It did snow overnight and it continued this morning. The Idle Skiers were up early for an appointment in the village and at sometime before 8.00am, the weather looked socked in for the day.
Conditions changed quickly though and by the time I was on the cable car a couple of hours later, the clouds were thinning. The chance of good weather didn’t seem to have motivated many people however. There was no queue at all for the cable car and Mannlichen was pretty quiet.
As the clouds cleared, the temperature dropped. In fact, it plummeted. A cold wind blew on Mannlichen and even though less strong on Scheidegg, it was still around.
As always, my hands were cold first. My gloves are heavy, with fleece liners, but still my finger tips are numb on cold days. The best answer has proved to be not still more expensive gloves, but hand warmers from the Co-op. These little bags, looking more like a herbal tea than anything else, react to the air and produce heat which lasts for hours. Costing about nine francs for a bag of five pairs they are worth their weight in gold.
A bitterly cold day brought 9,116 vertical metres in 19 lift rides and 50 kilometres travelled.
Idle thoughts from a mountain 