(Lenk, Switzerland)
After 5 days of skiing in Lenk, it was time for a change of scenery. Fortunately, the village of St. Stephan was only a few kilometers down the road…and gave us access to the Gstaad ski region. Gstaad is a well-known high-end resort, although we didn’t actually make it to Gstaad itself. Our day was limited to the easternmost areas of St. Stephan, Zweisimmen, and Saanenmöser.
Even though it is quite close to Lenk, it was a bit of an adventure to ski in the Gstaad region. We first took a train from Lenk to Stöckli, a tiny hamlet on the outskirts of St. Stephan (which itself has barely 1,000 people). The Stöckli station is a Halt auf Verlangen: the train won’t stop there unless a specific request is made. From the Stöckli station, we had to hike over a bridge and down a riverside country lane to reach the base of the chairlift. This was not particularly easy in ski boots!
Even the chairlift was somewhat surreal, as there was essentially no snow (the base elevation here is only 1000m above sea level) and we ascended on an ancient lift over grassy meadows…while still strapped firmly into our skis. Fortunately, the endpoint of that first lift at Lengebrand was at 1383m elevation and we could ski to the next lift over actual snow.
The skiing around Parwengesattel was outstanding that morning. We discovered a newly created piste around the back side of the mountain (see photo at the very top of this post) that eventually brought us back to Lengebrand. The scenery was beautiful, the snow was great, and we once again made first tracks in a few places.
After many runs here we decided to move towards Zweisimmen and Saanenmöser, in hopes of finding a quaint spot for lunch. Alas, our progress was significantly slowed: the temperatures were warming quickly and the snow was getting sticky. So sticky, in fact, that we suddenly felt like beginners! After a week of confidently schussing through whatever came our way, we would now frequently hit sticky spots and pitch violently forward as our skis suddenly stopped.
This continued for most of the afternoon, even after an extended lunch at Hornberg (I recalled eating here about 10 years ago with my uncle). We needed speed to get anywhere on the sticky snow, but increased speed also increased the risk of a violent face-plant. Finally, at the very end of the day, the snow became slushy: while not ideal for skiing, at least it was somewhat predictable.
While there was no talk of a Traumpiste that afternoon, we still enjoyed exploring some new terrain…and some terrain that I remembered from past skiing experiences with my mother and uncle. After skiing for 9 of the past 10 days, it was finally time to end the alpine part of my Swiss holiday.
Stay tuned for the ski wrap-up and our experiences in Switzerland’s largest city!