Alpine touring/randonée skiing - anyone?

[lph]

Just returned from eight days in the Alps, touring from Verbier to Zermatt, and on to Saas Fee. Fantabulously fantastic. If anybody had told me 5 years ago that I'd been skiing the Haute Route in any form or fashion I would've rolled my eyes and chortled.

Yay me! Yay AT skis! :-D

[Catrin]

Just returned from eight days in the Alps, touring from Verbier to Zermatt, and on to Saas Fee. Fantabulously fantastic. If anybody had told me 5 years ago that I'd been skiing the Haute Route in any form or fashion I would've rolled my eyes and chortled.

Yay me! Yay AT skis! :-D

Sounds like a lot of fun!!!! Pictures???

[lph]

A bunch of photos taken by our "guide" are here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/1005978...2013HauteRoute

I'm the one clowning around in blue sunglasses and cowboy hat ;-)

[Crankin]

That looks awesome. Of course, I don't know how to alpine ski or telemark, and the equipment looks formidable, but I think I would like this.
DH took a look at the pictures and said "no way." Trying to convince him to do a hut to hut nordic tour of the Maine Woods. The sticking point is having to go outside to use the rest room in the middle of the night, when it's 0 degrees F.

[Catrin]

Thanks for the pictures link! Crankin, I am with your DH on that one. I HATE going to an outhouse at night below a certain temp... guess I am just a temp weenie

[ridebikeme]

I'm highjacking the thread here, but can tell you that the hut experince is great and I'd definitely do it again. The restrooms are just in another building, so there aren't any outhouses.

[lph]

It depends on which huts you stay at, at ours most of the restrooms were in the same building. Even the infamous Vignettes-restroom has now been moved from its precarious perch over the glacier to indoors. But at one hut, the Schönbielhütte, there was a classic outhouse outside, down a short icy slope and with a jaw-dropping view of the Matterhorn. I wasn't too pleased about slipping and sliding down there at night until I realized that not only did the hut supply Crocs for everyone for indoor use, they also supplied going-to-the-restroom shoes, low rubber boots with a good sturdy rubber sole. How's that for service!

PS to your dh, Crankin: in my experience, once there's more than a few metres between the dorm and the restroom most of the guys just find a quiet corner... judging from the yellow snow. Maybe not quite polite, but at 3 in the morning in a cold wind norms tend to slip for the best of us ;-)

[Crankin]

Well, we stayed at Little Lyford (AMC) camp in the summer. There is a bath house with an indoor bathroom, but there are also outhouses behind each cabin. Some of the cabins are pretty far from the bath house. Sure, guys can pee outside, which I believe he did, as he didn't want to walk to the out house, but I went out there. Not sure if I would want to do this in the winter.
I still want to do this trip.

[Catrin]

A bunch of photos taken by our "guide" are here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/1005978...2013HauteRoute

I'm the one clowning around in blue sunglasses and cowboy hat ;-)

Woah! I finally got the chance to sit down and really look through the wonderful photos. You rock LPH! It looks like a lot of fun was greatly had by all

[indysteel]

Woah is right! Wow, lph. What a trip! It looks like you had a blast.

I have never skied. Ever. So, your trip is such an alien concept to me (an extremely cool alien concept). Minus my phobia of driving in snow and ice, I wish I lived someplace that lent itself to some form of a snow or ice sport. You all just make it look so fun.

[lph]

Thanks folks :-) We didn't enjoy every step, of course, there were a lot of hot and exhausting uphills, and downhills hard enough for me to start whimpering a little to myself, but we stopped enough at every photo op to get our breath back, regroup, chat and feel happy again. And our "guide" (not an official guide, a friend and colleague who knows the area very well) would natter on in pseudo-German, pseudo-French, pseudo Mid-Norwegian dialects or pseudo-American at the drop of a hat... hilarious. And since you end up with only the photos and fading memories - you might as well make'em good :-)

[antimony]

That looks awesome. Of course, I don't know how to alpine ski or telemark, and the equipment looks formidable, but I think I would like this.
DH took a look at the pictures and said "no way." Trying to convince him to do a hut to hut nordic tour of the Maine Woods. The sticking point is having to go outside to use the rest room in the middle of the night, when it's 0 degrees F.

If you're looking at Maine Huts and Trails, while you do have to go outside, it's a short and generally well-kept path (and on the newer huts it's actually a boardwalk between them, raised off the ground). The bathrooms aren't outhouses -- they are composting toilets but real sinks, and real showers with a short time limit. The food is really great, the trails are well-maintained, and the only bad thing about the trip was that I chose poorly in one new pair of socks and had horrible blisters.

[Crankin]

Thanks, Antimony. We were (are) looking at the AMC hut to hut x country ski trip, that is led by a guide and they haul your gear on a snowmobile. So, different huts and facilities. As I said in the above post, at Little Lyford there were outhouses behind each cabin and a bathhouse in the middle of the compound. The food was great, and we really want to support AMC, as we are bike trip leaders for them. We know we can do the skiing. But in August, it was 40 degrees at night, so I can imagine going out there to pee in February.
Sorry about your blister experience. I had that snow shoeing at Von Trapp a few years ago and it put an end to any more outdoor activity for the remainder of th trip. It was too warm to x country ski, the snow was mushy, and 3/4 of us ended up with blisters that day. It was horrible.