Yesterday saw the best of the Jungfrau region, with a concerted effort by the tourist office and local businesses to resolve the lack of taxis in Wengen. On the mountain there was a less attractive aspect, where a couple of local ski clubs thought their races merited jumping the queue at the Mannlichen chair almost completely and across Mannlichen and Scheidegg, skiers moving way faster than their abilities allowed, used other people as slalom poles.
With so many people taking advantage of the impromptu taxi service yesterday, I was expecting a very crowded mountain this morning. In fact, it was not too busy. Early on, there was a uniform blue sky and the newly arrived holiday makers were out in strength, but the local skiers had stayed away and the day was quieter by some margin than the last few weekends.
By midday clouds were rolling in and before long a strong wind was stirring the snow into small tornados. Eigernordwand closed early in the afternoon and later Wixi as well. The mountain emptied of skiers inevitably.
Throughout it all, the snow remained in first rate condition. A better than expected day brought 10,227 vertical metres in 25 lift rides and 64 kilometres travelled.
Idle thoughts from a mountain 