Finishing up my season with a bang!

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Went to Jungfrau, Switzerland March 18-24. Had a fantastic week!

Actually, it was supposed to be from 17-24. But the ice storm that hit northeast on the 16 grounded all flights and I got stuck in NYC for 24 hours. OK, NY is home for me, so at least I didn't have to crash at the airport sleeping on my luggage. But there I was, all dressed up with no place to go...:(

I called my gang that's already in Switzerland. He teased me "Didn't you say you got fresh snow every time you go skiing this season so far? Well, according to the forecast, it's not going to snow till tomorrow evening. That's why you can't come yet!". Oh, a sense of humor goes a long way in a situation like that.

Fortunately, the next day dawn clear and bright and the flight went as scheduled. We even arrived a few min. early. The swiss are pros when it comes to welcoming visitor. We got through the airport's immigration formality in a breez. Even beat the luggage to the convayer! Looking good. I should make my train no problem.

Oh yes, half the plane was filled with skiers who missed their flight the day before (all missed their original ground trasfer arrangement and need to take the train on their own). Most people looked a little lost. I was the only one who knows where the train station is (downloaded and printed a map of the airport & train station). So since I had a bit of time, I waited for the lost lambs and herded them to the train station.

They're going to various different ski resorts in Switzerland and no one is going to Jungfrau. It's less than 20 min. to my train. So I said to my flock "I need to catch this train that's leaving in 15 min. Do you guys mind I get my ticket first" "Of course, thanks a lot". Bought my tickets and get to the platform with 10 min. to spare...

Day 1:

I got to the resort about 11. A little jetlagged. My pass is already in the room and my roommate has obviously out skiing. I quickly changed into my skiing outfit, freshen up a bit and went out.

Ooops, where am I going? This is my first time in the resort, I've no idea where the slopes are or how to get to them! I doubled back and ask the girl at the reception, who is infinitely friendly. "Oh, it's best you take the cable car. Go out and turn left."

"Do I hang the pass around my neck so I can show it at the lift?"
"Oh, no, it's magnetic. Just put in in your jacket pocket".
"Oh, great! Thanks!" The Swiss is pretty hi-tech, aren't they?

Out the door I went. Turned left. Walk a bit. But where's the cable car? I saw a guy walking towards me with ski on his shoulder... lets hope he speaks English. ;)

"Hello!"
"Hello!"
"Do you know where's the cable car?"
"Oh, just behind this building!"

That's easier than I thought. Inside the building, there're some turnstiles...Mmmm What am I supposed to do? I looked around, there's nobody around. Walked closer to the turnstile. "bling!" Oh, the card is working! I walk through the gate.

Then I could see the cable car itself! But, there's another set of turnstiles and they WERE NOT turning! What the $%#$??? Then I saw the cable car leaving. Sh#t! I missed it. And I can't seem to be able to figure this second turnstile out...

Then another fellow with snowboard came in. He looked as lost as me. But when he pushed the turnstile, it rotated and let him in! Jeez, what's going on? I pushed, the it turned! I see, they shut the turnstile when the cable car door was closed and ready to leave!

Had to wait for the next cable car, which runs every 15 min. Could have been worse. The cable car dumps us at the top of a vast snow field Manlichen. Big open snow field with a few groomed trails criss-crossing their way down. Mountains, BIG, imposing mountains ringing the snowfield. There, is the famous Eiger, where numerous climbers met glory, as well as death!

Behind me, were the cliffs of Lauterbrunnon. Reminds me of Yosemite. Equally dramatic, half a world away. Clouds float precarrously halfway up the cliffs. You won't see clouds in Yosemite, not enough moistour.

The slopes were not very steep. Mostly intermediate runs. And not a lot of skiers on them... Where's everybody?

But the snow was soft, well, slushy under the bright warm sun. Better suited for photography then cruising, which is what I ended up doing. And exploring the area a bit just to get familiar. Little did I know how useful that few hours would become the rest of the week.

While we at the US has changed to DST, Switzerland is a week behind. So by 3:30, the sun is dropping low in the mountains. The Eiger (a giant triangle peak) is casting big long shadow on the slope below. The slushy snow is re-freezing into dangerous icy ridges. I decided not to risk skiing down but download via the same cable car I went up in. Walking back to the hotel, I noticed the ski rental shop. "if it dumps, I can rent a wider ski"

Day 1 ends bright and sunny, with only a few clouds seeping in through the high peaks. I was begining to doubt the weather forecast about snow coming...

But overnight, it starts snowing. And it snowed, and snowed, and snowed, through the night...

(till later, I'm tired and jetlagged again)

 

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Day 2:

Breakfast is full of energy. Everyone is itching to go.

I quickly got ready, dashed into the ski shop asking for a wider ski.

"Just a ski that's good for the condition. BTW, how much did it snowed?"

"Mmmm, about 20 cm" (That's about 8"!!!)
"Wow!"
"Oh, maybe 10 cm lower elavation, 20 higher up".

Doesn't matter, fresh powder! First time EVER (for me)!

On my second day of a weeklong trip, no less!

Met up with my gang, up the same cable car again to the top of Manlichen. Sun was up and the mountains look gorgeous!!!

"Is everybody in a hurry to go or do I have time for a few quick photos?"
"Oh, we're on holiday. What's the hurry? Take your time!"

I was thinking, the powder is being skied by the powder hounds and these peoples are NOT in a hurry?

Anyway, I took my photos, of the mountains, and my gang. And off we go!

What a sight! The vast open snow field, full of fresh powder, with may be 20 skiers on it!!! No wonder my "mates" were not in a hurry! There's no one to interfere with whatever line you choose!

There's enough "freshies" on the marked trails. So everyone dive in there first. We got to the bottom chair in record time for our group. Back up on the chair again. Now, we can see there're more people coming out of the cable car. Better hurry now.

Into the virgin snow field outside the trail markers. Well...

It's different. Very different than skiing on the groomer. I was fumbling about in the boot top powders. Back up on the chair again.

Then we saw an instructor making perfect S-turns on the snow. But his class was all over the snow, making z's and arms flailing. We realize that was us on that snow too.

Fortunately, we had a friendly instructor at the group's disposal. So the "powder virgins" promptly filed into his class. It was a very comical class. Half of the class time was spend watching one or the other of our "classmate" extracate him or herself from the deep fluffy snow, struggling to get back into the binding, trying in vain to get rid of the fluffy snow that manage to get into every empty space in the glove, goggle or helmet! Though towards the end of the class, we were starting to make turns in the powder, with only occasional falls.

Lesson about the lesson: group lessons in powder are frustrating due to the extreemly long time it takes to get back up after the inevitable falls.

As we're there for a whole week, I didn't see why we need to kill ourselves on day 2. It's not like there're that many people who's going to track the powder out anyway. So, when the instructor invites us to his favorate cafe for a post-class drink, we were happy to follow. The fruit tart was out of this world!

As we drank our chocolate and eat our sweats, the cloud quietly rolled in. As we stepped into our binding to ski back down, we could barely see the lift, and hardly the trail markers. And the top layer of soft snow re-freeze again, as usual, hard as ice. After a few turns, I asked the instructor if there's bail out. For I didn't feel like killing myself on that stuff. I'd rather save my legs for the next day when hopefully the weather will clear up. "Yes, you can take the train down."

But the boys were too stuborn to follow us. So we sat down and wait for the train. And guess what? By the time the train pulled into the next stations, the boys filed in as well. The trail below were closed anyway. No skiing back to the hotel. Due to the warm winter, there's just so little base, even with the new snow, there's just not enough coverage to ski back to the lodge. :(

Day 3:

I decided I needed another lesson, without having to wait on others to get up from the powder: a private.

The morning was booked up by others in the group. So I thought, no biggy, I'll go ski some more easy powder in the morning. But when we emerge from the cable car, we could hardly see the top of our skis! A whiteout.

I attempt to follow the trail marker, and promptly slide off the side of the trail. I landed on my feet, to my surprise. Cut across to intersect the lower part of the trail when I saw a string of skiers in a class slowly made their way down the trail. That's the only way to see where the trails are, by following other skiers. But within a few seconds, I skied right off the side of the trail again! I fumble my way down to the chair to ride back up. Time to strategize about my morning...

In poor visibility, it's better to stay below the tree line. OK, that's what I'll do. Except to get to the trail that goes below the tree line, I need to make my way across the featureless snowfield, got back up twice on two seperate chairs. And on one occasion, the group I was following was a class in deep powder workshop. So they led me into some pretty deep stuff on a steep slope! Falling, and pulling myself back up in the soft snow took ages! So by the time I got to the trail, I only had time to ski it once before it's time for my private lesson.

He knew the mountain like the back of his hands. And he can ski it blindfolded (he even demonstrated). So he took me to various powder fields, of different slope angle, to work on the proper technique for powder. On groomed slopes, boot top stuff, then knee deep and thigh deep stuff. It's great to have powders flying up as I fly down the slope!

I didn't notice that it had started to snow again. By the end of the lesson, it was snowing in ernest. Saying good bye to the instructor, I skied down towards the village. Even the groomed trail had half a foot of freshies on it! And I was laping them up with my new found confidence and skill!

The visibility was so poor that I didn't even realize I was within 2 blocks from the bottom station of the cable car (and 3 blocks from our hotel), when I bumped into a few others from our group! A very enjoyable day, despite the false start.

As we drink, eat and swap story about our first day on powder, it continued to snow, snow, and snow as we went to bed...

(rest to follow)

 

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Day 4:

Day 4 dawned cloudy in the valley. I thought I'd try the same village run I did the end of day 3. With all that snow fallen through the night, it should be even better! Only when I got there, it's been GROOMED. I mean, groomed after a night of powder! Why?

The terrain was too flat to go off to the outside of the marker. The deep snow would pretty much stop me dead in the track. And a black run off the main trail was roped off. Not having been on that run before, I didn't feel comfortable ducking the rope, yet.

Back on the train to the top of Kleine Schedegg. There're runs on the other side of the mountain that may not be groomed, I was hoping. Got off the train and can't see my hands in front of me! This sucks. All those powder and we can't see our way to get to it! Oh well, we still got 3 more days, the weather will surely clear up later. Stick to the lower runs for now.

I grope in the dark (I mean white) to make my way down the open snowfield till I was in the trees. Jeez, they groomed it too! And it's even flatter than the other trail. OK, just have to get down and go find something else.

Wait! I did a quick hockey stop. There's another trail off the side and the rops is OFF. I looked at the map, it came out the same place as the trail I was on. And that other trail hasn't been groomed. One or two set of tracks lead from the one part where the rope was taken off. So I dove in without hesitation. It was GREAT! A powder filled run all to myself!!!

Too bad it has to end somehow. I emerge from the woods to find my gang all sitting at the cafe having an early lunch! Cool! I told them about the powder run that's open. Someone remarked, "Oh, it's entirely possible someone took the rope off because he wants to ski that run. It's actually better toleave the rope off so in case you're hurt, someone can come by and find you." Argh, rope-ducking, European style.

Lunch was un-hurried. The post-lunch plan was to train up again and come down the same run *I* did. But when we emerge from the train, the sun was suddenly out! Well, it's about time. So instead of going down, we went further UP. We skied some of the upper trails with good visibility. On the chair, I notice the huge steep snow field further up with only a few skiers on it. The trail through the snowfield was called "Oh God". (You can figure out as to why.) But it's ungroomed that day. Should be great powder. "Tomorrow", I made a note to myself, because the cloud had moved in, AGAIN.

We started down the Lauberhorn, which is a black, race course with some narrow sections. Within a few minutes, the clouds were so thick we couldn't make more than 3 turns before lossing track of the skier in front or behind us. We tried to re-group every few turns so we don't loss anyone in that whiteout. I was in front, and I could see the next trail marker vaguely so I went towards it. But, there's a actually a bend between me and the marker. And the side of the trail was piled with snow quite a bit deeper than the rest of the trail (which they groomed, for what reason I don't know). Not able to see it in the white out, I charged into the pile! I can HEAR something gave in my knee!

Surprisingly, it didn't hurt too badly. I stood up and put some weight on it. It felt a bit weak but not too wobbly. So I decide I will try to ski and see how it felt. I did have one of those elastic bandaid in my pack that I can wrap it if I need to. To my pleasent surprise, I was able to continue to ski. I knew I did some demage in there. But it seems it wasn't bad enough to lay me down. Wee...

Some of the gang were talkig about going back up. The rest were talking along the line of post ski beer. I knew it would be foolish for me to go back up. Besides, that trail were groomed already. Not too interesting!

And I can ski it any other time anyway.

Back in my room, I put some ice on the knee. It felt better. Well, will have to see tomorrow...

 

[ski now work later]

I am totally enjoying your reports. You are brave and adventurous! Skiing and snowboarding mirror life's ever-changing conditions, and it sounds like you are going with the flow very well. I look forward to your next report!

 

[ski diva]

This is a fantastic trip report, but we need some photos to go along with it! Any pix? And how's your knee?

 

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Day 5:

Got up and my knee was BIG. Should have taken some ibpufren. Forgot it because I hadn't had any injury for a long time. Walked down to breakfast. The village is still totally clouded in. Well, with such poor visibility and a wabbly knee, I took my time getting ready. It's going to be a slow day anyway. Some people were talking about going over to Murren, on the other side of the Lauterbrunnon valley. Why bother? All trails and mountains look the same in a white out, just WHITE.

After putting some more ice on it, my knee felt better. I went out, took the gondola up. Actually the visibility wasn't that terrible. But the powder has settled considerably and is now quite heavy. I decided I would take it easy for the day cruising on the groomers. The big plank (76mm waist Salomon Tornado) was making edging a bit of an effort on my weak knee. So I went in the rental shop to get a narrower one. I could have just use my own but this is a perfect chance to try another ski. Came out with the Stokli Laser SC. Well, it's actually not bad. Despite its classified as a "racy" ski, I could flex it and edge it effectivelly even in my "relaxed" state. This is the second pair of unisex ski I got for the week (together with the Salomon Tornado) and I actually like them both as much as the women's specific models I demo-ed before.

To get to another part of the mountain, I needed to get down to the village of Grindlewald. But the lower part of the trail netword wasn't open. So I had to download on the gondola. Kind of a pain and hassle, having to download so much. And worse, when I got down to the bottom, there's no sign of where the connecting train is! Fortunately, seems most skiers there were British anyway so at least there's no language barrier. So ask, thy should receive (direction anyway). The walk was frustrating. I can see the building and the train tracks. But unlike other mountain stations that are simply section of tracks where the train stops and skier get on and off as they see fit. Grindlewald was a "proper" station with fences and turnstile and waiting room. I can't get in through the fence and had to go around to where the turnstile was. In the mean time, the train left without me. :mad:

Great, this is going to be a really SLOW day, I can see.

Grindlewald just isn't quite as pretty as Wengen, the village we stayed. So, apart from just hanging out at the station, there's not much to do. When the train came, the sun also came with it!

That lifted my spirit a bit. But I was still wishing I caught the earlier train. I would have been already up the mountain when the sun came out.

Met up with my gang at Brendegg. The station cafe that's famous for its apple fritter. Another out of this world sweet! The Swiss do know how to make sweets.

During lunch, someone mentioned one of the runs into Grindlewald is open and in good condition! So, the decision was easily made that we'll do that one after lunch.

It's now day 5, most people in the group are getting their ski legs back, and some. So someone decides we should jump off some cornices. That made for an interesting viewing. I would have joined in but I was a bit worried about my knee. So I decided to pass and went around and took the easy way down. Besides, I'be got nothing to prove. I've done worse cornices before.

The rest of the trail, unfortunately, has a long section of relatively flat section. Good thing the snowboarder weren't with us. Or they'll hate us for it. Though the scenary more than make up for it.

We had the trail pretty much all to ourselves. We really had a very fun time. It even includes one of the member skied into a small gulley, hitting the steep sidewall as she tried to ski back up, had a classic face plant, IN FRONT OF EVERYONE! ;)

Unfortunately again, the trail ends prematurely ABOVE, instead of IN, the village. The lower part of the trail had a rope across the entrance. Having so many in our group, I hesitate to suggest ducking the rope. Fortunately, that was also the shuttle bus stop. So we sat down and wait for the shuttle bus, which eventually came and took us to the train station.

The group decided to take the gondola back up to Mannlichen. But I've been skiing that part of the mountain for 4 out of the past 5 days. I was a bit bored. So I decided to strike out alone and train back up. But when I stepped out at Kleine Scheidegg, I again saw nothing but white clouds. Reluctantly, I waited some more for the train to take me down towards the treelines of Wengen.

It's been two full days since the last major snow fall. The off-piste snow got quite heavy in the relatively warm temperature. I felt very tired. So I simply skied on the groomer a couple times and got bored. Decided to call it a day and rest up for tomorrow.

 

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Day 6:

This is the last day of our trip. At least officially speaking.
(many people have late flights on day 7, so it's conceivable to extend our pass to get a fair amount of skiing on the last day as well)

As a last day acitivity, we had a fun RACE in the morning!

I think 8 out of 10 in the group had never race before. And most people have never skied gates at all! It's going to be interesting! I've not raced before but at least I've snaked around gates a few times just for fun.

Except when we got to the starting hut, we could barely see half way down the race course. The clouds, which has been with us most of the week, decided to stay with us on our race day! The first racer out the gate promptly missed the turn in the course and skied into the netting! Fortunately he was unhurt. But that puts a damper to next few racers following him. Their time was a bit on the slow side.

When it's my turn to stand on the starting position. Jeez, that's a high, steep starting slope! And I'm suppose to PUSH OFF? OK, there's always a first for everything! I pushed and sort of jump out of the starting hut. Skis chattered and bounce around. I can't see anything except the next 2 gates. OK, that's good enough. I just rid around them, and then, I was at the bend where the course made a right hand turn. I looked to the right but I couldn't see where the next gates were. I nearly came to a complete stop until the gate finally came into view... The bottom gates were further apart, and in the poor visibility, it's hard to see them at all. I kind of coasted to the finish, sort of near the bottom of the pack. But I knew I could do better on my second run.

One of the guy who posted a very good time in the race ran into the deep snow at the side of the trail right after he past the finish line. Very much like the way I ran off the trail the day before. Only he was going much faster. Unfortunately, his knee were definitely much worse off. He didn't think he could ski down.

Interesting most people didn't know what to do in a situation like that. So I offered to ski down to the nearest lift to ask the liftie to phone for ski patrol to bring up a stretcher. We all needed to take that lift back up for our second run anyway.

It ended up several of us went down to the lift together. Talked to the lift operator and he acknowledged understanding. We went back up.

Now that we were back to our own thoughts, I was begining to feel uneasy. I had been lucky that I didn't actually blew my knee 2 days earlier in an identical situation. And the cloud was in and out, visibility poor in general. My knee were still weak from the "tweak" 2 days ago. I opted to skip my second run.

I got back just in time to see our minority snowboarder go off. Most of our boarder had "park" boards, not the best tool for racing on carved up slopes with no visibility. So, it's crash galore. Some of them were on their butt as much as they were on their feet! But they all bravely push on to the finish. All in the name of FUN!

After the race, we all went for a drink, followed by lunch. And a bit more skiing for the more hard cored. Visibility never improved so it's either ski in the trees or skiing blind. (and ski blind was what quite a few of them choosed to do, with numerous crash story to share at the end of day)

Day 7:

Always the optimist, my roommate and I both kept our rental ski in the hope the sun would come out on our last day there. (they allow you to return it as late as 10 am without being charged for the day)

But no luck. The cloud just hung around. Although a few in the group went out skiing. Many of us packed it in. The snow god has been kind to us. We got great fresh powder 2 days in a roll. And a few inches everyday following that. So much of it blanketed the mountain that eventually most of the lower mountain runs were able to open. But we didn't have the cooperation of the Sun God. So we had to go home without trakcing out all the powders out there because we simply can't see enough to get there.

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All in all, it was a fabulous week. Despite the flight delay, the white-out, the wobbly knee, I felt I had the best ski holiday I've ever had!

The fresh powder everyday (I've never seen so much powder EVER), the excellent instructor and a very fun group. On top of that, the great scenary and the fantastic sweets!

Oh, yes, I stuff my luggage full of Swiss chocolates for the trip back! Anyone who's from New York City and wants some? ;)


(End)

(and thanks for reading through them)

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I will post a few pictures once I get them processed (they're HUGE, I need to shrink them to fit before uploading)

 

[Pequenita]

....and the knee is okay?

Thanks for the report; can't wait to see the pix!

 

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Knee is still a little swollen, but is definitely on the mend.

Fortunately, the biking season is just about now. Cycling is always the prescribed re-hab for any knee injuries anyway. So I'll be in the right track. I should be back to normal and ready by the time the next ski season comes around!

Would go back to Jungfrau in a heartbeat! The scenary, the empty slopes and un-tracked powder, and the sweets... it's additive