(Lenk, Switzerland)

It wasn’t easy to leave Wengen:  the jaw-dropping views exert a very strong pull.  However, it was time to meet up with the rest of my posse for a week of skiing in Lenk.

Lenk is a small town located in the upper Simmental and is probably best known as the smaller half of the Lenk-Adelboden ski area.  Adelboden is more famous, partly because it annually hosts a World Cup slalom event.  However, Lenk has special meaning for me:  it is my “Heimatort” (place of origin) and, as a result, is the community where I vote in Swiss elections and referenda.

Determination of a Swiss person’s Heimatort can be complicated, but Lenk is my Heimatort essentially because my ancestors in the 19th century called it home.  As you can imagine, I am quite happy that my Heimatort is a ski town!  But I also still have relatives in the area and I was able to combine everything with a special day of skiing on Sunday, March 4.

My cousin (and her family) was visiting her parents in nearby Reidenbach for the weekend, so we all agreed to meet for a day of skiing on Sunday.  We had never gone skiing together before, but I figured that they would be able to give me a good introduction to the Lenk-Adelboden area.

I was correct! They were all excellent skiers and, within a few hours, I had a pretty good idea of what to expect on the Lenk-Adelboden slopes over the next week.  It was also great to reconnect with my cousin, who I had not seen for many years.  I am sure we will be able to ski together again in the not-too-distant future.

I didn’t take a lot of pictures that day, as I was quite focused on the skiing…and on speaking German, since not everybody could communicate with me in English.  If you have no choice, it’s amazing how much you can recall from a single university course taken 30 years ago!

After a very enjoyable family day on the slopes, I began looking more carefully at things in Lenk.  I wondered if my ancestors had celebrated special events in the nearby church, had done business in the downtown buildings that surrounded my hotel, or escorted livestock up to the remote summer barns (now drowning in snow) on the mountains high above the town.  Echoes of the past were everywhere:  I recognized many local surnames from my Swiss family tree.

But I can’t forget the cheese.  Not only was there a vending machine with the top two rows devoted entirely to cheese, the local restaurants served up Rösti (essentially, shredded potato that has been fried and also slathered with other local ingredients) in a dazzling variety of ways.  I opted for Berner Rösti on my first night, but it was by no means my only encounter this week with either Rösti (or copious amounts of cheese).

Stay tuned for the ski reports on Lenk-Adelboden and neighbouring Gstaad!