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When it comes to ski buddies
Kaj Zackrisson is about as good as they get
Just being around the dreadlocked Swedish
pied piper of stoke is enough to put a smile on anyone's face.
For the past six years we've explored Europe
by car, train, and helicopter
taking far more than our fair share of powder and good times.
This year we decided to invite along Swedish super skier Henrik Windstedt.
The plan was simple,
Henrik and I would meet at the Salomon headquarters in Annecy France,
then drive to Chamonix pick up Kaj
and spend two weeks skiing all the resorts around Mt Blanc Massif.
We're not off to a very good start...
... so far.
What do you think Henki?
No, all the lights on the dashboard are flashing too.
Two fruitless hours later the crew crammed into one RV
and headed towards Chamonix.
As we pulled into town we spotted a wicked north wind blowing
what was left of the powder into southern Italy along with our morale.
With no snow in the forecast for the Mont Blanc area
this trip was heading sideways in a hurry.
Fortunately, a check of the Salomon pow finder app,
word that our second RV was fixed,
and the arrival of Kaj
was all we needed to restore our spirit and get the trip back on track.
OK I'm ready to ski some pow
and drive around the Alps and have some fun, OK?
Well you're in the right place.
We set our sights on the tiny Italian hamlet of Argentera and hit the road.
Arriving just after midnight
we pulled up our rolling hotel rooms to the base of the lift
and woke up the next morning to a dusting of fresh snow
and the ski area virtually to ourselves.
Well, we've been waiting for it to clear up in Argentera and it finally has,
full blue bird today but a...
... a third of our crews gone down
with a little bit of a stomach issue,
which wasn't too pleasant out in the parking lot last night.
I'm probably the next best person qualified to run a camera so I'm going to hand off.
_ There's Ben, still happy to be here right now. _ I've felt better....
Boys.. We'll try and make some magic eh?
It may have been the searing Mediterranean sun,
the signs of avalanche on nearly every aspect or pity for our comrades in the valley
perhaps it was a combination of all three
But at days end we decided to head north toward cooler temperatures and hopefully better skiing.
We ended up in the Italian town of Claviere
which is part of the Vialattea ski circus straddling the French Italian border.
After our first day we were feeling pretty good about our latest move.
This was the kind of skiing we came for...
and there seemed to be no reason to go anywhere else.
We were drunk on a cocktail of stoke and adrenalin
In my revelry I missed some of the classic signs of dangerous terrain
and ended up getting the scare of the season.
You old ***, You kicked off, that was a pretty deep cut.
Yeah, that was a bit scary, I have to say...
We didn't expect to have that much action there,
otherwise there is no way we would have skied it.
But is shows us, you know,
you got to tread lightly out here and step carefully.
That night back at the RV we celebrated good friends
and our good fortune.
The next morning we were back on the hunt for snow.
It's saying south, back south again.
With over seventy centimeters of new snow in the forecast
we began what was supposed to be a four hour journey to Isola 2000.
Eight hours later the intensifying snow storm
and our RV's lack of traction
forced us to retreat to the nearby town of Saint-Etienne-De-Tinee.
The next morning we swallowed our pride
and did what every serious skier considers the ultimate in failureů..
... we rented chains.
We are just hoping to get the chains on
and get all the big busses out of our way
and then we going to drive up the Isola 2000.
The snow picked up as we finished our last run of the afternoon
and we felt certain tomorrow would be the day we'd been waiting for.
We woke to forty five centimetres of fresh powder
and made our way straight to the base of the lifts.
With all the new snow it took the patrol nearly two hours to get the mountain open
but nothing could bring us down
not even watching the snow turn to rain at the top of our first run.
As freeskiers we often assume our happiness is based on deep snow and great terrain,
but it's trips like this that prove that simply sharing an adventure
with your friends is sometimes all you need.
Sometimes life gives you lemons...
... then you make lemonade.