All done

Over the last week, several lifts have closed for the season. Bumps T bar went first, followed by Fallboden (not that it runs that often anyway) and the Innerwengen chair on Sunday. Honegg was closed also for a couple of days last week.

Today the wind was forecast to blow and many other lifts were shut. It was windy, but perhaps not as much as expected. It did seem that parts of the mountain were cut off without any need. The day was grey and miserable though.

The forecast, reliable or not as it might be, is for some very poor weather tomorrow and heavy snow on Saturday. There is sunshine forecast for Sunday and it should be one of the great days of the season. There must be, without doubt, enough snow to see out the last couple of weeks before all the lifts close.

My season is done though. I skied my last run in the mid afternoon as rain turned to snow and the wind did blow strongly. We are in Wengen for a couple more days, but on Sunday, when the skiers are enjoying what might be fabulous conditions, we will be heading for Zurich airport and on to London.

For us it has been a strange winter. It didn’t unfold as we hoped in any way at all. For me, the skiing was a consistent highpoint, with wonderful early snow and good conditions all winter, even in the long snow drought of February and early March. However, the lows were very low indeed, with illness and death stalking the family. Mrs IS, hit by illness herself in the middle of January, was unable to ski for the rest of the season.

The final day of my winter brought 6,016 vertical metres in 14 lift rides and 32 kilometres travelled.

As for the season, 114 days skiing brought 1,001,297 vertical metres in 2,245 lift rides and 5,651 kilometres travelled.

I hope to be in touch over the summer.