on our back.  Always keeping an eye out for falling rocks...they were flying past us like bullets! 

 

 

After a few (exhausting) hours, we reached the Col de la Dent Jaune 3004m, and had a gorgeous view towards the south.  A quick lunch, and we were ready for what we came here to do...THE DESCENT!  i'll let the pics tell the rest of the story....see them here.

Given that I'm lazy and don't feel like writting my life story, I've neglected to write about my last couple weeks, so here's sum-up:

March 17: Les Crossets

It was a gorgeous Saturday at the end of the ski season, so I  went for a leasurely day of spring skiing at Les Crossets.  Since the snow was pretty bad, we spent most of our time on the patio of the summit chalet drinking wine...Check out the pics

March 18: Geneva Auto Show

Everyone that likes cars knows the Geneva Auto Show....I went to check out the new cars coming out, including the new Benz C series, the M3 Concept, the Audi S5, and all the lovely concept cars on display...Check out the pics

March 21: Ovronnaz

Winter came back with a vengeance, with an entire week of constant snow-fall, so I had to take a wednesday off and go skiing some crazy powder.  Probably one of the best ski days of my life...knee deep, all day, I've never eaten so much snow cause it kept flying into my face!  Check out the pics

Here's a little video of Ovronnaz...

Every year my lab organizes a ski trip somewhere in Switzerland for a weekend, to do some 'team building' (definition: drink beer and ski with people that you work with).  Since I have exams I was not able to spend the whole week, but I did make it over to the lovely touristy ski town of Zermatt on Sunday night, and skied on Monday.

Being a proper weekend, Sunday night was spent at the bars until  ~3am.  On our way back to the hostel, we somehow thought it would be faster to use my skis instead of walk...this is tricky however when you've only got one ski and no ski boots!  After a huge snow-ball fight we managed to get to bed before the sun came up.

After almost no sleep, I was up at 7:30am, ready for a solid day on the slopes.  I would never do this to go to work, but for skiing it's a pleasure :D.  The last few weeks have been very dry and warm, but it snowed all weekend, and we were surprised by an amazing day of powder on Monday!  There was so much of it we didn't know where to ski first....

Pictures are in the Zermatt photo gallery.

The last few weeks I've been pretty busy with exams, so I haven't had time to do anything special, except of course for taking a few days to go skiing!  Last weekend I was in Super Saint Bernard with Sylvie, and Monday I went to Zermatt to join my collegues on our Lab Ski Trip.  Needless to say the evening before we had a few brews, to get us ready for the next day...that'll be described in the next post.

New pics:

I've added Markus' pics to the Cabane des Aiguilles Rouges album (ski touring from 2 weeks ago)

 

 

 

Skiing at Super Saint Berndard, on the Italian border

It's been 3 weeks since I've been working like a dog and haven't been in the hills...I finally finished my last major projects for the term, so it's time to study for exams...actually, forget exams, I'm off to the Alps!

Friday Tim (scotsman buddy) and I decided to hit the slopes of Nendaz and Verbier, since it was a sunny day and some snow actually fell in the last few days.  During dinner the night before we conviced Manu (my roommate) to skip work and come with us.  The day was gorgeous, but definately too warm for February!  We did quite a bit of hiking since the slopes were pretty skied out, and had a bit of lunch on a peak and did some suntanning.... SEE THE PICS

The next day Tim. Markus (austrian dude) and Krister (yank dude) went for a nice little ski tour, since the snow just wasn't good enough to justify buying a lift pass.  We did a nice 1000m climb from La Gouille to the Cabane des Aiguilles Rouges.  At the cabin we met some belgians who didn't know how to open the flue, so the entire cabin was filled with smoke...damn belgians.  On the way down we did a nice 50m descent through a steep deep-powder chute...and then were stuck with 950m of bad descent through hard sun-crusted snow!  SEE THE PICS

Two weeks ago I went skiing with my ol' buddy Karsten, who now lives in Zurich and dropped by for the weekend.  We originally went to Verbier, but since all the fresh snow was already skiied out we made our way over to the next valley, and spent most of the day in Nendaz.  It took us two hours, but we found powder!  All it takes is a bit of motivation....

In other news, it's the e nd of my first semester of my Masters, and that means i've been bustin my butt to finish all my projects, and therefore no skiing .  On a bright note, as of Thursday I'm (mostly) a free man, so let it snow!

Skiing pics from Nendaz:  In the gallery!

After spending Christmas in the UK, I arrived in Geneva airport on the 28th (along with Marta and Lewis), where we met my cousin Asia who flew down from Warsaw. Our first day everyone was still exhausted from all the food consumed durimg Christmas, so we spent an easy day walking around Nyon, a little town down the lake from Lausanne.

On the 30th there was still a large lack of snow in the Alps, so we headed to the glaciers of Zermatt, where there is always skiing to be done.  Lewis decided to learn to ski by doing his first run from the Kleines Matterhorn, at 3800m!!  He's crazy...somehow he made it down though, and we had a spectacular view of the Matterhorn.

 

On our way down from Zermatt, we stopped by my friend Roman's place in Montana for a nice little tartiflette.  After eating and chatting for a few hours, we realised that we still had to make it to our friend Marie's cottage in the French Alps to sleep the night! While everyone slept in the car, I was stuck driving for a few hours until we finally made it to Essert-Romand, of course with a flat tire at the end of the trip that needed to be changed in the rain..grr...

The 31st was spent skiing in Avoriaz on the rocky and icy slopes, while dreaming of snow falling.  In the evening we ate a huge raclette, and of course partied in the cottage to bring in the New Year!

 

The 1st was spent driving back to Lausanne, having a few pints at the bar, and getting ready to ski on the 2nd since there was snow forcast, FINALLY! The next day we went off to Champery (the tires on our rental car were definately NOT winter tires...), where we finally got to play in powder all day!  The trip ended like any good ski trip should...with one final fondue at my place in Lausanne!

Pictures of New Years can be seen in the Gallery.  I have also made a little Google Earth collection of the places we were, check it out if you're interested.

 Happy 2007!

This year I spent Christmas with my sister and her boyfriend  Lewis in the UK.  For Christmas Eve we were invited to Lewis' dad, Ian's place in the british countryside of East Sussex (he lives right beside Paul McCartney!).  Marta and I prepared a (mostly) traditional Polish dinner, with salatka jazynowa, pierogi, kompot and a great salmon (albeit using an English recipe :P).  Lots of help of course from Lewis and his brother and dad in the cooking.  Midnight mass was in Battle, famous for the battle of Hastings in 1066.

Christmas day we were invited by Lewis' mom for a Christmas Day dinner, full of turkey with stuffing, pudding and Christmas crackers!  In the evening we visited Lewis' grandparents in the town of Rye, where we had tea and listened to lots of war stories.

Our last two days in the UK we spent volunteering at Crisis Open Christmas, an event organised every year to give the homeless a place to spend the holidays in a warm and welcoming environment, enjoy good food including a Christmas dinner, and take advantage of many services including medical advice, a warm shower, and lots of leisure activities.  It was great fun, we got to meet lots of great people and talk to many of the homeless, get to know what their lives really look like.

On the 28th, Marta Lewis and I packed up our bags and headed off to Lausanne for the second part of our vacation: New Years in Switzerland!

Pics from Christmas are available in the gallery.

The Alps have been unseasonably warm this year, with the 0C line hovering at 2000-3000m, meaning nothing but rain in the mountains.  And then suddenly the temperature dropped by 10 degrees and 60cm fell on Verbier, so we had to go investigate.

We arrived fairly sceptical, knowing there was only two runs open at the whole resort.  Luckily, this meant there were there was tons of closed pistes covered with knee-deep powder, waiting to be skied if you could find them!

Check out the pics on the gallery page.

Last Saturday we did a nice little hike across a little ridge, climbing up from Tanay, past La Chambairy.  Won't get into details, but it was a great 11hr hike, involving a nice ridge, lots of snow, even more rain, a cliff we had to jump off, another we repelled down (a third little one i fell down ), and lots and lots of bouquetins!  Check out the pics in the gallery

Last week we did a bit of a hike up la Haute Cime, part of the epic Dents du Midi or "Teeth of noon" set of peaks.  Because of a slight sleep-in problem, we started the hike two hours late.  This meant we had a stunning view of the sunset near the summit, but also meant that we had to climb down in the dark...

Check out the video from the summit:

 

Haute Cime

After a solid week spent on cultural events, visiting old temples and tombs and monuments and museums, we decided to spend the second week on slightly less academic activities.  Sunday night we packed up our gear and headed to Sinai (on a very uncomfortable bus..)!

We spent our week there staying in tents at a 'resort' called Basata, just north of Neweiba on the Red Sea.  Basically there were a few bamboo huts for people to sleep in, and a main kitchen hut where you can sit on pillows against palm trunks and relax in the shade when it's too hot outside, or when you're not swimming with the fishes in the sea.  This place was so amazing it's hard to describe it!  There was a coral reef barely a few metres into the sea, simple diving equipment was all we needed to see the most amazing assortment of different-coloured fish, corals, eels, and the occasional shark!  uhh actually there were no sharks, but still....

When we weren't simply lazying out in the sun or swimming in the sea, we did quite a few other interesting activities:

• Having a Wallisaner with us, we spent a day rock-climbing  just  outsid e of Dahab in the mountains of Sinai.  Aparently some Swedes had set up a bunch of anchor points in a nice shaded area, protected from the scorching sun

 

 

 

 

• Following the train of all other tourists in Sinai, we climbed  Mount Sinai one morning to see the sunrise, which although crowded, did give us quite a spectacular view.  It was the first and only time in Egpyt that I was actually cold...
• We did a day-trip to Ras Abu Galum, a maritine park only accesible by camels, which by the way are extremely uncomfortable!  We were also served lunch by some local Bedouins, a parrotfish not unlike the ones we were snorkling with while we were there.

After a long week in Sinai, we finally headed back to Cairo for some last minute shopping and our long flight back to Geneva.  Closing comments:  Egypt was an incredible experience, a totally different world that's at once foreign and strangely also quite familiar and confortable.  Although not as clean and manicured as say Switzerland, the country feels very alive, especially Cairo, the people are very welcoming, and you always feel very safe (except for your Egyptian Pounds, cause you never really know if you've bargained a good deal, or if you're paying "tourist price") In summary, I LOVE EGYPT!

What a crazy week!!  Last week I took part in Polygiro, a 4-day bike tour through the Alps of 3 countries.  This tour brought together students from the Polito in Turin, INPG in Grenoble and EPFL in Lausanne on an epic tour of the mountains between these three cities.  Here's some highlights of the week:

Prologue: Lausanne - Col du Grand St. Bernard (CH-IT border) - Aoste ~140km, 2000m vertical

Instead driving down to Turin on Wednesday to meet the French  and Italian students, the Swiss contingent thought it would be a good idea to warm up by biking from Lausanne to Aoste! Following a fast 80km of flat road, we attacked the 45km 2000m vertical climb up the pass. After a nice spaghetti lunch on the Italian side of the border, we sped down into the Aoste valley before being picked up by our trucks and driving the rest of the way.  The night was spent in a nice hotel offered to us by Polito (thanks!).

Day 1: Oulx - Col de l'Echelle (IT-FR border) - Col de Lauteret - (Col du Galibert) - Bourg d'Oisans 114km, 1339m vertical

The first official day started with a spectacular yet steep climb up the Col de l'Echelle. After a descent and roadside sandwiches we attacked the Col de Lotaret, with some brave souls (not me of course) continuing on to climb the Col de Galibier.  The rest of the day was a 40km descent (!!!) into Bourg d'Oisans, which also saw our first casualty, a Swiss student who fell at 70km/h, luckily escaping with only minor scrapes and bruises.  Beers in the local beer preceded sleep on mattresses in the town hall.

Day 2: (Alpe d'Huez)-Bourg d'Oisans - Col d'Ornon - La Mure - Grenoble 102km, ~1000m vertical

Since we were in Bourg d'Oisans, it would be wrong not to climb up the Alpe d'Huez, of Tour fame, as a warmup for the day's ride!  Being a bad climber and having only 2 chainrings, I didn't even attempt it, although a solid 15 of our group went early in the morning.  One of them was Santos, a champion from El Salvador who was one of our best riders, and who also happens to have only one arm!  This guy was a source of inspiration the whole week...

Day 3: Grenoble - Col de Porte - Col du Cucheron - Col du Granier - Aix-les-Bains ~100km, ~2000m vertical

After spending the night in a gym again at INPG, we set off for our hardest day (other than the prologue), starting right away with a pass climbing straight out of Grenoble (214m) up the Col de Porte (1326m).  Not much time for a break, since we still had two more passes to climb that day.  The last descent of the day down from the Col du Granier was INSANE, super-fast with lost of really tight turns, definately had to be careful on the way down!  But what a thrill..

Day 4: Yvoire -Genève (FR-CH border) - Lausanne 80km, ~0m vertical

The last day was going to be a large descent from Morzine, but rainy weather and the fact that we were crazy descenders made the organizers change the route.  Instead we had a leisurely "ride into Paris", taking the lake-side road from Yvoire on the French, through Geneva and into Lausanne.  The whole group rode in peleton, with the strong riders leading us near 40km/h most of the time!  On the last leg we were also joined by the champion of the world in recliner-biking (forgot his name.. :P).  In true style, the ride finished with three tours of the large EPFL roundabout.  And so ends the first edition of the Polygiro...

After a long an arduous search that took me a couple months and  wasted a lot of my time, I have finally found and moved in to a new apartment in Lausanne.  No longer in student housing, I've got a very large and spacious 4.5 room flat right in the centre of Lausanne!

Although this may seem shocking, even though I grew up in Toronto, I've never actually been to NYC.  It's been a planned mission for the last several years, but living in Lausanne has made it quite difficult to make it over.  Being in the same state however, and having a place to crash in NYC and a few days of vacation left, I had no choice but to buy a bus ticket and go!

Arrival on Friday night to the sound of "start spreading the news...", I met my friend Lindsey who lives in downtown Manhattan, and went straight to our first club!  I have to say partying in New York is like nowhere else in the world...

Saturday was spent touring Lower Manhattan with my ol' friend Pete, who's living in Brooklyn doing med school right now.  Notable things seen: WTC remnants, crazy breakdancing in the street, and lots of NY-italians in Little Italy.  Yet another club in the evening...

Sunday was a bit more serious, with a visit to the UN Headquarters.  I was by myself this time, so I just wandered around town snapping shots  of skyscrappers, and watched Federer win the US Open on an open-air screen in the Rockafellar center.  I was the only one cheering for Federer I think...

Sunday night, yet another club! After 3 days of partying I w as starting to get pretty exhausted and my whole body was shaking...

Monday I paid my respects at the WTC for the 5th anniversary of 9.11, and after a stroll through Central Park to recover from all the clubs I took the long bus ride home, saying adieu to NYC, until next time of course...

 

One last thing: 

The second half of my two-week vacation in Canada actually ended up being in the US.  On Tuesday I packed up some hiking and climbing gear and went for a drive with my friend Pete and his gf Kat to Lake Placid, in the Adirondacks of New York State.  The plan was to do a few days of camping and hiking in the deep bear-filled hilly forest.

Our first hike on Wednesday started off quite nice, with a walk through a slowly-rising path towards Algonquin peak.  As we reached the top however, ugly thick clouds fell onto us, and we were stuck in a rainstorm!  The path turned into a river, and we were completely soaked.  We got back to camp to try to dry out and light a fire with wet wood...at least we had some kielbasa to eat for supper :D.

Thrusday was a mission to find some rock climbing in the area.  After asking some guys in the local mountain shop, we managed to find some cliffs, but didn't have nearly enough gear to climb it, so we just took it easy and made some burgers, and hiked a small little hill outside our campsite to get a view of the area.  And we stayed dry!  And at least we didn't run into any bears, since Kat always had her bear bell with her :P

Friday morning Pete and Kat were going for some more hiking, but I was itching to get out of the hills and into a real city...so I bought a bus ticket to New York City!  More on that in the next post...

Thursday I had the honour of being a groomsman for my old friend Tom's wedding to his lovely fiancée Laura.  The day started like any other Polish wedding, with a couple shots of vodka to get Tom ready for the big "I do".

The ceremony went great, minus a few tears and a horrified look on Tom's face, the lovely couple was joined in the ceremony of matrimony.  The new bride and groom then proceeded for a few pictures with the photographer at the University of Toronto campus.  And that's where it all went wrong... 

 

The groom was arrested!!!

 

 

Luckily no harm was done, and we managed to get him out of jail in time for the wedding reception.  Those pics are still to come...

 

Congradulations Tom and Laura!!

 

Last weekend my sister Marta decided to drop down from London for a breath of fresh Swiss air.  This time around she brought her bf Lewis along, a fine english bloke.

 

 

Saturday I decided to take no mercy, and we climbing up the Dent de Morcles, doing a 8.5hr hike with over 1500m of vertical.  Not bad for a coupla brits.  We managed to avoid  the rain most of the day, and even got to see a few steinbachs!  And of course the hills were covered in Swiss cows, as always :P

Sunday was a bit more relaxed, with a bit of time spent in the car.  We drove through the vineyards between Lausanne and Vevey, what a beautiful view!  We stopped in Villeneuve, where they were having an acrobatic paragliding competition, and saw some pretty serious stunts.  We stopped by the French border at St. Gingolphe for a coffee and some ice cream, before driving back through the vineyards. 

We stopped in a cellar to try some wine, and were entertained by a tourist who got her dog attacked by one of the local dogs!  It was quite the scandal, I think it will be the talk of the town for the next few weeks...

The evening was topped off with some Pimms and a barbecue, before we hit the sack, only to wake up on Monday at 4:30am to drive to the airport.

Check out the rest of the pics in the Photo Gallery