I skied the Swiss Alps and it was as amazing as it sounds with breathtaking views and piles of powdery snow

Alyson Shontell
Swiss alps skiing alyson shontell jay yarowBusiness InsiderBusiness Insider’s Jay Yarow and Alyson Shontell skiing in Switzerland.

The World Economic Forum takes place in Davos, Switzerland, a snowy ski town carved into the Alps.

So after a week of trudging through a few feet of snow back and forth to the conference and staring longingly at the mountains, I finally got my chance to ski.

On Saturday, Reuters sponsored an event for a few hundred WEF-goers to ski or snowboard for the day at Parsenn, a local resort.

Business Insider’s executive editor Jay Yarow and I got to Ettinger Sport, the the ski rental place in Davos, at 9:3o AM. We got suited up and hit the lifts.

Here’s what it’s like to ski the Swiss Alps.

Reuters sponsored a skiing event at Davos and asked everyone to meet at Ettinger Sport Shop at 9:30 AM. The Reuters staffed greeted us, gave us wristbands and our lift passes (normally about $77 for the day), and the journey began.

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We went downstairs to get outfitted and rent equipment. I skied and Jay snowboarded.

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First, we had to enter all our info (age, weight, height etc) in a computer.

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Then we were ushered over to the boots and given a pair.

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Boom!

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Then we were given skis.

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And one of the shop's employees found me the perfect size poles.

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For a gift, Reuters gave each skier a new pair of gloves, goggles, sunscreen, chap stick, hand and toe warmers, along with an Amazon Fire tablet.

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Here I am all decked out. I rented the jacket, snow pants and helmet on Reuters. Basically the only thing I'm wearing that I brought with me are the neck warmer, ear band and t-shirt.

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Here's Jay ready to snowboard with all his gear.

Alyson Shontell

Here's a map of the resort, Parsenn. Reuters had ski instructors ready for all of us, so Jay and I found one and headed for the mountain.

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Our instructor led us to a train, which was right next door to the ski shop. You ride a train or two up the mountain to start your first run, rather than a Gondola or a ski lift.

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Here's a view from the back of the train as we headed up the Alps.

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It was pretty cold at the top (negative nine degrees!) with whiteout conditions.

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Really, we couldn't see a thing.

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But whatever! We were ready to ski.

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The first few runs were just like this. Not really visible and a little icy because it was windy, and the wind was blowing away all the fresh powder.

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But as we cruised down the mountain below some of the clouds, things got a little clearer.

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After our first run, we decided to try the T bar instead of a Gondola.

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You have to put the bar between your legs and lean back as it drags you up the mountain.

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I got to the top, but Jay lost his balance and fell off the T bar mid ride. He had to walk all the way back to the beginning and board the T bar all over again while I waited at the top.

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We did one or two more runs before lunch, and the conditions weren't much better. I was beginning to think the Alps were just meh, and not anything special compared to skiing out west in the US. But things got a lot better after lunch.

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Lunch was hosted by Reuters at a restaurant on top of the mountain.

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Our table included CEOs and executives. Google's chairman Eric Schmidt was at a table in the back of the room, enjoying his Reuters lunch.

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The Rosti was awesome. Everyone at our table ordered it. It's a Switzerland special -- a potato patty with cheese, meat and eggs. Nom nom nom!

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With the conditions being meh, Jay and I asked our Reuters-provided guide, Caroline, to show us how to ski down the mountain.

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Here's Caroline on the right. She's been skiing since she was 2, and it will cost you $400 per day if you want to rent her out as an instructor. She lives in Davos during the winter and Zurich during the summer.

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We rode the ski lift with Caroline up to the top so we could make our way back down.

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But the sky began to clear and with the Rosti in our bellies, Jay and I decided to stop being lame and asked Caroline to show us some more runs instead of take us home.

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Pretty!

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Jay and his board were ready to take the mountain when we got off the lift.

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With the sun out, we ended up having awesome skiing conditions. The wind died down and we found lots of powder. A run from the top to the bottom of the mountains took about 30 minutes.

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The views were truly breathtaking. That town below is Davos.

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Sometimes we'd just pull off to the side to soak in the views mid-run.

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The resort was a true ski-in, ski out situation. Here I am skiing straight into the town. We stayed out skiing with Caroline until 4 PM.

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Here's Jay skiing in, not far behind. So, what's the key takeaway here? I've been lucky enough to ski a bunch of places out west in the US and Canada -- Whistler, Lake Tahoe, Keystone and Park City. When the whiteout cleared, the Davos/Alps skiing was right up there with the best of those resorts -- arguably even better -- with unmatched views and piles of powder.

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