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It’s the first race of the weekend today, a downhill in the morning and a slalom in the afternoon. Lowest total time for both races decides the winner. Needless to say we start with an air show.

As you can see we have high clouds today – not so good for photos. This guy is cruising around the village giving away coffee.

We usually get a super deal on tickets to the races, but this wasn’t offered this year. We can therefore watch at home on TV or on the big screen at the World Cup village.

And here are the winners. Austrian Matthias Mayer was first, with French compatriots Alexis Pinterault and Victor Muffat-Jeandet second and third.

Tonight we have prize giving and the bib draw for tomorrow’s downhill.

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It’s the final practice day for the racers. We ski around to Scheidegg and head up the Lauberhorn after grabbing a coffee. It looks like the whole Canton is up here trying to get a good view.

It’s not just the skiers having training. We always have an air show on race day, and the pilots also need to practice. A few snaps.

They’re behind you!

The airforce jets are very impressive (they are Northrop F-5E fighter/bombers), but it’s the Airbus that really amazes – you’d never believe how it can be thrown around as it dives in and out of the valley. The Airbus is called ‘Wengen’.

As I type this the house is shaking from the noise of the public address system at the World Cup Village – it’s only 50 metres away. Lauberhorn has begun.

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We met Ali and started at Männlichen this morning, pausing at Scheidegg for a quick lunch. It’s another beautiful day.

It all went a bit wrong on the way back to the village. The run to Mary’s is open for the first time this season, and if we use it we can avoid slogging along the path through the forest. It was a poor decision. The run was icy and very narrow alongside the race track, but somehow we made it down to the lift in one piece. We certainly enjoyed our drinks at Allmend.

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Years ago we were pally with a young lad called Jon. Amongst other jobs, he ran the Anonym bar in the Silberhorn. One summer he went to America to work, met a girl and never came back.

On Monday this week, 17 years after he left, he walked back into town. Here’s Danny entertaining him with some magic last night.

Colin took him skiing today.

No skiing for us – we’re still pooped after chasing Emily around the mountain yesterday (we might have been up a bit late last night too). We popped into Central Sport to visit Ali, and we’ll see everyone in the pub later.

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It was cloudy early on, but it brightened up towards lunchtime so we met Emily and headed up the hill.

Boozy coffees in the tipi.

Lots of civil defence people building stuff for the races this weekend.

We set off back towards the village.

A quick whizz down Wixi and the wood path and we were back at the Figeller bar on the nursery slope for more booze. Great day.

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Last night we were off to the cinema for our annual dose of Star Wars.

It was the usual nonsense, but very enjoyable just the same.

Today we popped over to Grindelwald as I need a new pair of insulated trousers. Grindelwald’s valley is particularly dark and cold at this time of year; we were freezing.

Anyhow, we had a nice lunch in the Memory bar and I found a nice pair of trousers. It has to get colder at some point, right?

Dramatic sky when we got back to Wengen.

Weather changing? Not according to the forecast.

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We had a little snow yesterday evening, just enough to make the paths slippery, but sadly insufficient to improve the coverage on the ski slopes. Skiing back to the nursery slope now involves negotiating some astro turf.

As we walked past the school a rescue helicopter landed to collect the doctor. Saturday is usually the worst day of the week for accidents, sadly.

The second Europa Cup race took place this afternoon. Italians Davide Cazzaniga and Henri Battilani were first and second, with Swiss skier Ralph Weber in third.

Needless to say the Italians were absolutely delighted – there’ll be a party tonight.