Today, of all days

Posted on December 31, 2022 by Mike

It’s warm today, in fact for late December it’s hot. 15 degrees on our balcony at the moment, and that’s comfortably warm enough to sit out in the sunshine.

I popped up to the village this morning to find it heaving with skiers; it looks like it’s probably the busiest day of the season so far. The last thing anyone wants on a day like this is a big mechanical failure of a major lift. Unfortunately that’s exactly what happened – our cable car broke down just before 11. The occupants, as well as those waiting in the queue, were sent to the station where an extra train took them up to Scheidegg.

I’m sure the train was some consolation, but a trip to Scheidegg isn’t much use if you’ve arranged to meet someone for lunch at Männlichen, particularly as you can’t ski across at the moment.

Dramatic sky across the valley as the sun set.

It’s New Year’s Eve, so we have some plans for later. Beves and Ibe are playing at the Alpine Hotel starting at 10. We’ll stay for an hour or so before heading to Rocks for the traditional NYE party. Wish us luck.

Curry and drinks

Posted on December 30, 2022 by Mike

Super meal at Golden India last night.

Followed by shots and cocktails in the Tanne.

We had some rain late last night, which proceeded to freeze, making the village a bit of an ice rink. Up high it fell as snow, which tempted even more people onto the mountain this morning.

Val has a day off tomorrow, which will be nice.

Out and about

Posted on December 29, 2022 by Mike

Colin played his first gig of the season last night. We had a packed house in the lounge at the Alpine hotel.

Val’s kids, who were beginners last weekend, can now ski well enough to get out on the mountains. Honegg this morning – busy!

And Lauberhorn. The snow here has survived the high temperatures surprisingly well.

Back in Wengen, things are getting a little threadbare, but it doesn’t seem to bother the kids.

Curry tonight. Yum.

Busy busy busy

Posted on December 28, 2022 by Mike

Wengen is full, as are the neighbouring villages of Mürren, Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald. Owning to the warm weather, we only have about half the usual amount of skiing on offer. All this adds up to some very busy ski slopes. It’s up to the instructors to find some reasonable skiing for the kids. These children are racing.

Skiing next to the race track wasn’t very nice for Val’s kids, so they got the train back up to Scheidegg and headed off down Arven. Much better.

Back in Wengen, there’s a big queue for the Männlichen cable car.

The nursery slope is suffering from the mild temperatures and heavy traffic. I took this picture this morning – heaven knows what sort of state it’ll be in by this afternoon.

The weather forecast is for more mild weather. The local kids go back to school early next week so hopefully it’ll be a little less busy. Colin is playing at the Alpine Hotel tonight.

It’s still a bit warm

Posted on December 27, 2022 by Mike

Every morning, Val catches the 8.46 train up to Scheidegg. We had rain in Wengen last night, but as the train reached about 1700 metres, the rain had turned to snow. This is just below Wengernalp.

Up at Scheidegg, the new coffee hut is just opening. It’s proving very popular with the ski schools and their young customers, as it doesn’t matter if you make a mess.

It’s pretty gloomy early on, with lots of fog clinging to the mountain. Later on however, it did brighten up. Here is the restaurant at Allmend. It’s just above Wengen. Very busy.

From Allmend it’s just a few minutes back to Wengen. The warm weather has unfortunately taken its toll on the ski run. It’s looking pretty thin.

Without the snow cannons there wouldn’t be any snow at all here. We just need the temperature to fall a few degrees and the cannons will be able to top up the ski run.