Zinal / Grimentz
24th February 2007
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Another day in Zinal although by lunchtime the self-service restaurant looked busy so we skied to Grimentz and had lunch over there.
I’d had a mail a few weeks back from George Nimeh who’s part of the Red Bull Hike and Ride setup, he’d mentioned getting over in this area before the event itself. I’d forgotten about this until lunch time when a couple of guys came into the restaurant with video gear and it jogged my memory. Anyway, it turned out to be George and some guys from the event.
There’s already some footage posted over on their site and it’s well worth looking at, here’s the link again : Red Bull Hike and Ride
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It was snowing on and off during the day, as forecast for the weekend, and visibility really wasn’t too great at times.
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February 25th, 2007 at Sun, 25 Feb 2007 22:22:59 +0000
Visibility was slightly worse today, I’d gone up on the first lift and had some good skiing in the fresh snow that had fallen overnight but it was awkward in places due to the lack of light.
What could have been the best run of the day turned into the worse, the Chamois descent into Mottec was ‘problematic’ as I couldn’t see more than a metre or so, the snow was excellent but it was a bit one turn at a time although the middle section was nice as the light improved. The run drops over 4000 feet mostly in the first part, as you turn to Mottec it drops another 2 1/2 inches in about 10km with the gradient reaching 1 in 100,000 in places. In wet untracked snow on skis that were last waxed weeks ago it was painful and I missed the bus by 2 minutes at Mottec and had to wait another 20mins for the next. Oddly, no one else arrived in that time.
February 28th, 2007 at Wed, 28 Feb 2007 18:18:35 +0000
Hi Ian,
It was sooo cool to meet you in Grimentz. How random. Just FYI, the 2 guys who filmed in Zinal and Grimentz won the competition. They found some of the last remaininig powder in Switzerland and have an incredible story to tell.
The dump we just got much appreciated, and I hope you had a couple good powder days on Monday and Tuesday. I’m in Gargellen and headed for St Christoph. The goods here the past 2 days were incredible.
Grimentz and Zinal are on my “must return” list, and I hope we can hook up for a few fresh tracks the next time I’m there.
Ciao!
PS: all the videos and clips from the event are on the site.
February 28th, 2007 at Wed, 28 Feb 2007 18:20:00 +0000
ps: I seem to have massacred the links above …
Red Bull Hike&Ride web site:
http://www.redbullhikeandride.com/
November 5th, 2007 at Mon, 05 Nov 2007 20:09:07 +0000
[...] in an blog a while back that the Red Bull Hike and Ride had passed through Zinal and Grimentz (see here) and that the winning video was shot in the valley. As a taster for winter I thought I’d post [...]