Trevor's #11 -- the last one for the season

Proceeding with Trevors ride. Due to weather, cold, ice the ride started 9:30, Py anticipated to join the slower group today starting at 9:15 and to ride "into" them to join at about 1/2 way -- so he also started out 9:15. It was sunny and cold (just not freezing any longer) this morning. Snow and ice on the sides, roads mostly clear and dry, just a few wet/icy patches -- but a dirty mess of salt, sand and gravel all over -- a nasty mix with wet patches from melting snow.

At about half way he wondered where they are... no rider in sight so far, he proceeded and almost all the way out to 112 he saw a group, but the fast 9:30 group coming up -- slow, some trouble behind. He joined them, no choice. They were moving fast, very fast and he was riding close to his limit, but made it all the way out east -- the group was small, just 8 riders, cruising at or over 40km/h at times and several sprints in between let Py suffering to hang on, also the little group was split up in 4/4 or 4/2/2 with some distance in between at times -- that was a pain for Py, not to say he was not riding for 2 weeks his bike o-)
One more (or to many) sprint into the wind at South St... he got behind, kept them in sight until turning into Moriches, but that's it... and he was on his own, but completed the full ride, in pain.

104 km.



Back at RP, he stopped by at Tildas to get a little reward :-)

Home, geschafft.


Now that dirty salty bike needed a warm water wash and wipe down...

Snow again

Just returned from the snow covered mountains to the Island and what do I see the next morning - Camp opening delayed - Camp closed for the day -- just funny, but Py just stayed home:


Two days later, blue sky again and rising temps... looks just still nice.

Day 12 - Klosters-Davos

The last day has come...

This morning Py decided to give his board to a local shop at Klosters for a quick waxing, as it's base got really dry and riding was getting harder lately. This turned out to be the best decision of the day, he should have had done that already little earlier. Heading back to the Gotschnabahn up to Gotschnagrad this morning, exploring a few short rides from Gotschnagrad (#45a/b) and heading over to Parsennhütte, taking the T-bar up to Parsennpfurgga down again to Parsennhüttenbahn all the way up to Weissfluhjoch and further to Weissfluhgipfel.

Again the long #1... Schifer ride several times... Lunch at Berghaus Schifer.... a few more rides and the now well known Talabfahrt down to Klosters village for a perfect finish of the last day.

The new prepared base felt really good and fast again.

.... no photos this day!

Day 11 - Arosa once more

Tuesday... Arosa with friends again.

Again on top of Weisshorn - again blue sky :-)

Carnenna run...

Hi buddies up there...

A few photo studies....

Day 10 - Davos

Monday he decided to check out Davos, one of the biggest terrains in Graubünden.

Here an about 200 degree view from Weissfluhgipfel:

This is the run #4 left of the Parsenn Standseilbahn track on right:

This nice shorty just for a warmup of the day...

The challenging long run from top of Weissfluhgipfel (2844 m) #1-#17-#21-#22 all the way down to Schifer (1562 m) over various terrain turned into Py's most favorite ride -- he could enjoy 20..30min riding at decent speed without any stopping :-)

Just after passing "Kreuzweg":

The long ride back to the top via the gondola "Schiferbahn" (here a view at it by the end of the day from the final "Talabfahrt" #21 lower section):

and the big Gondel "Gipfelbahn"

takes a total of about 30 minutes! And is a welcome break and always good for a quick snack in the gondola.

Here, at Berghaus Schifer, he spend his lunchtime. All kind of good local food is served on the sun terrace :-)

Snowboard parking

View from the sun terrace...

Schiferbahn Station for the ride back up to do it again...

He did several more runs down to Schifer and variations this day and finished the day with one of the longest rides possible here...

Here a view from the short flat section leaving the path to Schifer continuing on #21, not taking #22... look at the crisp the Moon:

and back at the split of the #21/#22 at the lower left here:

This is about the middle of the ride from Weissfluhgipfel (2844 m) down to Klosters Dorf (1124 m) strait into the train station. -- This is a vertical drop of 1720 m (5'643 ft) -- he has no clue how many miles that are -- several!



And boarding the train of the Rhätische Bahn in a few minutes.

Day 9 - Arosa again

And back to the Alps the night before, he continued the fun in the mountains this Sunday -- the weather still unchanged awesome sunny and clear with still plenty of snow at high altitudes. However, the original idea of a Snowshoe and Snowboard tour was revised due to lack of (fresh) snow at lower altitudes. He felt very bad and sorry this morning for his friend, he really forgot to inform about recent plans about going to Arosa in time -- there were so many things going on and he was busy, not even found the time to check E-mail daily.

Some goofing around the morning... they got late, so what, it's vacation ;-)

Starting over with the red run #7 from Weisshorn for warm-up (here in thee Alps red is intermediate, blue easy (better avoid) and black included the most fun steeps....):

Watching flying powder in the sun while having a Coffee break...

*** Just for memories ***
This is how Arosa could also look a like... (Feb. 2006):

Day 5..8 - break - SPA-LEED Workshop Bremen

Trip to Bremen.... a last minute planned interruption of his vacation... as he accepted a short term invitation.

on the way to downtown Bremen for dinner...

Day 4 - Pizol

Pizol on Tuesday.

View down into the Rhein valley: