Building Wixi 6 Man Skilift

Wixi and Fallboden Talstation July 2012

 Building the new Wixi Bridge that takes the skiers over the train line.

Looking back up the Wixi Piste.

Looking at the potential bridge from the blue ski track.

And two weeks later......

Full Moon

There was a full moon this week, not that we saw it through all that snow! So here's one I made earlier!?!

After a fantastic, full, four weeks of ski teaching, I've now had a whole day and a couple of afternoons free to do as I please. No, actually this time I didn't go skiing. Well, once or twice, maybe, as the off piste powder was so amazing, I couldn't resist.

There is so much snow. It's almost impossible to clear my pathway, the heaps at each side are as tall as me. Takes a lot of effort to throw the snow over that.

The pistes are wonderful, as you can imagine. The weather is due to improve, getting warmer for a couple of days, sunshine, even! Then more snow coming again next week.

I'm off to work now, Blue Prince Children (they can stop and turn) we're going up to Maennlichen, skiing the blue down to Holenstein. It will take us all morning.

What are you all doing this morning?

Lol Kxxx

The Skiing is Fantastic

Yesterday there was some more fresh snow, with the sun coming out in the afternoon. The off piste was fantastic, powder up to my knees. The pistes were beautiful, and empty.

Today, however the Foehn wind is due to appear again. In the micro cosmos of the Jungfrau region the Foehn is a frequent visitor. This phenomenon occurs on the lee side of a mountain, which is us. The wind comes up against the mountains, from the south, as it ascends it cools producing precipitation and with it the common cloud formations. On it’s descent it speeds up and warms up. A temperature increase of as much as 30 °C has been recorded and can lead to an amazing disappearance of the snow. After a Foehn storm the Lauberhorn piste can be rather glassy and bare. Not a very nice surface to ski on.

These gusts of wind can reach high speeds. The chair lifts have to be slowed and usually stopped, otherwise the cable could be hooked off the rollers or a chair swung into the pylon. It has been known for a train to be derailed, especially when empty. Hence the trains stop running.

This wind comes from the south and sometimes it brings with it the Sahara sands. Everything then has a slight yellow tinge.

In the Pennine this wind is known as the Helm, in Ticino, Italy as Favonio, as the Terral in Malaga, as the Nor’wester in Hawkes Bay New Zealand and as the Chinook winds in the Rocky Mountains.

We're Skiing!

Last weekend the resort opened for winter! With Mannlichen to Holenstein, the "Carousel", Arven, Lauberhorn, Honegg and down to Almend all open and pisted. Well, Scheidegg was open to begin with, but the Foehn wind blew its best, and stopped play by midday on Sunday.

Of course once the Foehn "broke", a literal translation from the local vernacular, it snowed. All day Monday. So now I am off to Kleine Scheidegg for some fresh air and exercise.

Wish you all a great day.

Kxxx

Winter has begun

Winter appears to be starting rather nicely.



On Saturday a snow storm raged all day. Despite high winds (170km was recorded on the top of Europe) 20cm of snow deposited itself on my balcony!

Then Sunday dawned clear and bright. The sky was blue, the air was cold and the ground was crisp and white. I went walking in untouched snow which came nearly up to my knees (that’s not difficult really as I am rather vertically challenged). Others were more adventurous, taking out their snowshoes and going off road up the mountain.

The ice has been made on the ice-rink, and the kids are skating again. The nursery slope lifts are back in position and the snow cannons are hard at work on the race course.

So as you can see it’s all coming along rather well.