Trains, Trams and T-Bars
Posted on Tuesday, March 10th, 2009
Location – Reichenbach and Davos, Switzerland
Team North America – Howie, Schnitz, Ogle, Adam, and 2mas.
Team Europe – Thomas, Davos Dan, Erlend, Audun and Juju.
- Thomas Hodel ripping it
Goal – We have come to Switzerland to make good Freeride, compliments of Cloudveil, POC Helmets and Black Diamond. The plan is to visit Fritschi, Black Diamond Europe HQ, ski and have editors talk about skis, boots, bindings, trends and how the markets differ globally.
Eiger and Monch from the Gehrihorn
Highlights:
Day 1 - Tour of the Fritschi factory with Stefan Burki and Stefan Ibach. Introduction of the new Diamir Eagle AT Binding. Touring to the summit of the Gehrihorn from which we can see the distant summits of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau. Trad fondue dinner. Weisbeer, Kirsch, white wine, don’t drop your bread in the fondue as this is a boys trip.
- Reflections at Fritschi: Tracks and the Gehrihorn
- The New Fritschi Diamir Eagle
Day 2 – Train to Davos. Ski off piste pow testing next year’s product in Pischa. Davos Dan Caruso (DC) is our tour guide and shows us the goods. The deal is Tram to T-Bar to Traverse off piste, then knee deep freshies 3K plus to the valley floor. Hitch hike, call a cab, grab a bus and do it again. We make good Freeride yah!
Day 3 – More ski testing on Rinerhorn and Jakobshorn. Dan educates us to an emerging Freeride dialect that is similar to Swiss German. “Dude, he dry docked his ski and went totally Peggy Fleming-ing.” We witness the new school Howie-hawk and visit the legendary Wallhalla Telemark Freeride Bar.
- Tram up Jakobshorn
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DC hitching a ride back to Davos
Day 4 – A bit snowy and flat light for the absinthe-minded. We hit Parsenn for never ending piste runs and some leftover chowder. Also visit the SLF – the Davos based Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research. Dan is married to a local charger Pepe and they have two boys Rocco and Little Guy. The boys take after their parents – little rippers who also understand the importance of a good plate of pomme frites at lunch.
Little Guy scoping a line from the deck at lunch
- Tee-ing it up in Parsenne
Day 5 – Visit Black Diamond Europe and talk trends with GM Christian Jaeggi. Be very wary of the Baseler Festival.
- The Baseler – a century old Swiss tradition
Yeah, it was nothing like this at all….
