The Hotel Saint Bernard - Sunday (Day 1)

The Saint Bernard is this tiny family run hotel that is at the very base of the mountain. It has a wonderful old world rustic charm of dark wood, cosy bar, crackling round fireplace, and a deck that worships the sun every afternoon. The hotel could easily be mistaken for somewhere in the French Alps. The charming owner and head of the ski school is frenchmen Jean Mayer. He is a legend in these parts and is partially responsible for the development of the entire ski area and is considered a pioneer in the ski development world. Everything has a romantic french feel, from the architecture, the warmth of the people, to the fabulous french cuisine, and even the website lures you in with an accordion accompanied frenchmen singing about love.

http://www.stbernardtaos.com/intro.php

I was lucky enough to get an A-frame cottage complete with loft all to myself.My bags were taken directly to my room as I was led to meet with Christine, a fabulous british women who is the concierge of the hotel and welcomes each guest and explains (in her smooth british accent) how awesome your stay with them will be. She is just so very nice, you want to get her a hug before you go.

After my meeting with Christine, I raced to my room in an effort to squeeze in the last few precious runs before the lifts closed for the day. I rode up with a ski patrol guy (always a wealth of information on conditions and hot spots on the mountain) and learned of a newly created tree run that was added since last year. I was stoked with this info, however decided that it was probably best that I take my first few runs on the easy side. I got two glorious runs in and learned an important fact that my fluffy snowboard socks are not good for skiing; made my boots too tight. Saved me from a lot of pain the next day!

One of the great things about the Hotel St. Bernard is the bar. Immediately after the hill closes, the bar fill up with people. All rosy cheeked and relaxing, looking tired but satisfied, and reminiscing over the day's hard worked efforts to complete the quest of skiing the perfect line. I set up my week-long hotel tab and started with a margarita and just sat back and people watched. After a while Sandy came to the bar and chatted with me and we engaged a third person, an old Kiwi named Bruce. Now Bruce was quite the character, he was in town visiting his sister, but normally resides in India, where he works as a paragliding instructor near Kashmir. Additionally, this guy was one of the originals who developed bungie jumping in New Zealand. Crazy cool! I just love meeting random adventure legends!