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The weather’s getting very confusing. I’m not sure whether it’s summer or still winter. The calendar says winter, so we get up early and go skiing. We were almost the only ones, despite the snow being very good. Val descends the Lauberhorn.

Back in the village, preparations are well underway for this weekend’s festivities. On the left you can see a big pool liner. This will be filled with water to make a huge pond. On the right is a ramp with an inflatable trampoline just beyond. I wonder what they might be used for. Tune in tomorrow to find out.

If it were summer, we would go walking. Well it feels like summer, so here goes. Babbling brook that runs down the hill just along from our place.

Some of the animals are being released from their winter captivity onto the pastures below Wengen.

Needless to say all the babbling brooks have names. Good opportunity to fill your water bottle.

Snack time at a place called Staubachbankli (try saying that with a mouthful of schinken sandwich). Amazing views of the mountains and the valley from here.

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A few shots to give you a flavour of the village. Firstly, here’s a view of this great metropolis from the top of the nursery slope.

If you want to ski back to the nursery slope from the higher pistes (and you do, because it is surrounded by bars), you have to ski down a slope through a tunnel under the railway.

After the tunnel there’s a road. After the road there’s a short incline onto the nursery slope – so you need to go fast. So as you pass under the tunnel there are 2 things on your mind:

• will there be any snow on the road? Because if there isn’t, my skis will stop, I won’t, and I’ll end up in a heap,
• will there be any traffic on the road? There’s no way of knowing this as you emerge from the tunnel, and it’s way too late to stop.

As, you can see, the guy in red has been pretty lucky on both counts.

600 metres below Wengen in Lauterbrunnen, summer is fast approaching. There’s no way to ski all the way down here, so the train brings dozens of sweaty skiers down from Wengen. Lots of people stay in Lauterbrunnen; it’s much cheaper than Wengen and it has lots of places to stay.

Back in Wengen, here’s Sina’s pub & restaurant, scene of many a jolly evening out, and home of the best ribs & chicken in the Alps. It gets awful reviews on Tripadvisor, but everyone here seems to really like the place. I certainly do, but after all, it is a pub.

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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.