Nothing makes Christmas special like having a small child in the house. This year we could really enjoy giving Aliya gifts and seeing the surprise and joy in her eyes! Actually she had far too many gifts and we ended up spreading Christmas over a few days :-) Some gifts at home when we put the tree up, some at the grandparents on Christmas eve and then more at home on Christmas morning. The photos can be found on my smugmug page.
We decided to have a big Thanksgiving dinner this year and in addition to Isabel's family we invited some friends. In the end we had 16 people at the table which is the biggest dinner we've ever tried to host. Everything went smoothly and the turkey was yummy. I think everyone had a good time. The photos can be found on my smugmug page.
After our trip to Sudtirol we still had the urge to hike and wanted to escape the fog, so we took the cable car to the top of the Niederhorn. As you can see from the photos, we just made it out of the fog and it was a beautiful sunny day up there. Big change from the weather in the valley! The photos can be found on my smugmug page.
For this year's Fall vacation we decided to head to Sudtirol for a hiking holiday. Sudtirol is a beautiful mountain region in the north of Italy. Aliya's Swiss grandparents joined us for the first week and then Isabel, Aliya and I headed off on our own for a few days. The photos can be found on my smugmug page.
I got a weekend free to do some climbing in the high mountains and headed to the Mt. Blanc region with a couple of friends. The plan was to take the cable car from Courmayeur to the Torino hut and from there climb the Dent du Géant and the next day climb the Aiguille de Rochefort, both 4000m peaks. We successfully climbed the Dent du Géant and walked back to the hut in the dark. The following day we headed for the Aiguille de Rochefort, but didn't feel comfortable climbing on the very exposed and soft snow ridge. So we turned around leaving it for another day. The photos can be found on my smugmug page.
Our latest hiking trip was in the Gstaad area. We took the ski lift from Schoenried to the Rellerligrat and from there hiked to Plani and back to Schoenried. The photos can be found on my smugmug page.
Aliya, Isabel and I made a short hike from the Stockhorn middle station to the Oberstocksee and back. The photos can be found on my smugmug page.
I'll skip all the cliché "it was the best day of my life" stuff... I'll simply sum it up with "we had a great party, on a beautiful day in Switzerland" and the photos can be found on my smugmug page.
Aliya, Isabel and I treated Isabel's brother "Philipp" and his girlfrind "Koong" to a trip to Schilthorn. The weather was just about perfect and we had great views of the Bernese mountains. The photos can be found on my smugmug page.
Aliya, Isabel and I went for a hike with Isabel's parents around around the Arnensee. The Arnensee is a small mountain lake not far from Gstaad. The photos can be found on my smugmug page.
Aliya, Isabel and I went for a hike around Lombachalp above Habkern. The photos can be found on my smugmug page.
We joined our friends Stefan, Diana and Irene for a swim at Burgseeli and then a BBQ at S & D's place in Interlaken. The photos can be found on my smugmug page.
We camped for 4 nights at Vidy camping in Lausanne. It was Aliya's first camping trip and she loved it. We were a bit worried that she might not sleep well, but it turned out that she slept longer than she normally does at home :-) The photos can be found on my smugmug page.
We decided to get a "little" adventurous and flew our little girl to Rhodes Greece for a 10 day beach holiday. Traveling with Aliya went well. The flights were a little stressful, but really the only problem we had was getting her to take naps. She just wouldn't sleep on a beach or in her stroller, so we often had to go for car rides to get her sleeping. The weather was good, sunny but not too hot, and we were even able to get Aliya into the water which is a big deal for her. The photos can be found on my smugmug page.
Aliya celebrated her first birthday on the 5th of May. I can't believe how much she's grown and changed in one year! She's a little ray of sunshine :-) The photos can be found on my smugmug page.
Isabel, Aliya and I spent a sunny day at Engstligen Alp with friends skiing and enjoying the sun The last ski day of the season couldn't have been better! The photos can be found on my smugmug page.
Isabel, Aliya and I made a hike from Lauterbrunnen (Grutschalp) to Murren and back with Isabel's parents and friends of ours from Interlaken. The weather was beautiful and it wasn't too cold. Aliya tried out her new backpack which she seemed to really like. It's going to be good fitness training for daddy! The photos can be found on my smugmug page.
Chris and I finally got a chance to do a ski tour on a beautiful day. Our plan was to climb two peaks, the Ladhotzhore followed by the Erbithore. However, as we approached the Ladhotzhore, we could see that the last section of steep climbing was not safe from avalanches and hadn't been attempted by anyone since the last snow fall. So we changed our plan and headed towards the Winterhore. We reached the col connecting the Winterhore to the Ladhotzhore, but due to large cornices on the ridge, we couldn't find a safe way to reach the Winterhore summit. In the end we left all of the peaks for another day and had a good downhill run back to the car. The photos can be found on my smugmug page.
Due to dangerous avalache conditions, Chris and I chose to do an easy ski tour on the Schrattenfluh. The snow was great, but unfortunatly the visibily wasn't... We made the best of it and ended up reaching the Heftihutte (not our original target, but not a big difference). The photos can be found on my smugmug page. There is also a funny video of me stuck in a hole.
Family photos can be found on my smugmug page.