Two for Two...

Considering that there is still almost no snow on the mountain, I still managed to spend my second weekend in a row racing down another absolutely beautiful mountain in Brezervice Kosovo, of all places. Mind you, as with anything else here, things don't work like they do in most other places. Let me explain.

First off, even though this small 'resort' town is in the middle of Kosovo, you will speak Serbian rather than Albanian. Brezervice is a Serbian enclave where most of the 'guests' are Albanian and of course speak their language but everyone who works there is Serbian. Go figure. Second, unless someone drove you to this resort before, you would never guess that the main and only road up the mountain from the actual town looks and feels as if you are driving up a creek bed. Potholes, dirt and crushed concrete the likes of a dead-end street verses a main thoroughfare. As we ascended into a thick fog, I was afraid it was going to be another day of 0 visibility but fortunately we broke through to an absolutely beautiful warm sunny day. Finally making it into the top parking lot we had to climb up mountains of iced snow to actually make it up to the base lodge to purchase our 10 euro lift ticket (YES, that is about $13USD for a full day of pretty good mountain skiing). No clear pathway was marked or shoveled and the ski area resembled a collection of huts and buildings scattered around one outdated hotel lodge and 2 main double chair lifts that would inch their way up one of two mountains--at least when they had power...



Yes, it appears that the resort experiences regular power cuts and Saturday was no exception. But first, I had headed down with a small crew of 6 of us from Pristina and we all at least managed to get one run in down a somewhat cold and crusty mountain of hard packed snow and ice that had formed from the evenings freezing temperatures. Not only were we challenged by not so great snow conditions, but the fact that there are a good number of people on the mountain with no real ski experience who mount themselves onto two fast boards and point themselves downhill hoping for the best. Successfully dodging these suicide runners, one has to be prepared to slalom through the fashion-clad hikers who either walk up or down the mountain in regular street clothes just out for a nice day of fresh air. As if this wasn't bad enough a number of them bring up rented sledges in order to slide down some of the lower hills. And can you believe all of this excitement from only the first run??




So, back to the power. Well, at this point there was none. As we waited in the line, the lift just stops. No one knows for how long or why. Just because. And yes, many people are on the lift and must either wait it out till it returns or the generator kicks in long enough to get them off the chair but not allow new people on. My boarder buddy Gail and I cut our loses after 10 minutes and raced over to the other lift that still had power and a minimal line. So without too much fuss we made it up another mountain that had some great open bowls and even several fresh power areas that were perfect for our boards to surf on. Unfortunately, the peaceful bliss of a nice run didn't last too long since we were greeted by a 40 minute line of unfolding chaos since everyone else had also migrated to the only operating lift. Now this wouldn't have been too bad if you removed the tons of 'day-riders' who rode the lift like it was an amusement ride only paying 1 euro and wearing their regular clothes. Second frustrations was the fact that even with a clearly formed line a mile long people (of all ages and sex) had the balls to constantly cut in front of the line. They would either walk or ski past all of us with absolutely no regard for anyone but themselves. And other people seemed to tolerate this. After awhile things started to get a bit ugly but after some deep breathing and a forced smile we were on our way to the top, and able to see that the other lift was back in business...




Well, at least till we got on it and almost made it to the top when it lost power again. So we just dangled up there for 30 minutes. Thank god it was a warm day. Otherwise we would have froze. With the nice sun the snow continued to melt a bit making it much better for us to do some carving and just enjoy ourselves. As the day progressed it got much better with softer snow, less people and my loosened up body and muscles. I decided to put the brace back on my arm just in case and it didn't seem to impede my balance or speed (much slower these days). I thought we were on a solid run until we were making it towards the end of the day and lost power for a third and final time. Only sitting on the chair for 15 minutes allowed me to reflect on the fact that we had only driven two hours to be 2000 meters up in the sky looking out over a soupy lake of fog with sharp mountain peeks jutting out as far as the eye could see, I was having a blast with some of my expat friends, I was in southern Kosovo and only paid $13 for the experience. Sometimes you just have to pinch yourself.

The day was concluded in a perfect ski lodge massaging out our sore ankles and nursing our stomachs with warm tea and a fantastic Serbian soup. Now all that is left is to pray for some real snow so we could do some off piste runs and hit several of the big bowls. Can't wait!!!