We may all be dreaming of a white Christmas, but in the village at least we have nightmarishly heavy rain and the snow has all but disappeared. There seems to be little improvement in the forecast for the next week or so, in terms of snow anyway, though the rain should stop sometime tomorrow afternoon. There is little prospect of waking up on Christmas morning to a white, snowy world.
It was gloomy again this morning and raining heavily. It was less windy in the village than yesterday, but Mannlichen was closed and only a few lifts advertised as open at Scheidegg.
The train to Scheidegg was almost full, with skiers and people with luggage on their way to the hotel Bellevue des Alpes. Probably not the best start to a ski holiday ever.
The skiers were soon dispersed on the mountain and the pistes were empty more or less. The rain seemed less heavy than in the village but it was pretty miserable still. Despite the rain, the skiing, what there was of it, was really good yet again. Arven, Lauberhorn and Wixi, the last especially, all skied well until late in the day.
The rain picked up on the mountain in the afternoon and as the wet seeped into my jacket and trousers I headed home against the wind.
A bleak, rainy day with very good skiing brought 8,057 vertical metres in 20 lift rides and 36 kilometres travelled.
Idle thoughts from a mountain 