Direct line

Direct line to Mottec

It took one exciting (and wrong) try to finally work out the direct line back to Mottec. It's taken a while but we've finally done it and it's a new favourite route. Lovely snow, nearly 1500m of continuous descent, some exciting terrain, and a cup of tea waiting at the chalet.  PK

Some great snow...

...and interesting terrain

The 'just so valley' - the Vallon de Rechy

Just so...

Why call it the 'just so valley'? Well it's just so - consistently amazing, beautiful, untracked, quiet, remote, varied, huge and long... as is the list of words which describes how much I love this valley. Throughout winter we've had some amazing journeys, whichever route we've taken, and there are lots.

Here's a small collection of images from this and previous years ski days. It's not bad in summer either...

Great skiing

Wonderful views

Magical, even on a grey day

Makes a great day tour

For more images see our FaceBook page - here are a few links to some of our Vallon de Rechy days

www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1045216575493610.1073741881.232723673409575&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1038136209534980.1073741880.232723673409575&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.822418427773427.1073741862.232723673409575&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.622151517800120.1073741826.232723673409575&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.587871347894804.147912.232723673409575&type=3

Below 30 degrees

Skiing powder on low angle slopes

Below 30 sounds parky but in fact I'm thinking slope angle. This season there's already been an extraordinarily high number of skiers killed by avalanches. Many could have been avoided with better awareness and education in what causes slopes to slide.

One rule that's easy to follow is to keep to gentle terrain. Slopes less than 30 degrees in angle are generally unlikely to slide. But remember, look at what's above you too, even if your on the gentle stuff vibrations can ripple through the pack and break those weak layers in the steeper terrain above causing it to slide.

So how to tell the slope angle:

Topographical maps with winter routes,  have terrain over 30 degrees shaded in pink. For Switzerland there's an excellent range of 1: 50 000 produced and available from www.swisstopo.ch

Pink shaded steep slopes on the swisstopo maps

You can go online to use the excellent interactive mapping site with more detailed shading
www.map.geo.admin.ch

You can also attach an inclinometer to your ski pole. Then you simply lay your pole on the ground and see what angle it says. There are also poles with it already built in - K2 have an adjustable carbon pole - (LockJaw £95) unfortunately it measures from 30 - 50 degrees so if you can see the bubble your on the wrong slope...

Built in inclinometer on the K2 LockJaw ski pole

Top 100

This is the 100th post on this blog so it seems appropriate to list (in no particular order) some of our favourite things to see, do and experience in and around the Val d'Anniviers

Things to see: 

Black-nosed sheep, gentians and edelweiss.

• Patch of gentians
• Black-nosed sheep
• Ptarmigan
• Edelweiss
• Sunset on the Besso
• Crocus poking up through the snow as spring arrives
• Meadows of summer flowers
• Marmotts running across the fields
• Ibex on the cliffs
• Waterfalls beyond Zinal in spring
• Golden Eagles

Walking routes:

Tour lac de Moiry, Lac Noir and up to Cabane d'Arpitettaz

• Up to Cabane d'Arpitettaz 
• Wiesshorn hotel to Zinal
• From top of Sorebois lift to Cabane Petit Mountet 
• Tour lac de Moiry
• Bisse walk in Vercorin
• Descent of Vallon de Rechy
• Crete de Midi
• Up to Cabane Grand Mountet
• From Bendolla south to the dam
• Chandolin along the cliffs
• Lac noir above St Luc

Best events:

Feeries Christmas Market, Sierre-Zinal race

• 1st August fireworks in Zinal
• Feeries Christmas market Grimentz
• Friday markets in August Grimentz
• Sierre Zinal mountain marathon
• Vercorin jazz festival
• Grimentz three day classical music festival 
• Marche des Cepages, wine and walking tour though the vin-yards
• Desalps
• Grand Raid – Verbier to Grimentz mountain bike race 

Food & Wine:

Locally cured sausages, home-made redcurrant jelly

• Fresh serac cheese from the alpine diary
• Vin de glacier from Bourgeois Grimentz
• Myrtle tart at Hotel Wiesshorn
• Wild alpine strawberries 
• Multi-grain bread from Salamin bakery
• Local cured dried sausages
• Redcurrant jelly made from the wild berries around the house
• Glass of white wine from the caves of Sierre

Favorite pistes to ski:

Illhorn red piste, Chandolin

• Chamois, Zinal
• Pas de Beouf to Prillet, St Luc
• Vercorin blue, from top station to the village
• Blue from Grands Plans chair past Etable du Marais, Grimentz
• Illhorn red piste, Chandolin

Things to do and visit:

Grimentz old town, moon light walk in winter, Hotel Weisshorn

• Histoic house, Zinal
• Walk through Zinal old town
• Centre of Grimentz
• Moon light walk in winter
• Sleep out under the stars on a summer's night
• Visit old flour mill in Grimentz
• See cheese being made in the mountain dairies
• Star gaze from the St Luc observatory
• Visit hotel Weisshorn – even better stay overnight
• Visit Tzoucdana cafe and see the farm animals
• Overnight in a mountain hut 
• Via ferrata below Moiry dam
• Snow shoe to the snout of the Zinal glacier and discover the ice-cave

Best off piste:

Down to the dam

• Down to the dam from Zinal
• Orzival
• Vallon de Rechy
• Variants around Chamois
• Off back of St Luc into Turtmann valley
• Zinal free-ride zone
• Vercorin trees
• Lona
• Pylon route 
• Middle bowl, Zinal
• Abondance
• Trees to Chiesso Blanc

Views to see:

Weisshorn, glaciers above Grand Mountet, sunset from Tracuit

• Sunset from Cabane Tracuit
• Top of Ilhorn over Rhone valley
• Col des Arpettes into Turtmann valley
• Glaciers from Cabane du Grand Mountet 
• Besso from Lac d'Arpitettaz
• Glaciers from Cabane du Moiry
• From Niouc the 'Imperial Crown'
• Weisshorn from bridge above Zinal 
• South from Barneuza
• South into Vallon de Rechy from top of Vercorin

Day ski-tours:

Basset de Levron, Bec de Bosson, Col du Pigne

• Tourno, St Luc
• Basset de Lona, Grimentz
• Cabane d'Arpittetta and on to Glacier de Moming
• Basset de Levron, Grimentz
• Off back Grimentz and over to Nax
• Glacier de Moiry and Col du Pigne
• Off back of Bella Tola

Favourite time of year:

Autumn colours, Zinal

• January – low sun and wonderful light
• February – early on, good snow and no people
• March – warmer and longer ski days
• April – spring snow
• May – crocuses appear through the melting snow
• June – meadows around the house are full of flowers
• July – higher alpine meadows come into flower
• August – lots of music and other events in all the villages
• September – warm days, no people and great walking
• October – larches turn golden and first snow on the peaks
• November – Zinal opens for weekend skiing
• December – Feeries market in Grimentz

Touno's Turn

Finally got to ski the big couloir above St. Luc. The 3018m Touno forms the southern edge of the domain, looming over the long piste descent to Prilet. There are several skiable couloirs but the obvious classic is west-north-west. The entry is not obvious from a distance and even less so once you've climbed up round the back. From the col there's a narrow snow-ridge with sharp roped descent into a notch, then down a snowy gully to the crux where it narrows and steepens. There's a fixed rope to help out on the scratchy rocky section though without Nick belaying us, we wouldn't have had a hope - one slip and you'd go a long way. After all that the couloir itself is wide and quite gentle, though we did manage to set off a small slide on the sunny side... Three people had got there before us but I guess they didn't have to serve breakfast to their guests first.

The ascent... 

The climb down...

The ski...

The end.

Look back on winter

With less than 3 weeks left of lift accessed skiing I thought it was time to look back on some of the fantastic ski days we've had here in the Val d'Anniviers this winter... But it ain't over yet.

December: Storms brought record amounts of snow and we were cut off for 2 days

January: Heli ski conditions for everyone including our Mountain Tracks off piste week.

February: Freezing temperatures and fabulous powder.

March: Still finding powder within the domain or with just a short skin to hidden spots.

April: Spring snow showers and still skiing back to the chalet

We've got lots more postings and pictures on our Facebook page.

Get your skate skis on...

Skiing downhill is wonderful but not the best for keeping in shape. The answer during the winter months is to do a bit of skate skiing - a fast, dynamic version of cross country skiing. Just an hour and a half from us in Zinal is a mecca for the sport - Goms in the upper Valais.

It's well worth taking a lesson to get to grips with the basic technique. Damian Hischier (in blue, just in case you can't tell the difference between me and him) worked miracles, getting us up and running in no time. He's not quite your standard instructor - in the summer he's not a carpenter but a test pilot...

Damian teaching some tricks to skate skiing.

Just don't over-exert yourself before heading off on one of the wonderful routes that stretch down the valley:
between Oberwald and Niederwald the shortest route is 22km, a journey taking you through ancient villages, across meadows and past chapels. There are lots of alternative trails, twisting and climbing above the valley floor into the forest. But don't forget that what goes up must come down, which is no joke on these skis... There are also plenty of restaurants and bars - some serving the unlikely sounding dish 'cholera' (a sort of Swiss Cornish pastie with onion and apple); and you're never far from a railway station, so when you've had enough (cholera or skate-skiing) you can jump onto a warm train and trundle home. We stayed in the lovely Hotel Tenne, where they serve award winning food and have very comfy beds - perfect after a day's skating.

For our last day we headed down the road to the local downhill ski area of Fiescheralp where we enjoyed the views over the Aletsch glacier and explored with local hero Kilian Volken, a guide who is off to climb K2 this summer. After 30 + years of guiding, it's wonderful to find he's still as keen about skiing the local area, even in perishing cold and with the powder quite wind-blown. One of those inspirational characters you feel better for meeting and a huge pleasure to ski with.

The big chill

Winter has finally arrived across the whole of Europe. Here the temperatures were -20 at the house this morning, rising to -10 by lunch-time. Swiss rail tracks have snapped in the cold and there are wonderful frost patterns on the window, but it's beautiful. The sun is out, the sky blue, snow clings to the trees and there's no wind.

Once out it's fine and the snow is skiing beautifully. We've been exploring some new routes and Eric's been wearing some sunny colours to warm up the pictures.

Snow has fallen snow on snow....

After one of the driest autumn in the Alps for (some say) 150 years, the weather finally turned and from the 14th December we've had more snow than we could at times cope with. So much fell on the 16th that they closed the road for 1.5 days as a precaution against avalanche. Things have settled down now and since Christmas we've had more snow but some good skiing too in deep deep powder.

Once dug out, our new outdoor fireplace has made a great venue for some pre dinner vin chaud.

 

You can get an idea of the depth of snow from the garden room's roof.

 

From ice to Nice

photo by: Will Herrington

It's only 2 weeks since the previous post and how the landscape has changed. The resorts are open at weekends and the international race teams are being relocated from other venues and are flooding in from all over Europe to race in Zinal. Us mortals benifit tremendously from all the hard work the lift company has put in and we've been making turns before most. Now the real snow has arrived and we can venture off piste too. This is from Sunday which was before the recent falls. More forcaste for the rest of the week.

Proper powder

A snowy weekend has left the whole Val d'Anniviers in great shape. Lots of powder in the Chamois, top to bottom, putting the pleasure back into our run home.

Normal service has been resumed

Two snow storms, last weekend and yesterday, have put an end to the recent snow drought. In fact the pistes stayed in pretty good condition but it's nice to have plenty of fresh powder off piste again.

Happy Boxing Day

 Powder snow, freezing temps, sunshine and no one around...

Early winter skills: how to escape snow-bound UK

Heavy snow across the UK and Europe didn't stop our first Mountain Tracks group arriving for their Early Winter Skills course. Great snow and excellent guiding and instruction from Olly, Claire and Roddy gave everyone a taste for skiing the deep stuff including a run down to the dam and down the Chamois back to our chalet. A great start to the season... Thanks to Delia for the photos.

photo: Delia Cox

photo: Delia Cox

Movie making

You can tell we're dreaming of winter when we start putting together video clips of last season. At least the music is summery...

The B-O tour

That's B as in Bernese and O as in Oberland, obviously, though after 6 days sweating up huge peaks and skiing back down to the cosy comforts of a bunk in a hut with no running water, it's also B and O in the olfactory sense. Just to rub it in, the view from your window is of Europe's biggest glacier, the 23km long Aletsch, which is reckoned to contain 27 billion tonnes of ice and is at one point about 900 metres deep, so it's not strictly a lack of H2O you're faced with, just that it's much too cold and hard to wash in. As www.swissinfo.ch explains, "It is not only the length but its thickness which is impressive". Quite.

It makes for some great skiing-between-crevasse shots too.

From the highest train station on the continent, at 3454m on the Jungfraujoch, via a tunnel through the Eiger, we headed up the Louwihorn, followed by the Gross Wannenhorn, Gruenegghorn and Aebeni Flue, before leaving the ice-cap at the end of the week through the Loetschenluecke for a long ski out back into spring-time.

Literal high-point, 3962m on Aebeni Flue; metaphorical high points, too many to mention. It's another world up there, accessible only with a bit of effort and all the better for it, though we could have done without the Konkordia hut's soul-sapping access ladders which take you 100 vertical metres up a cliff. Definitely not what you want after a long day and double-definitely not what you want if heights are not your thing.

Thankyou Klemen, our giant guide from Mountain Tracks, who led us safely through the week and found us some great skiing, and thanks also to fellow mountaineers Bonnie, Nora, Simon and Steve, in particular, for Jelly Babies at unexpected moments.