And finally…

We were hoping for sun and fresh powder on our last day in Andermatt and we weren’t disappointed.  25 cm of snow overnight and a cold but sunny morning – just what we like.

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View of Piz Centrale

A few skiers had been down the Guspis before us – but not many.

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Tina enjoying the snow, sunshine and solitude.
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The Gloggenturmli is just visible in the distance
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Some nice skinning action

One way up

The two stage cable car is the only way up the Gemsstock.  Luckily there are multiple routes back down – on and off piste.IMG_2746

We took one of the routes down this morning.  The breakable crust caused me a few problems but Tina showed how to do it.

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The route emerges on the road up to the Gotthard Pass.  It’s closed to traffic in winter so serves as a convenient  run back to the village.

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Looking up towards the top of the Gotthard Pass.
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Looking down towards Hospental.

 

Forgot to mention that we met Snow White and her seven dwarves yesterday.IMG_2734

What a difference a day makes

Forget yesterday’s Gortex wrap-up.  Today we packed sun glasses, high factor cream, headband and water.  A serious queue for the 8:30 cable car showed that the Swiss like a sunny day too.

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Looking at the freeride area on the north face of the Gemsstock from the cable car mid-station. Two hours after it opened there wasn’t a drop of untracked powder.

We skied the Felsental just before lunch.  Great snow all the way back down to Andermatt.

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The Felsental – a classic Andermatt off-piste descent.
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Tina on the Felsental – waiting patiently for me. Her superior fitness is beginning to tell.
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The historic Gasthaus St Gotthard in Hospental

After a rather nice lunch at the St Gotthard Hotel in Hospental, we headed for a late afternoon ski at Natschen.

 

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The Gemsstock summit from Natschen.
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Are those alien spaceships over the Furka Pass?

All aboard for Sedrun

We woke to find snow falling and cloud almost down to the valley – that meant plan B: the little red train over the Oberalp Pass to Sedrun.

Glacier Express, Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn, Andermatt, Uri, Schweiz
Glacier Express, Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn, Andermatt, Uri, Schweiz

On with the goggles and up with the hoods.

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The Sedrun skiing is lower and more sheltered.  No trees to help us see in the fog so we used the bushes for a spot of slalom practice.

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The weather picked up after lunch and we found some nice snow on Calmut just above Tschamut.

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Back in Andermatt

After our day’s skiing in Engelberg we drove over to Andermatt.    Conditions on the Gemsstock were even better than the day before.  Plenty of untouched powder on the north face of the mountain.

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A quick skin up to the Gafallenlucke and we were able to drop into the Guspis.  The snow was wind affected but we were able find a few nice pockets of powder under the Rothorn.

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It wasn’t too busy on the hill this afternoon…

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A Day in Engelberg

Spent last night in Lucerne and woke to a grey drizzle.  The short drive up to Engelberg village didn’t fill us with much hope for a nice day.  However, half way up the first gondola, out came the sun.

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We had a great day exploring the off piste runs around the edge of the resort.  Plenty of fresh powder first thing but it didn’t take long for the locals to cover it in tracks.

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The fog remained in the valley the whole day.  Much better to be up in the mountains.

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Last run of the day and Tina is still flying down the back routes.

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