Laax - Switzerland

The Place: The team being (in pic from left to right), Dimitri (aka Gunter but his friends call him Pehter), Mike (aka Gustav), Dean (aka Shhtephan), Sean (aka Hans) and me (aka Claus), set off for a legendary ski/snowboard weekend in Laax (about one and a half hours drive from Zurich airport).
Some highlights: Getting to the slopes to find that only one slope (the Plaun - red/black) is open for my first outdoor snowboard session. After many wipeouts, bruises, somersaults and ribcrunches I got the hang of it. The day was a steep learning curve but loads of fun.
Invaluable practice at carving on the second day when a second slope opened up (blue – easier) which meant that Gunter (but his friends call him Pehter) got his first skiing session and I got to practice my carving.
Pehter and Shhtephan wiping out on the button lift and having to hike up the slope thru knee deep snow (an exhausting and prize worthy challenge).
Hans wiping in front of Gustav, who had to superman dive over him to avoid collision, somehow managing to clear both himself and his skis over his fallen race companion.
Great nights out in Laax (although with limited energy and battered bodies).
‘The Glacier’ slope which was only open on our 3rd skiing day. This slope had an incredible view from the top. The air actually glittered with snow flakes and the slopes were soft, wide and seemingly never-ending (in the best possible sense). We all got to do some of our best work with Hans spraying up a snowboard wake and landing some great jumps, Gustav picking up pace on his skis and cam cording the others while still in motion, Shhtephan practicing his 360 turns and jumps, Pehter getting into his groove on his skis and me practicing carving and picking up the pace.
The climax: We decided not to take a lift from the glacier slope down to the first slope but rather to ski down the mountain on an 'blue' slope. We thought being blue it would be easy but it turned out that most of the slope was ungraded. We had to follow other peoples tracks. Failure to do so resulted in wiping out in the soft powder, which is near impossible to get out of since you just sink when trying to pick yourself up. This meant keeping a high speed to make the uphills and avoid stopping and getting stuck. We reached great speeds, flew over ramps, hopped off ledges and wiped out a few times in the soft waist deep powder. We eventually arrived at the bottom ski lift, thankful that we weren't stuck in the middle of the mountain, and psyched that it turned into such an adventure!