gartnerich.com

last week end i had the chance to go skiing with 2 friends. we started in grenoble and went to “la grave”. it’s a great ski resort – and of a very special flavour: they have no slopes – just a great mountain and a ski lift. yes: ONE ski lift. well, there are actually two of them, but one after the other so they act as one long. very long. as you can see on the little map the lifts go up 2’150 m.another thing that is special about la grave: they have no slopes. at least no “normal” slopes as we know them from other ski resorts. that means that everybody just finds its way down this mountain. and it’s a real mountain!we arrived saturday round lunch time (i know that’t late for skiing but we had to pick up one of our friends in lyon). we went up with the ski lift that looks like a pre-war historical model. and their we were: a fantistic mountain just above a glacier, a view on a series of the alps most outstanding peaks…our first day – or rather afternoon – consisted of only 4 runs. after those 4 runs we were dead. runs at la grave are different. they’re long and they’re real work – and so much fun!!another nature-highlight we saw: since you ski on, next to and beside the glacier you get to see impressive things. while skiing down a valley i turned around once and saw – a hole in the glacier!the next day another friend joined and although we skied the entire day we did only 2 runs: the wind was blowing so much that they reduiced the speed of the lift. so going up took about 3 times as long as the day before and the queues became huge. but even with those “civilization problems” la grave was still a great nature experience. skiing on a glacier with wind that is so strong you can barely go down is something i had never before. the picture shows julien in the glacier -storm… one thing i know for sure: la grave, we will be back…