Tag Archives: Wengen

Posts from the road

Starting My Week in Lenk

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(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.

A final view of Hotel Bellevue, our base in Wengen

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.

Hotel Sternen: our base in Lenk

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 – at the summit of “Lavey” near Adelboden, Switzerland

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.

A church in Lenk – I wonder what important family events took place here?

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.

Only in Switzerland: a vending machine for cheese!

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!

Berner Rösti at the Restaurant Zum Gade in Lenk

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.

Lenk, as seen from the Betelberg Gondola

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!

Posts from the road

Skiing with James Bond

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(Wengen, Switzerland)

For our last day of skiing in the Wengen area, we undertook a journey that thousands (millions?) of visitors have made:  the thrilling trip to the top of the Schilthorn.  At 2970 metres (about 10000 feet)  above sea level, it is by no means the highest mountain around:  several of its neighbours soar beyond 4000 metres.  However, several things about the Schilthorn make it unique.

The Schilthorn is in fact 2,970m (nearly 10,000 feet) above sea level

Firstly, the cable car ride up is absolutely astounding.  This has to be one of the highest and  freakiest I’ve ever seen.  Secondly, on a clear day, the views across the valley to the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau are unparalleled.  You can even see all the way to Germany on the clearest days.   Alas, the weather was already deteriorating by the time we arrived (after one train, one bus, and 4 different cable cars that took us from Wengen to Lauterbrunnen to Stechelberg to Gimmelwald to Mürren to Birg and finally to the summit).  There would be no Wunderfotos today.

Start of the only piste down from the Schilthorn: these skiers are about to encounter a 75% (!) gradient

Thirdly, the skiing is more challenging than at Grindelwald and Wengen.  For example, there is only one (official) way to ski down down from the top of the Schilthorn:  a black-rated piste with a maximum gradient of 75%!

I always pictured James Bond as being taller: this is on the Schilthorn viewing platform

And finally, this mountain (and the revolving restaurant at the top) was the location of the James Bond movie “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”.  It was released in 1969 and was the only James Bond movie to feature George Lazenby in the title role.  The movie includes, among other scenes, the destruction of the mountaintop building and a ski chase down the Schilthorn (known as Piz Gloria in the movie).

The restrooms for “Bonds” and “Bondgirls” at “Bond World” on top of the Schilthorn: is this really necessary?

Although the James Bond-Schilthorn connection was exploited to some extent in the past, it has now been taken to a new level.  An entire floor of the building is now devoted to “Bond World” and the outdoor viewing platform  now has (more or less) life-size cutouts of James Bond for your photographic pleasure.   The movie runs continuously in the theatre.  And the washrooms are not labeled “Men” and “Women”, but rather “Bonds” and “Bondgirls”.  Ick.

The Schilthornhütte in a blizzard

While I remember being intimidated by the 75% incline on prior visits, it wasn’t so bad this time because there were hardly any other skiers and the icy sections were kept in check by the significant recent snowfall.   Speaking of which:  the overcast day was quickly turning into a full-blown blizzard.  By the time we finished our lunch at the remote Schilthornhütte, we could hardly see anything.  We were sometimes forced to slowly descend from boundary post to boundary post, so that we wouldn’t accidentally ski off a cliff.

Another view of the Schilthornhütte

The slopes were *really* abandoned now but we pushed on, determined to take advantage of our lone day on the Schilthorn slopes.  We did a pretty good job, although we didn’t take any pictures for the entire afternoon.  I would have loved to share some photos of Mürren but we were strongly motivated to keep moving.  There has been little “development” of Mürren and its untouched-for-centuries appearance really contrasted with the unrestrained exploitation of the top of the Schilthorn.

It’s now time to move on from Wengen…but there’s another full week of skiing to go!

Posts from the road

Dramatic Wengen

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(Wengen, Switzerland)

You can’t have it all.  While the weather in Grindelwald was splendid, the weather for our day of skiing on the slopes above Wengen was…not so splendid.

There is now more than one “Tipi” at Kleine Scheidegg

It was a very cloudy day and, with the slopes above Wengen being generally a little more difficult than those in Grindelwald, the skiing was quite a bit more demanding.  We could more or less see where we were going but sometimes the dim light played tricks on us.  However, we still managed to hit most of the highlights.

The Eigernordwand (North Face of the Eiger) towering over Kleine Scheidegg

The “epicentre” of Kleine Scheidegg looks the same as it has for decades:  the old hotel is still there, along with the “Tipi” that has been a meeting point for almost as long.  However, the difficult conditions forced us to delay our journey to the legendary “Black Rock” and “Oh God” pistes until mid-afternoon.

Looking down the Black Rock piste to some skiers “on the edge”…skiing into that canyon is exhilirating, especially when you are also skiing into the clouds!

Perhaps they are just legendary in my own mind.  But when the skies cleared just a little bit, we quickly went to the Eigergletscher station and made our way to these parallel black-rated pistes.  The Black Rock piste is memorable for me because you plunge into a dramatic canyon with huge black rocks.  “Oh God” is memorable because at one point it has a vertical grade of 71%.  Hence the name!

Lower on the Black Rock piste, below the clouds

For about 15 years, I always named Black Rock as my all-time favourite ski piste.  It was still as steep and visually stunning as ever.  While I think it has some competition now (there is a great piste at Cortina d’Ampezzo that comes to mind), one of my ski posse members was also suitably impressed when he tried it for the very first time today.  The weather wasn’t great but I hope the photos convey at least some of the drama.

On a gentler slope, the mini-posse celebrates the better-late-than-never arrival of the sun

In a bizarre but happy coincidence, we ran into one of my former Swiss ski instructors when we were skiing down “Oh God”!  It was great to see Simon W. again in a place where we used to ski together.  We may be older now but we both still have the same enthusiasm and respect for these awesome mountains.

View from our hotel of Wengen (and beyond to the ski area)

As the day drew to a close, the weather rapidly improved.  Under the soft glow of the late afternoon sun, we skied down the famous Lauberhorn World Cup downhill piste.  You can see the starting gate in the photo at the very top of this post:  I think I had my photo automatically taken as I took off through the gate, but will need to track it down online!

Will the sun remain?  Will we encounter Bond…James Bond?   Stay tuned!

Posts from the road

Fun and Flashbacks on the Grindelwald Slopes

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(Wengen, Switzerland)

Our first day of skiing was epic. This was mostly due to the sunny skies, amazing scenery, and lack of other skiers. However, it was also fun to tap into memories I didn’t realize I had.

I took this photo while riding the Hohwald T-bar just because the sky was so blue

While skiing non-stop from the top of the Gummi lift to Grindelwald (more than 1200 vertical metres…and by no means the longest piste here), I found myself recognizing landscapes, buildings, and even smells from the ski camps I attended in Grindelwald from 1999-2002. On more than one occasion, I suddenly expected to smell dairy agriculture…and sure enough, I did!

Picnic tables at the Bärgelegg Hütte (high above Grindelwald,Switzerland)

I looked for (and found!) chamois grazing on the inaccessible cliffs in the Schilt area of the Grindelwald/First ski area. The slalom course was still set up at the top of the Oberjoch lift. The signage was still poor at the  Hohwald T-bar and the snow was still above the roofs of the summer farm buildings. It was really cool to have it all come flooding back despite being away for so long.

The piste passes by the Wetterhorn, just above Oberer Gletscher

Another surprise memory was the Bärgelegg Hütte (see photo at the very top of this post).  We were looking for lunch and just went to the nearest “crossed fork and knife” we could find on the piste map.

Waiting for the ski bus at the Hotel Wetterhorn (Oberer Gletscher, just above Grindelwald)

On arriving, I immediately recognized it as the place where I had an outdoor lunch nearly 20 years ago.  On that day, I enjoyed a simple but satisfying lunch on a picnic table looking out towards the Eiger in the brilliant sunshine.  And that’s exactly what we did this time too:  two warming bowls (each!) of Bündner Gerstensuppe, a traditional Swiss barley soup from the southeastern canton of Graubünden.

Ski buses in front of the Hotel Wetterhorn…and the Wetterhorn itself

We later skied all the way down to the Hotel Wetterhorn on the outskirts of Grindelwald.  To do so, we slalomed past the actual Wetterhorn…one of many peaks here that towers more then 2km straight up from the surrounding landscape.

Looking south on Wengen’s main street

We took the train from Grindelwald to Kleine Scheidegg and passed directly under the mighty Eiger.  Photographs simply cannot capture the simultaneous immensity and insignificance of being directly underneath a sheer vertical wall of 2km (rising to a height of 3970m – more than 13000 feet).  But that doesn’t stop thousands of visitors from trying!

Looking north on Wengen’s main street

Alas, the weather changed quickly (as it so often does in the Swiss Alps) and I couldn’t take any quality photos of the Eiger.  This was not a problem:  we knew we would be back the next day and have another opportunity to take photographs.  Stay tuned to see what happened!

Posts from the road

Return to Wengen

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(Wengen, Switzerland)

After being away from both Wengen and Switzerland for many years, I am finally back in the mountains where I spent so many holidays learning (hopefully) how to ski like a real Swiss!

Our hotel in Wengen, overlooking Lauterbrunnen far below

The initial version of this post contained a fairly lengthy diatribe about the airline industry and their ongoing shrinkage of seats.  While this is certainly a topic that merits discussion in a travel blog, I’m going to defer it because I’ve just returned from a day of skiing and I am feeling much sunnier now than I was on arrival in Switzerland.

View from our hotel in Wengen

Besides, most of my pain was forgotten by the time the train has travelled from Zurich to Spiez and the peaks of the Berner Oberland come into view.  It never gets old:  just when you think the topographical riot can’t get any more spectacular, it somehow does.

One of only a few skiers in the Grindelwald-First ski area

You can’t reach Wengen by car:  the only access is by a cogwheel railway that ascends ridiculously steep inclines.  Our hotel in Wengen, like every other building there, is perched on a narrow ledge hundreds of metres above the valley floor in Lauterbrunnen.  While my hotel pictures were taken on an overcast day, I think you can see that the setting is spectacular.

A group pauses before descending from Schilt (Grindelwald)

On our first day of skiing, the sun was shining brightly and the air was crisp:  cooler than usual, perhaps, but by no means uncomfortable. And yet we were able to board the Männlichen Bahn cablecar immediately.  We then had our pick of the Männlichen slopes, all to ourselves.  Where was everybody?

Can’t have too many photos of the Eiger!

It was the same story on the slopes above Grindelwald, where we spent most of the day. The only logical explanation is that the strong Swiss Franc is scaring people away from Switzerland.  This doesn’t surprise me:  that’s exactly why my ski posse’s last 4 ski trips were to Italy.   So, while this trip is not going to be cheap, I’m also foreseeing terrific skiing with no line-ups.

Stay tuned for all the details:  as a taster, I’ve included a few pictures of our first morning on the slopes.

Posts from Base Camp

Swiss Ski Camps

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Although I have been to Switzerland a total of 20 times, I have not been there since starting this blog in early 2014.  My only Swiss posts have been travel flashbacks to earlier trips.  Happily, that is going to change in early 2018, as I will be returning to Switzerland for an extended ski safari.

Some of my friends having lunch outdoors, at the 1992-1993 Swiss Abroad ski camp in Splügen, Switzerland

Switzerland is an expensive destination and simple economics dictated that I ski elsewhere for the past several winters.  However, I have found a way to make this work and will be skiing in both Wengen and Lenk this winter.

Me, halfway down the “Black Rock” piste above Wengen, Switzerland in 2002

Why Wengen?  You may have heard of it as a stop on the World Cup ski circuit:  the famous Lauberhorn piste is a real test of both daring and endurance.  However, I chose Wengen this year because of the great experiences I had in the Grindelwald-Wengen-Murren region (a.k.a. “Jungfrau Ski Region”)  between 1999 and 2011 with the ski camps for the Swiss Abroad.

Having lunch outside in the sun: the “Tipi” at Kleine Scheidegg, Switzerland (March 12, 1999)

The Organization for the Swiss Abroad (“Auslandschweizer-Organisation”, or “ASO” for short) organizes ski camps every year for Swiss citizens who are living abroad.  I attended many of these camps and met lots of people who continue to be great friends.  In fact, my current ski posse arose from the ASO camps.  Some of us have been skiing together for 20 years!

Skiing by torch light down to Grindelwald (March 13, 2000)

The ASO camps feature a LOT of skiing, in addition to other sports and cultural activities.  It’s a great way to connect with one’s Swiss roots…and become a much better skier.  The camps tend to move around each year:   I attended camps in resorts such as Splügen, Scuol, Arosa, and Grächen.  However, I attended at least five such camps in Grindelwald and Wengen.

Me, in front of the Jungfrau (March 9, 1999)

This winter, I will have the opportunity to take up-to-date photos of the riotous scenery around Wengen.  I will also be playing the role of guide:  with all that experience, it will be a pleasure to show one of my Canadian friends some of the many highlights of these iconic mountains.

Part of my group, preparing to ski down the James Bond 007 piste from the Schilthorn to Mürren (March 11, 1999)

And the highlights are many.  There is the brilliant chocolate cake at Wengernalp.  There is the black-rated “007” ski run from the top of the Schilthorn (and its rotating restaurant), made famous by James Bond in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”.  The black-rated pistes called “Oh God” and “Black Rock” that lead down from Eigergletscher also offer unforgettable challenges…partly because the scenery is so distracting!  Above Grindelwald, you can watch an Alpine Ibex watching you from an impossibly high and inaccessible peak.

Avalanche! The Wetterhorn, above Grindelwald, on March 13, 2000

It goes on and on.  There is the astonishing 2km sheer vertical rock face of the Eiger, which rises to a height of 3,967m:  I can think of no more intimidating mountain in the world.   To me, it is even more impressive than the adjacent Jungfrau, which rises even higher to 4,168m (13,675 feet).  There is the car-free village of Wengen, perched on top of a cliff that plunges down 500 metres to the valley below.  There is the “Tipi” at Kleine Scheidegg, where I have eaten many a sun-dappled picnic lunch outdoors…but where I am determined to have one of the freshly cooked pizzas and sausages.

About to ski down “Oh God”: March 15, 2000 (Wengen, Switzerland)
Pausing halfway down the “Oh God” piste, above Wengen (March 15, 2000)

I am really looking forward to revisiting some of these past highlights, as well as discovering new ones.  To accompany today’s post, I’ve unearthed some archival photos of my Swiss Abroad ski camp experiences from 1992 to 2002.

Looking for Ibex, high above Grindelwald in the “First” ski area (2002)

Stay tuned for more on Swiss skiing…and on my evolving plans for the rest of 2018!