TR CH - Saas-Fee: 17 - 20.Dec.05

[Lostinthetrees]

The storm on 15th & 16th that smashed Western Austria barely glanced Haute Valais and left only 15 - 30cms depending on elevation.

Horrible winds on Saturday the 17th closed everything except tele-skis in the village. The winds plowed directly up the only entrance into this normally protected valley.

Sunday/Mon/Tues - bluebirds, some thin clouds. with no or light winds.

Vertical: 1700m total descent. 3500m at top station to 1800m at village.

Village view. Only electric mini-cars allowed in village.
Feegletscher (Fee Glacier) in background.


Up on Feegletscher. Peak in center is the Dom at 4545m. Highest in CH.


Descent towards mid-station. Village is down in that valley somewhere.


Higher up the glacier. Dom, again.


One of the many spectacular forms of this glacier to be photographed here.


One of the many posers to be photographed here.



The pistes on the glacier are like Wall-2-Wall carpeting. Some of the best grooming I have experienced on pistes that are often 100+m wide. I found plenty of courdory to shred until closing.

The Solstice Sun hits glacier ~ 10 AM and disappears around 2:15 PM. Combine that with the altitude, dry air, and cold temps, and glacier snow was always in great shape.

Mid-station to village: Sadly, only 1 red run is open. Machine-made snow/crystal. It is in excellent shape, though.

Off-Piste: Lots of potential, but all the scree & talus fields are very exposed right now. Glacier too dangerous. I never saw a guide (w/ or w/o a party) beyond the ropes.

Bottomline: Saas-Fee needs at least 80 - 100cms of new snow from at least 2 storms to open up off-piste terrain and the additional pistes from mid-station to village.

later, litt

[bad_roo]

Looks like a great time to practice crevasse rescue techniques and x-tremo Euro carving.

[verbier61]

allalinhorn! my next 4000

sweet pics, LITT!

[Lostinthetrees]

Looks like a great time to practice crevasse rescue techniques and x-tremo Euro carving.

You and Mrs might like it. Mellow village that retains much of its old character. Much smaller than Zermatt and much, much less bling-bling and tourists/gapers. Park car at village level so no train to catch up like Tasch -> Zermatt. Just under 3hrs from Geneve airport. Zermatt around the next valley if you need a day trip.

[Lostinthetrees]

allalinhorn! my next 4000

sweet pics, LITT!

If you are looking for partner to skin up let me know. Happy to join in.

On either side of Allalinhorn are Alphubel (4206m) and Strahlhorn (4190m). Both w/ trails up like Allalinhorn. Make it a long weekend and we could bag 3!

[0BernhardFranz]

Or they bag you ! Imagine Valley Blanche like that maze but tilted at maybe 50 to 70 ° and for 200 - 300 m and you got to ski down there - there is no way around it and no snow on it but just water on blue ice.So if I say don´t go I mean it ! And I got a lot of Cham guides coming over making threats I had talked against their top territory ! Like Lechers come over and say "Doan´t soi thot schwurzwond is doingerous ! " - Capitalism od extrememont !