Gone with the wind

Over the last few years, it seems that the early season snow falls in abundance and those few people in Wengen at the time send photographs to the rest of us showing powder snow on the first weekend of the season.  Then the storms come.

This season is no exception; the snow came, the wind followed.  The Idle Skiers have been here for ten days or so. Things looked good when we arrived, despite an exceptional early winter storm a couple of weeks earlier, which saw trees uprooted and the roof of the Start bar heading for Bern at speed.

So the first day of the season for the Idle Skiers brought sun and wonderful snow. The next day, the mountain was closed. The following day, the lower areas of Murren were open, with strong winds still.  The day after that, Sunday, it was clear that the snow had gone with the wind.

Following a brief interlude in London for Mr IS, the Idle Skiers regrouped mid-week, only for the wind to blow strongly on Thursday and to close everything in the Jungfrau Region yesterday yet again.

We are lucky to be here at all of course, but as the rain lashed the windows last night, it seemed a bit miserable.  This morning was cloudy and raining slightly still here in the lower part of the village (Upper Lauterbrunnen, as we know it) but up on the hill it had snowed and the sun was making an effort to shine.

Despite everything the weather has done, the skiing is pretty good.  A truncated early season has brought 41,356 vertical metres in 103 lift rides and 219 kilometres travelled.