The snow gods were smiling at us this weekend because we had absolutely fabulous conditions in Verbier.  We had about a foot of fresh powder from Friday night on the mountain Saturday morning. Visibility was poor Saturday morning but began to clear up in the afternoon when the Sun started to show its face. 

Sunday was gorgeous with clear skies and a dusting of new snow. There was great off-piste and fresh tracks to be found on both days! Brendan said he couldn’t take the smile off his face all day because of the amazing conditions.

At the top of the list the first day the visibility was poor but that didn’t prevent the TC from hearing one tripper ask another as they started to ski down the hill, “Do you remember how to stop?” Well I think that question may have been a few minutes too late! There was a SnowSnake award given to Fred, but he should get a special award the “Flying SnowSnake” because we actually have video of him falling tumbling and able to stand up in one single motion!

As always, the hotel provided a great venue for drinks and stories at night.  We checked out both the Tea-room on the sixth floor and the bar on the main floor which must attract the whole younger population of Martigny. In a freak occurrence Fred ordered “10 beers to nowhere”.  Fred ordered 10 beers and everyone scattered before the 10 beers were finished leaving 4 untouched beers behind. Free beers and nobody wanted to drink them?   He was in “The Twilight Zone”.

The hotel did not disappoint one tripper in particular who requires a fan in his room to fall asleep. Fortunately a fan comes standard in every room to drown out the sound. Unfortunately, it was not a powerful enough fan to drown out his roommate’s snoring and sniffling without ear plugs.

Leave it to Jerome to make reservations for a restaurant on the ski mountain. The French gourmet in him came out.  He did not disappoint us when he took us to Chez Dany for some amazing fondue and crute.

The trip to Verbier was a great success with no injuries and the best ski conditions I have experienced in a decade.

Jonathan Halstuch

The FSC e.V trip weekend to Andermatt was full of fun, fantastic skiing and lots of unforeseen incidents. 

The first excitement was caused by Sabine – stranded in Berlin due to an airline engine failure. When the bus departed at 17:30 hrs, Sabine had not even touched down in Frankfurt! However, as soon as landed, her taxi driver did a marvellous job. He chased our bus down the A5 and at our first stop Sabine finally joined the group. All 42 trippers were now united and Stefan, our excellent bus driver, took us safely to Andermatt where we arrived around midnight.

The quiz arranged by the TCs on the bus did initially not generate much enthusiasm from the comfortable audience. But it was well accepted in the end because it smoothly integrated the 15 new FSC members on this trip with the "Oldies" and gave some valuable information about the club. Margit and Bruce, the lucky winners, even shared their 1st Prize with us (a gorgeous "jelly bears" pizza) - but kept the two small bottles of red wine for themselves!

On arrival in Andermatt, the huge group had to be split in two hotels which were close to each other but for dinner we all jointly "occupied" the dining room of the Badus hotel.

And not only that! More than 10 FSC members and "Ex"-members came to Andermatt privately to join us like Merja, Manfred, Kelvin, Gary, Ellen, Keith and Simon - even from Zurich (Arnold) and Milano (Debbie). 

After a healthy breakfast on Saturday morning Ellen, Anne, Sybille, Bruce, Michael, Ulrike, Kelsey and Margit took the train to the Oberalp Area to ski there. Everybody enjoyed it to the full, guided by Ellen who knew the region. Just before lunch, Anne suddenly got lost and despite immediate search – no sign of her! Sybille eventually reached her: Anne had a bad fall and was in hospital in Disentis! Her femoral was broken – twice! – and a surgery necessary in Ilanz. What a shock! But Anne was fine – while waiting she called the TCs and had a chat in front of the operating room. Amazing that she kept so cool. Visiting her – impossible! It was too far away on the other side of the mountain - no road connection only a train! So we packed an emergency kit and sent it off to her by mail. A few days later Anne was able to walk with crutches. The following Saturday friends finally picked her up and drove her back to Frankfurt. The whole FSC group sent her a colourful bunch of flowers which she received on Wednesday in hospital. She was so excited about them that she even took them back to Frankfurt. But that was not it! On Saturday afternoon Sybille and Michael collided when getting off the lift. FSC-Newcomer Michael was not able to withstand the attraction of Sybille's ski boot and got stuck on it. He struggled and the doctor finally diagnosed that one ligament in his knee had been ruptured! Another drop out for the next 6 weeks. 

Claudia - originally signed-up for Andermatt - had ruptured her ligament in early January even before she left for the mountains and had to cancel the trip completely. 

Margit and Ellen fell off the chair lift, Bruce off the T-bar – without even a drop of alcohol! 

Mike, Alexy and Katherina ran down a slope and suddenly got stuck in front of some railway tracks. 

Even our experienced off-piste riders had some remarkable adventures. Jerome went off with five others to an area which he had discovered only 3 weeks ago -but missed the exit! So the others had to step back to find a way out and Jerome had to jump to return to civilization. 

Emine was snowboarding in a small crowd incl. John, Jerome, Karin, Philip, Oliver, Arnold and Corby on Sunday. She ended up falling a little below the ski lift where the group was heading to. Due to a series of unfortunate circumstances her snowboard flew down a cliff, was caught by some avalanche fences 50m below but then went further down a small waterfall. Philip saw all this last minute. He came to help her but Emine finally got stuck in a gulley and Philip had to contact the Andermatt ski patrol. They arrived 5 minutes later and rescued her. Thanks for the happy ending!

All these incidents will certainly teach all of us a lesson and again justify two key rules of our FSC

1. Communication: Whenever anyone is in a serious situation – call the FSC Ski Patroller of the trip immediately for help!

2. Risk Assessment: Do not underestimate the risks of things going wrong. Be always prepared and never ski alone!Quite a number of Snow Snakes and/or Fucowee Award Nominees on this trip!

Kelsey even thinks that the use of technology has allowed the Fucowee tribe to grow, prosper and multiply. In former days, people could only get lost one or two at a time. But now, they can run all over the mountain, constantly phoning on their mobiles, getting more and more confused as to where they are. Call 1: We are on the way to the gondola, we'll meet you at the top of the gondola. Next call: I'm with a group that's having lunch after getting off the gondola. Third call: we'll meet you when we get off the gondola – and what happens? The group never meets up. 

On the other hand – do not imagine what might have happened to our folks WITHOUT a mobile!

Apart from these mentioned incidents, the Andermatt trip was a big success and the FSC trippers had a great time both skiing as well as après-skiing at Spycher and some other famous spots. The off-piste riders found whole fields of powder with only a few tracks on the classic runs like Giraffe, Felsental and Geissberg and the skiers enjoyed the various runs at Nätschen and Gemsstock, depending on their levels. The snow was good, the sun was shining and not too many people around. 

And at the end of the day, each tripper even got CHF 23 back on their ski passes which they now can spend on one of the upcoming FSC trips! Yeah – go ahead and do it …

We are sure that the FSC will again include this cosy ski resort in the heart of the Gotthard region in the next winter season 2010/11. Then for the 8th time in a row! We hope to see you again there next year.

And finally all best wishes to all of our presently "handicapped" FSC members!

Get well soon…

Sybille Klöpfer & Ulrike Menzel