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Tourist offices in the Alps publish figures for the amounts of snow in their resorts. Usually you get 2 figures, one for the lower slopes at village level, and another for the upper slopes near the top of the ski area. To provide the measurements, a marked pole is set into the ground. Here’s ours:

As you can see, we could certainly do with some snow. Thankfully we have a big snowmaking system. This means that we can still ski back to the village, despite there being no natural snow. The artificial runs do look a bit odd though. This is the view from Grindelwald looking up towards Scheidegg.

Val’s not working today, so we had a nice lunch while we were there. As you can see from the picture it’s a gloomy day, but snow is forecast for later this evening. Fingers crossed.

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It’s warm and sunny again. Val was off to work nice and early, but unfortunately her customer wasn’t quite so diligent. He turned up an hour late for his lesson. His loss.

I’m off to Mürren. Nice views up the valley from the cable car.

Looking back towards our side of the valley.

Mürren is much smaller than Wengen, there are only about 450 residents and a couple of thousand guest beds. This gives it a very relaxed atmosphere.

Farmers’ market every Monday.

A little funicular takes me up to Allmendhübel above the village. Kids having great fun.

A view to Wengen’s ski area, dominated by the Eiger and Mönch. It should look a lot whiter than it does.

A nice day out.

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It’s overcast but really warm, and Wengen is looking distinctly green. Val got this picture on her way home from work at lunchtime.

Our nursery slope won’t last more than another couple of days unless the weather changes.

The ski instructors do their best with the little snow that remains.

It’s not all about the skiing though. The goats love the dry weather.

Michael brought me a couple of flagons of beer from Heidelberg. They’re way too big for the fridge, and it’s not cold enough on the balcony to chill them properly.

Quiz later.

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It’s Val’s day off. This morning we had a meeting with the owners of the chalet that we went to see a couple of weeks ago. The contract looks good and we’ve agreed all the financial stuff, so it looks like we’ll have a new home after Easter.

It’s a beautiful spring day, so after lunch we had a wander out to the Staubachbankli. The first flowers are beginning to appear.

Mary’s Cafe doing good business in the warm sunshine.

And here’s the Magical Kiosk. The important thing here is not the kiosk itself, but the garden behind, which is a sort of mini nature park. The kiosk was recently renovated after an appeal for funds.

A nice afternoon out, rounded off with ice cream on the balcony.

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This morning began with thick fog, but it soon cleared and the sun came out. Val did her last lesson of the week and said goodbye to all the kids. An afternoon off for the ski teachers.

Stunning at Scheidegg.

Cruising home.

Music in Rocks later.

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Yesterday’s snow petered out at dinner time, and we all went up to the Caprice to see Bevez and Ibe. A good night out.

This morning I’m off up to Männlichen. It’s a beautiful day.

Pistes are crowded.

The Jungfraubahn are building 2 new lifts. The first of these is already open – you can see it in the picture above. The second will open next December, and will take passengers from Grund to Eigerglescher.

In addition to the lifts a new terminal is being built, along with a new railway station. Let’s have a look around.

The terminal is still very much a work in progress.

It’s huge, with lots of space for shops and restaurants. It feels like an unfinished airport terminal.

Outside, work is progressing on the lift to Eigerglescher, known as the Eiger Express.

This will get passengers up to the top in an astonishing 15 minutes.

All these passengers need to get to the terminal somehow, so a multi story carpark is being built. A new railway station is already complete.

It’s a huge undertaking, costing 470 million francs.

Meanwhile, up at Scheidegg it’s team photo time for Altitude Ski School.

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There was a piste machine smoothing the snow on the football pitch the other day, which was hard to understand as it’s completely flat – you can’t possibly ski on it. It turns out that the pitch is being used as an overflow meeting place for the kids. The Swiss Ski School have around 500 children in lessons this week.

It was snowing lightly in the village at breakfast time, and it’s much colder. Up at Scheidegg it’s very different to yesterday.

It’s windy and the snow is heavier. Far fewer skiers today.

Uptown Lights at the Caprice later.