Saas-Fee and Blue Snow

The months of November and December have left me in a daze. With all the people visiting and the bundle of day trips and overnight trips taken, I am starting to lose track of where we have been and which stories I have already covered with y'all. I think they would call this "traveler's brain", kind of like "pregnancy brain" where your brain turns to complete mush and you forget which tram takes you home or the dog's name (at least that's what I hear -- don't get your hopes up, people). So, one trip I think I forgot to mention was to Saas-Fee when Marc-ie Marc was in town.

I have no valid excuse for forgetting this city. I think it was the highlight of Marc's visit for me. Saas-Fee is in the same region of Switzerland as Zermatt, close to the Italian boarder. This trip might never have happened without my procrastination on booking a hotel room in Zermatt. If no one has told you yet, you have to book out rooms well in advance during ski season and especially between Christmas and New Years when we were going. You would think late September would have been enough time, but you would be wrong. I ended up finding a place in Visp, which is where you switch trains to get to Zermatt. Just makes sense that we should go the other direction the next day after spending a day in Zermatt and then sleeping in Visp.

The bus trip to get to Saas-Fee is not for the weak. You are driving along cliffs of a mountain, staring down I don't know how many hundreds of feet (a lot), on icy streets that either fit two teeny cars or one gigantic bus, and you are hauling it through tunnels where the driver has to sound a loud horn because he can't see what is 6 feet in front of him. It's intense, but if you can handle an hour of that, you are good to go.

Once we got to town we made our way to the Alpine Express to catch two gondolas and one train up to the top of the mountain range at Allalin. This time I don't think we were the only ones wearing jeans and not skiing. If you go to Saas-Fee, you go to see the blue snow. Not yellow snow, but blue. There are massive glaciers under heaps of snow and they give off this blueish glow to the snow. Ridiculously beautiful. It was worth standing in the freezing cold, feeling like the wind was gonna swipe you off your feet and off the mountain at any given second. This might just be the most beautiful spot in Switzerland. It is so hard to compare it to the Matterhorn or Jungfrau. All are amazing and all should be seen. It's more than that. All should be experienced.

Hard to get that glowing effect in the pictures, but see the greyish-blue areas...that is all glacier, baby.

After freezing our fingers off from snapping pictures, we grabbed lunch in the "World's Highest Revolving Restaurant". Cracks me up. Everything is something here. Food was nothing special, but it was a cool way to take in the views warmly.

One last thing to do before heading down the mountain. For 5 CHF we had to check out the Ice Pavilion -- the "World's Largest Ice Pavilion". It was pretty fun running around an ice cave, in and out of little tunnels, and going down the kiddie slide. I had to. I fit. Why not? The craziest thing was having to walk out of the cave. Going up maybe 50 stairs was tough. I was definitely having a hard time breathing. You sometimes forget how little air there is from that high of an altitude. No worries though, we all made it out safe 'n sound.

Looking forward to our next trip there sometime. I have to get my ski on here.

Zermatt: Skiing the Swiss Alps

I have decided there is a small fee to pay when you stay at the Peterthal Hotel. In exchange for free room and board, all you have to do is write a blog post for me. Fair enough, right? So, without further adieu...here is the guest post from my brother. Thanks, Dave.

When Deb and Josh told me that they were moving to Switzerland, I knew that a trip to Europe would be in order.  There was also no way that I was going to miss out on a chance to ski in the Alps.  After looking at several places, the one spot I realized I had to ski at was Zermatt.  Where else could I ski around the Matterhorn?  I would be able to ski from one country to another, ride the highest ski lift in Europe, ski down a glacier, ski a single run that is 23 km (14.3 mi) long, and I would get the chance to finish the day up by having a drink at a bar inside an igloo.

Deb and I worked out the details and began our plans for a trip to the Swiss Alps.  One great piece of advice from a friend of hers was to get a Snow 'N Rail pass.  We got an unbelievable discount on our ski passes, and a pretty good discount on our rentals.

After arriving in Zermatt the day before, we woke up early to grab a quick breakfast and pick up our ski rentals.  I also made time for a quick stop up to the rooftop of our hotel to watch the sun rise on the Matterhorn, and to check out the Mountain climbers' cemetery.

(Matterhorn at sunrise)

(Mountain climbers' cemetery)

I had originally planned to catch the lift at the edge of town in Zermatt, continue up to the Kleine Matterhorn (Little Matterhorn), ski into Cervinia for a quick beer and lunch, ride back up the lift, ski down to Furi, up another lift, and finally meet up with Tina, Drew, Deb, and Josh at Riffleberg.  The man at the ski rental place, after first trying to talk me out of my trek, told me it was just as fast to catch the train up to Riffleberg with everyone else, since it was only a couple of blocks away, and then ride lifts the rest of the way to Kleine Matterhorn.

(Ski map for Zermatt-Cervinia)

So we walk the couple of blocks and get there as a train is leaving, so we had to wait another 20 minutes for the next one.  Then instead of stopping at Riffleberg, where I need to catch my lift, it stops further up the mountain at Gornergrat.  So much for this being the fast way.

(View from Gornergrat)

Not being deterred, I leave the rest of my group and ski down to Riffleberg ready to start my gondola trek.  While I am riding up, I meet a guy from Germany that tells me that there are two ways over to Cervinia and to Italy.  The first is the way I had planned, the cable car from Trockner Steg to Kleine Matterhorn.  The second is a 15 minute t-bar ride followed by a second 10 minute t-bar ride from Trockner Steg to the border.  I decide to stick with my first instinct.

After reaching Trockner Steg, I head over to where I catch the cable car.  I wait for a few minutes when finally someone comes up and says that they are closing the cable car down due to the high winds.  The cable car coming down would be the last of the day.  This means I will not be able to ski down a glacier, or ride the highest ski lift in Europe, or ski the full 23 km to Cervinia.  But, I could still ski to Italy.  I would just have to brave the 25 minute t-bar ride through the extremely windy and cold weather (-26°C /-15°F and 45km/hr or about 30mi/hr winds).  Not exactly what I wanted to do, but I was on a mission, right?

(View of Kleine Matterhorn and the day's last cable car)

(Matterhorn; and yes, all of the blowing white stuff in these pictures is snow and not clouds)

I venture out and find the t-bar lift.  It is not running.  I am not sure what is going on so I find someone who tells me that unfortunately this lift is also closed.  There would be no trip to Italy.  So instead I take the lift up to Furggsattel.  This will be the highest point I reach and the closest I get to Italy.

(T-bar lift to Italy in the middle, Furggsattel lift on the right)

I reach across the fence stopping me from skiing to Italy and touch the snow.  I can at least technically say part of me made it anyway.

Somewhat disappointed, I head back to Trockner Steg for some lunch (bratwurst with rösti) and to take some pictures.

(View from Trockner Steg; in the valley on the left you can see Zermatt)

Could things have worked out better?  Maybe.  If I would have gone with my initial instinct and taking the lift straight out of town I probably would have reached the top before the cable car closed for the day.  I likely would have made it to Italy and would be writing a different story.  However, I just needed to remind myself that I was skiing in the Alps.  Looking around at views like these made me realize that this is not only one of the most unbelievable places I have ever skied at, it is also one of the most memorable places I have ever been to.  With this new outlook, I finish out the day by enjoying the long ski runs on the way back to meeting up with the others.

And for anyone that was wondering, the igloo bar was closed too...luckily, I was prepared with my flask of Kirsch!  Oh well, plenty of things for my next trip, right?