Follow

It’s a much nicer day, so up we go to Männlichen. We ski round to Scheidegg where we had coffee. The Canadian ski team were at the next table. The Europa Cup is one rung below the World Cup which takes place next week. As such the racers are mainly youngsters in their late teens. The usual pre-race melee at the start hut.

And off they go. Here’s Lars Rösti from Switzerland.

Inspired by the racers, we bolt down the Lauberhorn towards the village. Igloo being built at Allmend. Needless to say it will become a bar.

Follow

Snowing again this morning, but we’re getting cabin fever being stuck indoors so we headed up on the train. It’s very murky.

Skiing in poor visibility is easier on tree-lined runs, so we head back towards Wengen. The snow is wonderful.

We get back to the village and wonder what the weather might be doing up at Männlichen. It only takes 5 minutes to get there, so it’s worth the gamble – if it’s no better we can come straight back down. When we got there it was deserted, but little by little the sun began to break through. The gamble has paid off and we have Männlichen all to ourselves.

Val got a great shot of the village from the cable car on the way back down. The arrow points at our house.

In the centre of the picture you can see temporary buildings being erected – they are hospitality facilities for the race next weekend.

Follow

The snow continued all night and all day today. Chris and Mai well dressed up for the weather yesterday evening.

Wengen is a snowy wasteland.

Kids having lots of fun.

One of Val’s colleagues got a nice shot of the piste down towards Brandegg.

Our new Swisscom TV box arrived today. This is great as the latest model also provides Netflix and all the other streaming services.

Follow

It snowed all day today. We popped over to Grindelwald. While Val was collecting her wages from the ski school office I had fun trying on some of the insanely priced French designer skiwear in one of the shops. It was lovely stuff, and I might even have bought some if they’d had my size, which fortunately they didn’t.

This evening Angela hosted an apero. For the uninitiated, this is a drinks party – you pop round to someone’s house for pre-dinner drinks with maybe a few nibbles. Angela provided so much food we didn’t need any dinner, and we stayed until nearly 11pm. Of course it’s a bonus for us that all we had to do to get there was walk down the stairs. A very international affair, with representatives of the U.K., the Lebanon, Thailand, Switzerland and Germany all present.

It’s still snowing.

Follow

First quiz of the winter in Rocks last night. We used our usual strategy of assembling a big team and managed to win, thanks in no small part to Val’s encyclopedic knowledge of nursery rhymes.

Raffie, Anna and Viktor from Chalet Rosa in Lauterbrunnen arrived later on. Viktor is their chef and he’d made a delicious chocolate cake. Yum!

Val had staff training up at Scheidegg this morning, so I made sandwiches and met her for an early lunch. It’s a perfect sunny day.

We had a good blast around – it’s lovely in the sunshine but absolutely freezing in the shadow of the mountains. Top of Lauberhorn.

Follow

The village was shrouded in fog when we woke up this morning, but we began to see a few glimpses of sky, so up we went.

Val has a new ski suit. Better yet, it’s the first outing for the new skis that she bought before Christmas.

The skis, (Stöckli Motion 85) are longer and wider than their predecessors, as is the trend nowadays.

The kids have a big race today. This is great for us as it confines them to the race track, leaving us with empty pistes to enjoy.

We thrash up and down the runs at Männlichen, in and out of the banks of cloud. Occasionally we get a shaft of sunlight through the gloom.

But the cloud continues to build, and eventually we have to admit defeat and we return to the village for a late lunch.

Follow

It snowed all day, but Val didn’t have to work so we had a quiet day. Climbed the hill up to Karen’s this evening and had a really nice apero – it was nice to catch up with everyone now that the busy holiday fortnight has come to an end. Popped into Rocks for a drink on our way home, and sure enough it was very quiet. Peace!