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Sunny today. The sun has done its work on the powder we skied yesterday, so it’s back to the pistes for everyone. There are very few people about, so we can ski far and fast. Here’s a rare shot of me.

And another!

Lunch stop.

Val on a popular run called Black Rock.

A nice picture of the Eiger. It’s hard to get the whole of the Eiger in the shot without making Val look very small indeed!

Kleine Scheidegg is little more than a railway halt on top of the pass between Wengen and Grindelwald. It has become the hub of the ski area over the past 80 or so years, and it has 2 hotels and lots of restaurants.

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Today was what we call a powder day – the first sunny day after a snowfall. On days like this we look forward to skiing untracked ‘powder’ snow away from the usual runs – it’s called off-piste skiing. First, the views from the top this morning.

Don’t look down! Here you can see Wengen 1000 metres below, and top left of the picture is Lauterbrunnen, 1 vertical mile below us in the valley.

Lots of fresh show away from the pistes at Mannlichen

The Wetterhorn and the Schreckhorn above Grindelwald

Later in the day you have to search a bit harder for places to make fresh tracks. Secret places…

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Well it kept on snowing all night, so off we went this morning to see what the mountain was like. Visibility was very poor, but the snow is absolutely epic.

It has snowed a lot!

Val finds some more deep snow to enjoy. It’s hard work skiing this stuff but very nice – it feels like skiing on air!

Back in the village conditions are midwinter-perfect. This is the run back to the centre of the village. As you can see it’s still snowing.

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We walk up to the village in sunshine this morning, but the weather forecast is awful so we don’t plan to go skiing. Outside the Co-op are rows and rows of bedding plants ready to go into those troughs that all the chalets have here. I think it must be pretty much compulsory to do this.

Down in the valley we hop off the train at a village called Wilderswil. There are some very old buildings here – much older than anything else in the region.

Later on we arrive back in Wengen, and it looks like the weather forecast was right. We’re expecting 2 days of snow now. View from our balcony.

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Up early today for a trip to Grindelwald. We get the cable car from Wengen to Mannlichen, then ski down to the outskirts of Grindelwald where we get a bus. This takes us into the village and we get a gondola up to First, which is Grindelwald’s ski area.

After a coffee and some apple cake we have ski around the area. It’s quite small, but it does have one classic run, a route called Stepfi. This is a miles-long romp down through the trees.

Stepfi eventually leads to the Hotel Wetterhorn, named after the mountain which dominates the area. We have rosti and fried eggs for lunch while we wait for the bus.

The Wetterhorn.

Back in Wengen the weather is changing – it’s getting windy and colder. Some of the locals are talking about snow over the next few days.

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Warmer still today, so we head up to Mannlichen and ski all the way down to Grindelwald, stopping for coffee at Aspen on the way. Train back up to Scheidegg for lunch, then a quick cruise around and back to the village.

New piste down to Arven from Salzegg. It’s good because it removes a bottleneck where all the pistes meet just before the lifts. Bloomin’ steep mind.

On a piste called Fallboden, under the Eiger.

This run is called Bumps. No bumps today though. Silberhorn in the background.

A bit further down we have a run called ‘The Standard’. No idea why it’s called that, but it leads to Mary’s Cafe just below Wengen.

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What a good evening that was! Lots of music and song, the usual good beer and a few nibbles. Steve got things going, lots of people sang.

Colin plucked up courage to have a go after a few beers.

So how did Colin manage with his artificial fingertip? Have a listen to the video:

Things got a bit out of hand towards the end – Ellen decided it might be a really good idea to stand on the bar to sing a few numbers.