This trip turned out to be wonderful despite some initial problems that the weather had caused.  BC\Rodney\Peter\Erin\Spill all spent a week in the apartment Gria Tali in St. Anton, Austria.  Everyone finally made it to St. Anton on Saturday and we all skied on Sunday.  It was stormy on Sunday which brought on some great powder skiing. Erin\Peter\and Rodney went together to ski. The deep powder made it pretty difficult to ski on the first day. On Sunday, BC and I had a great lunch in a hut on top of the mountain and then we had some visibility problems coming down.  I encountered vertigo as I could only see about 10 feet in front of me and everything looked the same.  We made it down to under the clouds to get our bearings (what an ordeal.)  The rest of the weeks conditions were poor due to increased avalanche warnings and high winds that shut the mountain down.  Erin\Peter\Rod\Jim did take the train from St. Anton to Innsbruk, and then boarded a local bus to the Sworovski Chrystal Factory for a day trip and then hung out for a little time in Innsbruck...

Here is the Sworovski details of the factory.  http://kristallwelten.swarovski.com/  You should really try to make it if you go anywhere close to Innsbruck.

ST. Anton - Stay at Gria Tali      http://www.arlberg.com/gria.tali/

Val Disere - Stay at Hotel La Galise   http://www.lagalise.com/

2nd Week...

Val Disere was great fun as we left St. Anton at 7:AM traveling by train through Switzerland and on to Geneva for a 6:00pm bus. We had to kill some time, so we scarfed a couple of steak and fries at the Paris Cafe in Geneva (wow).  If you do go to Val from Geneva, I suggest you get a bus ticket for Val in Geneva Airport.  We finally arrived in Val at 11:00PM and it was snowing like crazy and we didn't have a clue where the hotel was. The hotel bar was open and we were able to check right in.  The hotel was less than 100 meters to snow and a small traverse to the lift!  The snow was wonderful and we had a blast!

Highlights of the week include:

St. Anton: peter's meals, health club swimming, steep\deep\out for the week, nice meals out, sworovski chrystal tour, getting lost in innsbruck (thanks peter), snow\snow and more snow.

Val Disere: 3 feet of fresh powder, snow covered cars, 4 foot bus driver making way at midnight to Val. Great meal up toward one lift (will try to find the name)

Trip Pictures:

Trip Lingo:

SNOOPSKI.COM