PTTTeam alpine tour 2009

This post is also available in: Italian

Not only was global warming complicating things, il Niño e la Niña weren’t helping either. Rendering things more difficult in choosing the appropriate destination for my yearly wanderings in search of powder, Pakistani terrorist had made the chosen travel to Gulmarg an unsuitable venture.  To complicate things further my partner in adventure had decided to resign from further expeditions. OssO, in fact, had decided, at the tender age of 37, to look for a serious career and had enlisted himself in the fire brigade. He always said he wanted to be Grisù but no one ever took him seriously.  However OssO didn’t realize that his new occupation would force him to live in barracks for the entirety of winter. This led me to search for new companions for my ongoing travels. Selection was difficult. To become part of our group one had to be well versed in skiing, possess the ability to ingest industrial quantities of fatty foods and alcohol as well as travel thousands of miles every time the powder alarm went off. Strangely every applicant that passed the strenuous selections came from Emilia with few from Lombardo and Piedmont. All that was left was to name the group. The decision was easy, and with a toast of Lambrusco it was decided that our band of fanatics would henceforth be named the PTTTeam.  Unanimously we chose Chuy, the Caballero, supreme master of gear color coordination and world champion tigelle and lard eater, as president of our new group.

Team meetings usually resulted in binge eating of pork cracklings and epic discussions regarding future travels.  Getting everyone to agree seemed impossible, but in the end we decided that the best skiing conditions at the moment, where in our own backyards, the alps. Why risk another failed trip like last years expedition to Canada, if just a few short hours away their was fresh powder? All we had to do was monitor the meteorological conditions and move to location when the weather permitted.

Ririno, the bassist, had concluded with the help of his top secret equations, that the last weeks of January would be best. We didn’t need any more convincing to load our powder-cars and depart.  Despite the good prospects, snow continued to fall and the group numbers kept on diminishing. But the iron will of the few, true tigelle eaters remained strong. Every member insisted on venturing to their own secret spot, and the voracious Poiana insisted on following his own folly path while the other members waited to join along the way.

In the end the group consisted of 4 powder veterans. Besides President Caballero and me, the group incorporated the teams official photographer Liuc and our Belgian guinea pig Ian.  More than than 4 cavaliers, our team resembled the incredible army of Brancaleone… we were undistinguishable except for our team decal which could be found on every imaginable surface of our vehicles, we almost looked like a real team!