Ok, so back in April 2004 we went to Vason, Monte Bondone, Italy. It is a small village, quite high up in the mountains (at 1800 m). Some of us traveled by plane (Craig from UK, and Stephan and Reiner from South Africa) and got there early (landed in a wrong airport, rented a car, got lost on the freeway, slept in the car) and managed to get a day of snowboarding in before the rest of us arrived. That night it dumped a lot of snow, so they got some really good powder runs out of it:

God (Stephan) snoozing                               Reiner having powder dreams

God ripping through fresh fluff

The Polska team arrived on a coach. Nothing beats a 20 hour coach ride. The coach was slightly over packed and we did not get to use the toilet much... so much for drinking lots of beer during that trip. 

20 hours on the coach.... and everyone looks stupid

There were quite a few of us - I, Agata, Dorota, Rafał, Agnieszka, Franek, Patryk i Agata. Bringing the total number to 11. The apartments were quite decent. We arrived around 4pm, had time to unpack and fire up a party.

On the way to Italy, we stopped at duty-free shops in Znojmo. Bought a decent amount of alcohol. The idea was to have a different cocktail every evening. And it actually worked. The first night, if I remember correctly were Mad Dogs. We actually ran out of Tabasco, before we ran out of Vodka. In other words, we made them strong like Russian rats. At some stage we got silly and very drunk and no one took pictures, which is a good thing. 

Standard issue Mad Dog with a quadruple Tabasco

With a moderate hangover, we were ready to hit the slopes the next day. Monte Bondone is one of the smaller ski areas within the Dolomites and Val di Sole. But it is quite schweet. The runs were well prepared, most very wide. And the best thing - they were fairly empty of other people. So we could go big.

Unfortunately some went bigger than others and Agnieszka had a nasty accident. She was riding home, off-piste, and tripped on a log, that was covered in snow. She fell forwards and hit her head on another log, that was underneath the snow. She was not wearing a helmet. Big nasty cut, couple of stitches and a major concussion. She was taken to the hospital and remained there till the end of the week. We drank ourselves sad that evening and went ahead with Blow Jobs, just to sweeten our lives a bit. The accident has given us quite a shake that afternoon.

Blow Jobs are all about getting that whipped cream on top right....

Towards the end of the evening, the blow jobs got bigger

The social center

It's fairly obvious that we took it really easy the next day... but the weather was great, so we could just chill and have fun on the slope.

God is checking out a view                                   Patryk extreme carving

Patryk and Agata on a chair                              Canmanski and Reiner enjoy some schnapps

God, his beer and his tiny snowman                        Canmanski, beer and 2 little snowmen

Well, that afternoon we just had to have sundowners. I mean, with such a glorious day, we had to show our respect to the Sun God and his chariot. We took a bunch of Gin, some Tonic and managed to "borrow" Angostura and some more glasses. Took some chairs out of the apartment and we set down on the top of the hill. After the drink preparation ceremony, we sat down and paid our tribute. Then we paid another tribute, quickly followed by some more.... We pleased the Sun God and were blessed with a great weather for the remainder of the trip.

And a glorious sunset follows:

Just to make sure, the sun rises the next morning, we had Tequila Sunrises that evening and let me tell you, we had lots. Enough to make one of the trip organizers want to stick around at our party till 4am. Big cheers to Chris from www.winterfun.com.pl for keeping us company. While I am on that subject, the trip was well organized, save for a few hassles on the bus and it was good value for money, so Winterfun gets 8/10 for organizing this one. If Chris didn't drink that many Tequilas, they'd get 9/10 ;). 

We did some weird stuff that night including, but not limited to, 30 minute discussion on going bald (and I have that on video..), snow drift diving (Klepster was the dive master), abusing unknown completely drunk guy who was sleeping next to our apartment (yes Dorota, that's you), making Klepster's head ache. Some pictures, just to prove we meant business:

the God ...                                 ..... the Bad ....                          ..... and the Ugly

The next day we took it really easy, with SaFa boys taking a the whole day off, and some of us just barely struggling through ...

The South African way.....

the Canmanski way....

So, by now you actually start thinking, my God (no, not you Stephan), did these people actually got to ski and snowboard at all. Well, we did Bob. And it was simply superb. It was so good that there is just no point in describing it. So there's a little joke for you instead:

Little Insert_name_here comes back home after his holiday in Vason. And his mommy asks him:

- "How was it, sweetie ?" 

- "Well mom, it was great." - says Insert_name_here.

- "But Insert_name_here, was just great or was it really super ?"

- "Mom, it was really super"

- "But Insert_name_here, was it really, really that super ?"

- "YES, mom, it was really, really super"

- "Really ?"

- "MOM, it was F#%KING great, OK ?"

- "Well, Insert_name_here, why did you F#%KING say so in the first place...."

That's how good the riding was....

This is a decent piste.....

Canmanski on skis, you don't get to see that often

Corduroy

Great view of Trento

There was just one more thing we had to do. Build a gigantic snowman. But we did one better. We made a snowman and a snowwoman :)

the snow people

Klepster makes sure that everything is in the right place

the Team

Again, after an evening of snowman building and huge party afterwards, we were 'tired' the next day. So we played around in the snow some more. That's what happens to you if you land up at the wrong end of a ski pole :

It's got to hurt

"Hey, you're in Italy ! Look cool !"

God, the Looking Cool Master.

Agata giving it horns.

"Treat your board right, and she will treat you right" - Patryk obviously forgot about that one.

After a week in the glorious sun it was time to head back. The SAfas droved to the airport, and we jumped on the coach back to Poland. After another great 20 hours we were back at home. It was definitely one of the best snowboarding trips.

This page was last updated on 08-05-2006 .