Switzerland Snowboard Adventure Part II

4/17/18

The Streets of Saas Fee

I had been in Switzerland for a week, hunkered down in the back of Leif's shop with Aaron. Sass Fee's season had ended and they were quickly moving into their off season. We upgraded our living situation from Leif's shop to the Dorfblick. Since the group of Swedish kids had left and the season was over Bjorn and Debbie kindly let us take up some empty rooms in one of the apartment levels at the Blick. We payed off our stay by repainting some old radiators throughout the place.

Dani

Also staying with us in the apartment was Faybe Rechsteiner, a Swiss kid that had lived at the Dorfblick all winter and taught lessons on the mountain. We knew Fabye a little bit as he had joined along on some of our ripping pow days. Through the next week of street missions Fabye helped build and photograph all the spots we hit.

Dani Lanz also teamed up with us for all of our missions. Dani was from Switzerland too and just kind of appeared one day on the mountain with us and became our homie. He had just been visiting some friends in Sass Fee for a couple weeks crashing on couches.

For the next week a natural routine formed around our snowboarding in town. Around 8 every morning Dani would show up at the Dorfblick where we would have a big breakfast. With a couple morning games of Dominoes we played what we were about to attack for the day. For some reason or another the School House Rock song "3 is a Magic Number" became daily morning hype song.

Every day of the week turned out bluebird sunny and seventy degrees. We built a lot of spots and ended up riding and filming every one. For some spots none of us knew if everything would line up and work out, but we were 100% successful. On one day we worked the whole day building four spots throughout town and got shots on every spot the next day. Half of the townsfolk were interested in what we were doing and the other half were old and cranky. Luckily for us we had Dani who could yell back at the old hens in Swiss German and try to explain what we were doing. On one occasion Dani got in a yelling match with old guy who ended up throwing a a shovel full of snow in Dani's face.

A local lady checking the spot

If we didn't ride through lunch we would take a midday break back at the Dorfblick. While we let our wet boots and gear dry off in the sun we fueled up with some more games of dominoes. Dani took enthusiastic duty as the lunch chef most days and cooked massive meals. Day after day he would whip up these crazy dishes of food I've never seen before.

Fredi hitting the hip

After eating we would be back on the town again. One feature we ended up building was a hip hit over a bridge next to the Dorfblick. It had a big banked in-run up and the bridge had a scary looking drop down to the river. After we had sessioned it Fredi walked by and admired the creative feature we had built. He got excited and wanted to join. Although it started deteriorating fast we hit it again the next day. Fredi asked me to hit it first to show him the speed and approach. He was stoked that we had built such a cool feature in a spot he hadn't seen in his home town.

At the end of each day we headed up to a knoll at the top of town to hangout under the sunset. A group of homies had dug out a grassy spot up there to grill and hangout. With the sausages roasting, music rolling, and the tallboys flowing we laid out under the last licks of the sun. We let the excitement of each day prepare us for the next.

Last bit of sun

Luckily for Aaron and myself most nights we were invited to dinner at someone's place. Every other night we somehow found ourselves at another cheese filled meal. Raclette, Fondue, home made cheese pizza, my arteries felled like they were pumping with cheese by the end of the trip. On one night in particular we were invited to this local homie Kai's place for Raclette. Over the course of the night Kai, Aaron, Fredi, myself, and three French friends finished an entire wheel of cheese. After we finished the first half I thought Kai was joking when he said he had another half wheel of cheese we needed to eat. Normally a group of seven should barely be able to eat one half wheel, but somehow we managed an entire wheel. This was probably due to Kai's hospitality. Every time you finished your last sip of wine Kai would be filling you back up without skipping a best, every time your cheese was gone you'd have a new full plate of cheese.

Diving into that cheese at the Dorfblick

After all the cheese, the friends, the powder, the hospitality, and the Dominoes my time in Sass Fee was the best snowboard thrip I've ever been on. Everything I experienced seemed to be in its own ranking of "World Class". This is no doubt a place I'll be returning to in the future.

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All photos taken by Faybe Rechsteiner