The Lauberhorn race weekend proved to be a small window of good weather in a period of constant wind, rain and snow. I have not seen such a protracted period of bad weather in all the years we have been coming to Wengen. Snow is one thing; the rest we can do without.
I had made it back to Wengen on Wednesday night. Fresh snow was thick on the ground. On Thursday the wind blew strong and skiing was limited. I had thought of going to Murren, but it is the weekend of the Inferno races over there and I thought better of it. As it turned out it would have been the thing to do.
In Wengen, almost everything was closed. I made it up to Kleine Scheidegg, but it was bleak indeed. I managed a few runs alongside the Bumps T bar, but it was an early bath again. Ten lifts and 2,066 vertical metres was my lot.
Friday seemed destined to be the same. The morning was bleak still. Few lifts were open, I took the train to Scheidegg and had a couple of runs in terrible conditions. It had snowed quite a bit over night, but the wind was blowing as strongly as ever and visibility was about as far as my ski tips.
Mrs IS sent me a text to ask how things were and no sooner had I replied to say it was impossible to see anything than the sky cleared. What followed was a great skiing day, with powder on piste and the sun shining.
I had thought of saying this photograph was taken “after the storm”, but within minutes of it being taken (at about four in the afternoon) the weather closed in again. In the end, the day brought 25 lifts and 9,972 vertical metres. Not bad, all things considered. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.
Idle thoughts from a mountain 