(Les Diablerets, Switzerland)

Skiing here is in 4 distinct areas. There is “Glacier 3000”, which is sits on a glacier at about 3000 m above sea level. One of the pistes is 8 km long. The other three areas are connected by lifts: Les Diablerets, VIllars, and Gryon. It’s fun to ski from one resort to the next…you just have to make sure you get back before the lifts close. It’s very expensive to return to your base, as these towns are very far apart by road or rail. The mountains are in the way!

On our first day, the good news was that there was an ongoing blizzard depositing huge amounts of snow on the pistes. The bad news was that there was an ongoing blizzard; the sun was absent, and visibility was hit and miss. The more exposed areas above the treeline had some icy patches, as the wind was blowing the snow away. As a result, we spent most of our time below the treeline, and enjoyed the skiing very much despite the occasionally challenging conditions.

After lunch high above Gryon, we began following the route that would take us back to Villars and then Les Diablerets. Alas, the lift connection that brought us to the Gryon slopes had just closed due to high winds. We had to take a gondola down to Gryon itself, where hopefully we could catch a bus to Villars, and then ski back to Les Diablerets (via several lifts). However, so many people were stranded by the closed lift that we couldn’t take the bus.

We then walked to a train station, and took an alpine train to Villars. But it took so long that we would not make it back to Les Diablerets before the lifts closed. We were despondent and were facing the prospect of a 3 hour journey by bus and train (at our expense) back to Les Diablerets. And then we saw the “snow angel” (seriously…he wore a sign that said this).

The Swiss are known for quality products and services. The “snow angel” told us that a bus had been arranged to take us (and 21 other stranded skiers) at no cost to us. And because it might take 45 minutes for the bus to arrive for us, the ski area bought us all drinks at a nearby pub! Given the prices in Switzerland, this was quite a generous offer! As we finished our drinks, the bus arrived, and we all enjoyed a stunningly dramatic drive from Villars to Les Diablerets…in just under an hour. We were even on time for dinner.

This was enough of a rollercoaster for one day, but the second day had nearly as much drama.

The sun was shining and it looked like a beautiful day for skiing. We caught the first bus from Les Diablerets to Col du Pillon – where the lifts to take us up to Glacier 3000 begin. Alas, there was more bad news. As they had received 150 cm (!!) of snow, the lifts were late and they could not prepare the pistes. You could only ski if you had an avalanche transceiver and other highly specialized alpine gear. So we had to return back to Les Diablerets,

We finally started our ski day about an hour later than we had hoped, and we were feeling kind of sorry for ourselves. But it turned out to be a spectacular day on the slopes. There was little wind, the sun was out, there was plenty of powder on the slopes…it really wasn’t necessary to ski off-piste.

While it was very crowded in places, as the conditions had been poor for quite some time before we arrived here, we managed to avoid the queues by taking the “less glamorous” drag lifts (pomas, t-bars) rather than chairlifts, gondolas, and cable cars. This strategy worked in Lake Louise, and it seemed to work here as well.

The photos in this post are all from our second day of skiing…there was too much blowing snow to take pictures on the first day! Coming up next: Skiing in France!

(Les Diablerets, Switzerland)

After a very long journey, I have finally arrived in this winter’s first ski destination: Les Diablerets, Switzerland. It is by no means the largest Swiss resort, but it is relatively close to Morzine (France) and Les Portes du Soleil, where I will be skiing all of next week. As I only have time for a couple of days of Swiss skiing, it wasn’t necessary to ski in a huge resort.

Les Diablerets is located on the eastern fringe of French-speaking Switzerland, just a little bit west of my German-speaking “Heimatort” of Lenk. I went skiing at the nearby glacier in August (!) of 1987, so I wanted to get a better idea of the area (most of it) that is not actually open in the summer. In fact, with climate change and increased awareness of environmental impacts, I am not even sure that skiing is still offered here in the summer.

It has been a mild winter here: on the rail trip from Geneva to Aigle, there was no snow at all. From the rustic mountain train that travels between Aigle and Les Diablerets, snow only began to appear as I arrived in Les Diablerets. Not every piste is open right now.

As I write this, on the day before we first hit the slopes, the snow is finally starting to arrive. We received about 25 cm of snow today, with more expected in the days to come. In fact, I suspect we won’t see too much of the sun for the first part of this international ski odyssey. But that’s OK – it’s hard to enjoy the sunny slopes if there is no snow on the slopes!

The village reminds me of Lenk too, or perhaps Andermatt, before Andermatt underwent a massive expansion. There isn’t much of a corporate presence, and somehow (in a good way) it feels like the town is still in the past century. Somehow, it is a little strange to use my laptop.

I’ve been scanning menus and have come to the conclusion that you had better be a cheese lover here. Cheese is everywhere…and bread, potatoes and ham are ubiquitous too. Again, not too different from my observations in Lenk a couple of years ago. And from what I understand, I may see more of the same in Morzine next week. It may be in a different country, but the history here goes back much further than the relatively “new” borders between France and Switzerland.

I am staying in the Auberge de la Poste (see photo at the top of this post) – one of those rustic old chalets that passers-by like to photograph. It’s right in the middle of town, and I think it will suit our purposes perfectly.

Today’s photographs were all taken while walking from Les Diablerets to the nearby hamlet of Sur Le Buis. While there is no sun to speak of, and a few of the photos were taken in blizzard-like conditions, I think you can get an idea of this area is all about. By the time you read this, I will hopefully be on the slopes!