Antagnod and Monte Rosa

 Antagnod

After recovering few days at Como we decided to head up to the mountains to see if my knee can handle snowboarding. But my knee wasn't the only issue, Heta's flue was also slowing her down. So we decided to spend the whole Thursday for traveling to Monte Rosa and spending the rest of the day for additional recovery.

Antagnod and Champoluc.

On Friday it was finally time to ride on alpine slopes. For the test ride we chose the nearby Antagnod resort (part of the Monte Rosa Ski resort). Antagnod is a small village nearby Champoluc that is the center of the Monte Rosa Ski resort. Antagnod resort has only 4-6 different slopes or slope variant from easy blue to a short black slope and you can get about 700 meters vertical.

Friday's weather was excellent for a easy warmup ride. Great, but slightly chilly spring weather, temperature was around -10 celcius degrees. We headed to the slopes at noon and hoped for the best. After a few carefully chosen lines I came to the conclusion that I can handle the blue and red slopes with the broken knee if  I'm not jumping or riding switch. Not bad, at least it is possible to enjoy the weather and great mountain views.

Testing the broken knee.

Best part for the spring skiing is that during the weeks slopes are almost empty. Of course there is not enough snow for a good off-piste skiing, but otherwise snowboarding was great. No waiting to lifts, no rush and you could pick your lines freely. And on top of that slopes were actually enjoyable and not too icy.

Right now the weather forecasts are looking promising, we might get some new snow soon! In a best case scenario there will be an opportunity to ride on a soft snow on an empty resort on Sunday or Monday. We shall see.

Antagnod 14.-15.3.2013

Heta riding an easy red.