Adventure item #21 - Downhill Ski in Europe December 11, 2010

I thought that this would be easy, afterall I was in Europe and there had been a big storm 2 weeks before I arrived.  However, I did not count on a warmup.  Malia and I looked for ski resorts close to Geneva only to discover that none of them had snow and were not open.  So we searched further and found one that was a 2 hour train ride away.  So on December 11, 2010 we got on the train and headed to Verbier to ski.  Malia had decided to study while I skied so this adventure would be solo.
Lesson learned from this adventure - never assume.  I made the assumption that the color coding and system of trail marking was universal - Big mistake!  So I arrived at the top of the mountain and and after reviewing the map discovered that only a few trails had names.  Furthermore, I discovered a very interesting way of marking the runs, which were not labeled or marked.  The system uses a series of poles, sticks really.  The sticks are painted with two colors but the color at the bottom represented the run difficulty.  The amount of color on the stick told you rather the run difficulty was to the left or the right.  It was so confusing!  So after striking out on a easy run to warm up and spending the next 45 minutes crossing several mountains, I stopped someone to ask where I was on the map only to be told - I am not sure but I think that we are here.  Because the runs were not well marked and there were no names on the mountain and only a few runs had names - it was hard to use the map.  So I made the determination to try out several runs and then stick with the ones that I was confortable doing.  The day was beautiful and the skies were amazing.  Plus I had a good time just talking with people.  Adventure completed!