Hotel is not quite my style, a bit like an all inclusive beach hotel in a ski resort but at 99€ a day with 2 meals and a ski pass it will do :) So check in at 9.30pm and head down town to explore the bars!!
In the first one and very local, just what the doctor ordered. This is the official opening weekend down here, and I am looking forward to trying some of the off-piste that this place is highly regarded for by snowboarders. Not sure what this takes my tally to for resorts, but it's my 4th in Switzerland which is fast becoming my favorite place on Earth!! Still sitting in bar no. 1 as the beer is good, music terrible and you would get flogged for not smoking!! Perusing the piste plan and they have a yellow run?!?! Blue, Red and Black are classified as normal but Yellow is "very difficult" and carries a disclaimer on the flip side. Wonder what I will be attepting tomorrow??
Day 10 of 60.
The view I woke to this morning
What can I say, this place had a huge amount of snow this week and only select runs were open. Well they opened officially this morning and at 9am there was untouched powder everywhere. The area has obviously been pisted to a minimum, no wide cruisy blues or reds here. However if you like off piste this is a little gem. I was a little cocky this morning and got off the lift and went straight off-piste without warming up on-piste first, resulting in having to walk out back to the run in snow up to my waist. 80-90 yards of that and you are warmed up I can tell you!!
The pitiful end to my waist deep trek
It is 3.20pm as I write this and I'm having a beer up top before riding out on what looks like a massively long red/blue run back to village. For those of you inclined to look it up it's Red 8 from Jochpass @ 2207m to the Trubsee, then Red/Blue 5&6 back to earth........
......Apart from the first 600 yards that was a great finishing run, now in the Chalet bar having a constitutional and listening to some classics.
Learnt several things today:
1. Glacier skiing/snowboarding is very diffrent to proper mountain.
2. I am nowhere near as good as I thought I was.
3. I simply do not know when to stop.
4. Powder hurts less than piste.
5. Powder is a ***** on a board when you fall.
6. Skiers have it easy off-piste compared to boarders.
7. I need to learn to ski, and then........
8. I need to buy a split board :)
This place is awesome. The piste is only provided so you can get to endless areas of untouched mountain. Never had such a diverse days riding. Will be back here a few times to reach my goal.
No certainty on mileage today as there is no Skiline at this resort, but 7 hours up the hill and a bit of messing about, so I am going for 45km, it feels a hell of a lot more!!
Some more pictures to round of the day.
Stunning views
And some more
Wouldn't want to harm the wildlife
Oh, and I didn't attempt the roped of "Yellow Run", although some did. I may tomorrow.
Day 11 of 60. It's 12pm and a wee break for refreshment before getting the quiet lunchtime hours on-piste. I am riding far better than yesterday and have hardly used the piste at all this morning. Most resorts have some kind of tagline in thier advertising. Engelberg-Titlis simply uses "Heaven" and they are not far wrong. This is a great place for a few days especially if Freeride is what floats your boat. However I think for those who like to get a lot of distance done, a week may be a little long. That being said I will be reccomending this place to anyone who will listen and probably many more who will not.
Plenty of powder
Last night I completely forgot to have dinner. This was a combination of a few après-ski sherberts, a wee snooze and getting my blog online. So about 10pm I headed down to the little local I was at on Friday armed with my book (Paul McGraths' Back from the Brink). It's not often I read an autobiography but this is extremely good. Before I knew it, I had consumed 100+ pages, 3 pints and it was knocking on 1am! A wee bit tired this morning.
Stone me, I was so involved with writing this I didn't realise it had started to snow!! That means I have to use my goggles (I hate them) and hat.
Not a piste in sight (double click for large image)
2.25pm and I think I have a problem. My right (back leg) thigh is killing me. I noticed this on the run back to town last night but put it down to 7 hours of exercise. Today after just 4 it feels worse, I fear I may have stretched or torn a muscle. This is obviously the worst thing that could happen in early December and may put pay to my mission. Oh well, I will see how it is after the long run out I described yesterday, hopefully it's just tired.
The long runs back to resort
Well my leg seemed to recover enough to let me run a few more times before heading down about 3.45pm. After lunch it got quite strange up there. The lower pistes were deteriorating fast, a thaw had started and the sheer volume of people on few pistes had worn out the bottom sections. I saw the helicopter dispatched 5 times ths afternoon alone, and 3 accidents being tended to at the same time at the bottom of Red 8.
Expensive taxi
A few rock and stones had been churned up as well, my edges are absolutely wrecked and by the end of the day the loss of grip was very noticeable. Reckon today was shy of the average I need, gonna put it down as 38km.
So to round off a great little trip and a fantastic place for Freriders, I have never seen so many big skis in one resort, your standard rental skis were few and far between. Can't post withoput mentioning the Rotair lift up to Titlis. Its a circular cable car that rotates through 360° during the ride, making for a very strange experience.
Spinny things
I did video the whole thing and will put it up as soon as I have had some sleep!!
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