Well, I was not going to do any write-ups on trips prior to the Whistler 2005. But it just so happens, that it is Sunday today and I'm feeling a little nostalgic and bored. On top of that got a bit sick couple of days ago, so no snowboarding this weekend (Patryk & Agata and Italian family did go, b^$#ards). So here it is:

It was just before Xmas in December 2004. I and Patryk left Krakow almost exactly at midnight. Our destination was Passo Tonale. We did take a bit of time to get there - close to 22 hours - but it was a fun drive anyway. We had a couple of stops en route, some in very lovely places like Germany (see pics below), but the first major one was at Livigno. 

It is a lovely little town between Switzerland and Italy and it is duty-free. There is a stunning dam with a great view from the dam wall. We bought some alcohol, then we bought some more. After we left Livigno, we got stopped by the Italian police, just a routine check to make sure we are not smuggling any alcohol or tobacco. Turns out that Patryk cannot keep a straight face and is not too good at lying to the coppers... lucky thing, that I am lousy at counting and was convinced that we only had a bottle of rum, a bottle of Gin, some wine and a bottle of Grappa. I managed to convince the copper as well. When in doubt pretend that you are more stupid than them and really, really helpful. We got away with it, but it was a close call.

The next stop was a nice little hot spring between Isolacia and Bormio. The spring is located inside a fully operational quarry. It's just a pipe sticking out from a rock wall. Someone made a little dam out of rocks around it, so the hot water fills a small pool. The only bummer is that you need to cross a stream to get to that natural hot tub and the stream is your regular freezing temperature. The hot spring was well worth the short pain.

So then we thought we'll take a shortcut through Passo Stelvio. Unfortunately it turned out that the pass is closed in winter, a had to do additional 2 hours of driving to go around it. We got to Tonale around 10pm, quite tired, but still had a small beer before bed (... actually we had a pretty large one each).

The apartments turned out to be really crap. The furniture was shitty, the kitchen was equipped poorly and the beds were terrible. Fortunately, as it turned out later, we didn't get to spend much time in the apartments anyway :). We were sharing the apartment with Rafal and his friend Krzysztof. They traveled in their own car, directly from Krakow. It took them much less than 22 hours...

a SINGLE bottle of Gin, a SINGLE bottle of Rum, a bottle of Grappa and some wine is all the alcohol we had, according to my customs declaration 

(the other 20 bottles of beer and 3 2-liter bottles of red wine are under the table)

Woke up next morning - stunning weather and a great view form the window. The riding was great - we had a really superb weather through out the whole week. The snow wasn't to soft, as the temperatures were generally below 0 C. Enough said. It was time to rip the mountain.

We took it easy for the first 1-2 days. Managed to do a lot of training. Every single morning we started off with a couple of runs on a blue trail, just to warm up and get comfortable on the snow. Then we did a couple of runs on a red run. The moment something didn't "click", we went back to the blue run and practiced the basics again. It builds up confidence and we could feel this toward the end of the trip.

After the good day on the mountain, it was time to have a bit of a drink. And not a lot of things beat Gin & Tonic with a dash of lemon. Here's the way we prepare it:

1. Peel the lemon (or find someone to do it for you - thanks Rafal)

2. Concentrate Patryk-son. Use your inner force.

3. Pour the Gin into the glass

4. Slice the lemon and put the slice in the glass

5. Top up with Tonic. Wait for that famous G&T effect.

Our trip was actually organized by a crowd from Gdynia. They all came by a coach and we simply joined them in Tonale. We were hoping for a decent party and gave it a good try. The crowd turned out to be quite boring and self-centered. No point in going up against a brick wall. So we chilled at home. The need to party was temporarily under control, but we could see it exploding and resulting in serious bodily damage if we quickly didn't do something about it.

Fortunately, during the 3rd day, going up on a chairlift, we noticed a couple on hard boards (actually he was on a hard setup, she was riding a SBX board with soft boots). They were getting into the carving, but evidently something was going wrong there and they did not seem to be getting it right. I had a sudden urge to spread the good news and help out fellow carvers. but riding up to them and telling them what they were doing wrong.... it just seemed a bit rude. So we did a flash demo run along the chair lift, just as they were coming up. We did not have to wait long - during our next run, they approached us and we started to chat. I was already quite late, so we didn't do much more riding that day. But they did invite us over for drinks and maybe a party later. 

And so we got to meet the whole group, which nicknamed themselves "Italian Family", namely - Marcin, Goska, Zuber, Hanka i Kuba. The drinks were good. The party even better. Patryk's and my sanity was miraculously saved. Big cheers to the Italian Family.

For the remainder of the trip we rode with the Italian Family. It is just so much better, when you ride in a bigger crowd. Need not to say, that we drank with them too. 

Here's some pictures of Italian family in action:

Hania

Marcin

Goska

Zuber

The parties were also pretty intense. Unfortunately not a lot of pictures were taken. So I leave that to your imagination. ;) Not only we partied off-piste (the usual kind) but had great fun on the slopes. Zuber and Marcin even did a short ballet on the lift...

Here's a couple of assorted pictures:

Canmanski vs Canmanski

"Once were snowboarders ..."

Marcin

Zuber

Patryk

Kuba

Hania & I

Hania as a superhero

Apres ski in a local pub

mmm ... beer

The trip back was pretty uneventful. We stopped for a day in San Candido and did some boarding there. It was bloody cold. Tried to compete in a GS there, but failed to qualify. In the afternoon we set off for Krakow. If it wasn't for loud music and a whole bunch of Red Bulls we'd probably fall asleep half way here. Got home at around 6am. 

The trip was a very successful one and filled with solid riding, intense partying and great people.

Cheers.