It did rain last night and it was still drizzling slightly this morning. Mrs IS headed down the hill to Lauterbrunnen along the main route, along with a friend and her Labrador. Reports are that it was like summer, with no snow or ice at all, even on the most sheltered parts of the path. I headed up the hill, where it was still raining.
Snow conditions seem to turn up on alternate days at the moment. Yesterday was icy, today was soft. After an hour or so the rain turned to snow at the very top of Mannlichen, but then blue sky turned up for a while.
Mannlichen was very quiet and I stayed until early afternoon. It wasn’t any busier at Scheidegg. Wixi had an impressive mogul field though, despite the lack of skiers.
More than the occasional rock is appearing on the pistes now and I managed to connect with a couple of them. It was my own fault really. I had planned to catch the train at Wengenalp, but on the way home, I just headed down towards Bumps as usual without thinking about turning off for the station until it was some way behind me. I paid the price on the forest trail, which is now very thin and scratchy.
The U.K. press coverage of recreational skiing at the moment is all doom and gloom, foreseeing the end for many resorts. As is more than apparent from this blog, things haven’t been great this season in Wengen. However, some perspective always helps. We are still skiing. It is only two winters since the best season for thirty years. We have had poor snow years before now.
It is amazing what a quick burst of sunshine will do for one’s view of things. Another okay day brought 6,862 vertical metres in 16 lift rides and 42 kilometres travelled.
Idle thoughts from a mountain 