Wengen

Submitted by: Mark Thomas

Our Day

Today’s “Last Blast” turned out to be more of a “fizzle”, except for the violent “blast” of wind which forced the closure of all the lifts in all the Jungfrau areas from midday or, in some parts, even earlier. Storm Nelson has been wreaking havoc all over Europe for the last couple of days and Switzerland has not escaped its attentions. Wind advisories at our usual meet point warned of “lift closures are possible at any time” for the next few days.

We started the day on the Mannlichen slopes, enjoying the red run (3) down to the Lager chair in good visibility before tacking Gummi Sud in the hope of accessing the Fallboden and Wixi pistes before they might be closed by the increasing winds. Alas, as we neared the top of the Gummi chairlift, we could see that the Eigernordwand lift had already been denuded of its signature orange-canopied six-seater chairs, leaving the Eiger Express as the only means of accessing our favourite Eigergletscher pistes. Worse was to come – a quick check of the website showed that Wixi was also already closed which meant that Fallboden would be closed as there would be no exit route (save for skinning!) from its slopes. With the Lauberhorn also closed and the Eiger Express terminal effectively inaccessible to us without returning to Mannlichen and a tedious download on the gondola from Holenstein it was clear we needed a new plan.

Determined to make the most of the available remaining skiing we proposed to ski Honnegg and the red 11 Barhag through the trees back to the Mannlichen pistes. On arriving at the bottom of the Honnegg lift we were astonished to encounter a scene rarely observed there, even on the resort’s busiest days – a lift queue! However, the Honnegg lift’s speed and capacity is such that we were soon on our way to the top. There we found an extremely crowded slope that had been stripped of much of its loose snow, either by the many skiers who were being funnelled into the area by the surrounding lift closures or by the high winds. Time for another change of plan!

Recognising that routes that depended on chairlifts remaining open might not be viable for very much longer we agreed to head towards Brandegg for coffee, thinking that at least we could rely on the train back to the Kleine Scheidegg area even if wind closed all the lifts. Piste 22 proved highly enjoyable, if a little slow at times – either from the wind driving us backwards at the top, or from the sticky slushy snow which prevailed towards the bottom. At Brandegg we enjoyed coffees and hot chocolate sitting outside in the weak sun as an alarmingly warm foehn wind played over us.

After coffee we returned to Kleine Scheidegg by train. On the way up we could see that all the chairlifts were either closing or already closed, as was the Mannlichen gondola. The strong wind that greeted us as we exited the train was all the confirmation we needed that our ski day was either done, or almost done. Some in our party elected to download by train while an intrepid few thought it worth braving the gale force winds along the FoxRun (blue 36) back towards Wengen.

This is the last snow report about Wengen from a Ski Club Rep until December, as the service will close for this season from tomorrow.

Weather

Sunny intervals in the morning, but increasingly overcast as the day progressed. Strong winds, getting even stronger through the day.

News

N/A