TR: Cheese, Trains, and Rain ... oh yeah, and some skiing, in Engelberg, CH

[powder_prophet]

So I took a trip across the big, wide pond last week. Got my Euro cherry popped skiing in Engelberg. However, I also spent a lot of time just chilling with the famn damily. Yep, it was one of THOSE trips: skiing wasn't the prime focus here. However, I got in four days of schralping. Often with the family (...b.e.a.t.e.r.s....), and if not, then alone. This prevented me from getting into the real good shit, but I made the best of it. Still got in some good off-piste skiing, just had to be super careful about my terrain choices. It was full on spring in Switzerland, which meant beautiful, green valleys in which we would wake up to rain. It also made for extremely variable snow on the upper mountain. Over four days I skied it all: powder, hard pack, crud, slush, ice, crusts; you name it, I skied it!

Anyway, enough jabbering. What everyone wants to see: the pics!!



Our journey begins in the same place as all great ski trips...


London... I won't lie here, not one of my favorite places on the world. But I made due. This is where I met my family. The pops has a gig teaching here this semester, so he's been living in the north burb's. I'm not sure how anyone could live here for very long; but then again, I'm not sure if I could live in any metropolis, period.

We did make it out of the city one day. Cruised out to Dover, acted like touists, took pictures. I tried to getting a pic of the famed white cliffs, but this damn seagul just kept flying into the shot.


All in all, I think my mood while in London can be summed up with the following pictures...




Ok, what were we doing... Oh yeah, skiing, that's right...

Traveling to Engelberg meant a brief overnight in Lucerne. The town is on a very big lake and is infested with swans, ducks, and other aquatic faul.

12 swans a sleeping...


Mallard.


Cutie mallard-chick.


Lake stoke.


Ah yes, what a nice city. So calm and peaceful . . . Oh shit, skiing!! I'm here to ski!!!!! Getting there required one of these.


Well, what is there to say about Engelberg? I'll be breif: the scenery is mind-blowing, the mountians are big...very very big, the people were friendly (even to my Deutch-impaired self), and the town itself is just the cutest little village I've ever seen. Like something out of a story book...





This monastery was built in the 12th century.


The hotel room had a balcony. I could stand on it and see lots of things. Like this, the Laub.


Or this.



Alright, about damn time for some meager skiing stoke. Sitting on top of the Laub.


I skied this area three times on the trip. The first and last days were very soft and nice. This day, day three, I hit it too early in the day with no fresh snow. It hadn't had time to thaw out yet, and after 200' of fluff, I was up against 2700' of solid ice. Ugg. Here's the view from the bottom, about to start the slog out.


Like I said earlier, I skied a lot with my dad and little step-sister. This meant slowing down the pace, sitting back, and just enjoying being in the mountains!!!

I did manage to do a wee-bit of exciting stuff. Off Jockpass, I took my step-sister out to the off-piste for her first time. We skied super thick, heavy once-was-pow. T'was pretty damn fun, actually. Here's the little one.




We switched positions. She makes a decent photog...


On our third run in this area, this happened while I was standing right about where you see the two skiers. Textbook wet slide. It began with a small point-release up in the chute that stepped down to a slab when it opened up a bit. It was very slow moving and mostly benign. But still, it freaked me out. Needless to say, I stopped lapping that.


The old man has no desire to get off the pistes. He learned to ski the same time I did. I was 10, but he was 49. These days, he's still a beater to the core, but he's happy as a clam with his status. He fucking loves making a ton of huge turns, inching his way down the groomers. Whatever floats your boat...

[powder_prophet]

Titlis.


The Steinberg glacier.


The views from the top are pretty ridiculous. Funny to think that as I type this, I'm at a slightly higher elevation then these pictures were taken...

Looking down.




These little guys were all over the place on top. At least a dozen were just playing around, cruising on the breezes.








Europe is a strange place. Here, we observe a man hopping on one leg through a slalom course, to the rowdy applause of all those in attendence.


Fail.


Then, skier girls strapped on snowboards for the first time and attempted the course. Made for some funny moments. Like this.




We only had one really clear day, the rest were various degrees of overcast. But that one clear day, sunset was pretty stunning.




The last day, we were blessed with 20ish cm of fluff to cover up the terrible ice layer from the day before. It really made for some decent skiing. Skied all morning off the Jockstock, traversing into the main north facing gully, and finding freshies all the way down to the flats. I definitely took the most conservative line there, but hey, I was on my own. My best representation of my route for three laps.


I took a couple runs with my step-sister and showed her how to ski powder. She volunteered to be photog.


Flying home the next day, I started off the day in the shuttle to the airport sitting next to Steele Spence. We ended up having the same itineraries, so we chatted in Zurich, in Newark, and again in Denver. Really nice guy!! And, while in line for the metal-detector, with Steele 3 people behind me, Mike Nick was 3 people in front of me. Whoa. I haven't heard about that guy in years. Man, he used to throw a mean Japan on his ski blades... hehehe

T'was a great trip. I'll be going back to them there Alps, next time with a coalition of the willing to romp around all over those peaks...

Next mission, raging it to Zion-land for a weekend up in the canyons. Woo!! Let's hope the wasatch snow vortex picks-up for the next couple of days. By Friday afternoon, I'll be riding the Kitty. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I'll depart with this final pic, because these peaks are just too cool. Zie gross unt klein Spannorts.

[philippeR]

Where's the cheese ?

[hop]

Nice work, however I hear no mention of partying with drunken Scandos in Yucatan or Eden or Schpindle or whatever that place is. Therefore, I must conclude that your Eberg trip was not a total success.

[powder_prophet]

Where's the cheese ?

It was in my belly. I shat it out days ago.

Nice work, however I hear no mention of partying with drunken Scandos in Yucatan or Eden or Schpindle or whatever that place is. Therefore, I must conclude that your Eberg trip was not a total success.

I couldn't agree more. Probably would have been a strange situation with my padre. "Sorry dad, I don't want to hang out with you tonight, I'm gonna go get drunk with a both of people I don't know!"

I mean, shit, sounds like fun to me!! But the old man is not your average beer-chugging skier.

I guess the second title for this TR should be "A Family Affair"

We stayed here. Notice Yucatan going off.

[Ripzalot]

very nice! looks like you caught it good, relatively speaking...

[Hayduke]

Glad you got a taste. I agree, London is not my favourite place on the planet. Where's your old man live? I'll take him out for beer & strippers.

[powder_prophet]

^^haha, he lives up in East Finchley. I think beer & strippers are exactly what that man needs!!

[tarkman1]

Oh nice. I may have a job opportunity in the Engelberg area. You're pictures just pushed me over the edge of really pushing for that location.

[comish]

Scweet! The alps are amazing. Those are some of the better picts of the Laub I have seen. I get hard just thinking about skiing that untracked.