It has been Saturday today, but not as we know it. The 9.30am cable car was more than half full, but the mountain was more than half empty. Boningen ski club turned up, as did the Wengen equivalent, again, but that was about it for the Saturday regulars and it felt like an out of season mid week day.
It had snowed through the night, but the pistes were prepared to perfection. Despite the low cloud and continuing snow, visibility was somewhere between adequate and okay. The digital displays at the lift stations insisted all day that it was minus eleven degrees on the hill, but it never felt that cold. With that temperature, I would expect to be in five layers with inner gloves and hand warmers, but I was quite happy with a mere four layers. There was however little or no wind today.
As the day wore on, the skiers went home. On Bumps in the afternoon there were a couple of local snowboarders weaving in and out of the trees, but otherwise I had the run to myself.
The village was fairly busy, with people arriving and registering for the Lauberhorn run tomorrow. The course is the downhill in reverse. It doesn’t bear thinking about, especially with so much new snow.
A good day brought 7,896 vertical metres in 17 lift rides and 44 kilometres travelled.
Idle thoughts from a mountain 