jamesdeluxe
Administrator
I arrived Tuesday morning in Zurich, which was being pelted by driving rain. While walking through ZRH airport, I came upon something I've never experienced before on ski trips over there: a monstrous customs queue for non-Swiss and EUers. There were only two customs officers assigned to handle all of the incoming foreigners and it took 55 minutes to reach the front. Normally, I'm in and out of that airport in no time.
As I drove south, Fraser suggested that the precip would diminish and then stop, which it did by late morning. By the time I reached Savognin -- where I planned to get in a few hours of arrival-day turns -- it was sunny. I drove up to the base lodge and no people were there. Like many smaller ski areas, their pre-Xmas operations are Fri-Sat-Sun until Dec 22. Further south, Bivio was likewise closed. By the time I arrived in St. Moritz around 1 pm, I didn't want to pay 70 CHF for an afternoon ticket.
When I arrived at my lodging, they were still clearing snow from the previous storm. The village was covered with snow and looked ready for the holidays.
After checking in, I decided to make lemonade out of lemons and rented some skis/boots to go on a beautiful 90-minute cross-country "loipe" (nordic trail) through town with the Hotel Kempinski backed by the Corvatsch sector. I really want to get back into x-c more when I eventually spend entire winters in a mountain setting. I was reminded how pleasant it is to ski on a rolling trail with none of the mechanization, crowds, and other downsides of downhill skiing.
The next morning, it was snowing hard with heavy clouds down to the valley floor. This is the type of day that those with a season ticket would pass on but destination skiers don't necessarily have that luxury so off I went to Corviglia where there was at least a foot of new snow up to mid-mountain and 18 inches further up.
As expected, visibility was mostly poor so I stuck to following the stakes on trails. I had plenty of knee-deep fun but also times when it was tough to see more than five feet ahead. I ground it out and skied for four hours broken up by an equal number of short hut visits. The only pic I took was this one on the valley run back into town:
Props to this lady in full Euro upscale regalia who went skiing despite the less than welcoming conditions. I dig the Yoko Ono-ish glasses, which have foam padding, similar to goggles. Maybe something like this should be Tony's next ski eyeware choice:
The next morning, I woke up to sun and was excited to head over to Corvatsch, where I had a memorable day in March 2019. I checked in with Fraser who advised that it would be a back-and-forth weather day with occasional sun along with a fair bit of gray.
I got an additional early-season surprise when I took the convenient/free bus to Furtschellas on the far looker's right of Corvatsch. After everyone disembarked at the Corvatsch tram, the bus driver asked "are you going to a ski area that I'm unaware of?" I told him I wanted to go to Furtschellas and he informed me that (similar to Diavolezza, Lagalb, and Zuoz: the smaller areas in the St. Moritz group), it wouldn't open until Dec 22. I boarded the tram, a bit disappointed.
As you can see in my marked-up map, losing the Furtschellas sector AND the lift providing access to the excellent valley run into town was not what I wanted; however, there's still plenty left for one day, especially with all the snow following yesterday's storm:
Pretty much the entire day was spent skiing the new snow alongside marked trails intermixed with velvety on-piste conditions.
Even with the big early-season accumulation, there are a number of boulder fields that'll take a lot more cover to put into play so it wasn't advisable to go poking around too far afield.
You can see the various levels of visibility, especially with the direct north-facing terrain in shade up until early-afternoon:
The highlight of the day was my two runs off the glacier at the top of the Murtel tram with gorgeous conditions:
Lake Silvaplana is still unfrozen, but only for a couple more weeks:
I stopped here for a nice lunch:
For mid-December, St. Moritz is in complete operation; it looks like peak season in town. I'm hearing a lot of American accents -- likely fleeing sub-optimum conditions in many parts of the country. I texted my friend from Solitude a couple pix and he said that I made the right decision with the decidedly low-tide cover there.
As I drove south, Fraser suggested that the precip would diminish and then stop, which it did by late morning. By the time I reached Savognin -- where I planned to get in a few hours of arrival-day turns -- it was sunny. I drove up to the base lodge and no people were there. Like many smaller ski areas, their pre-Xmas operations are Fri-Sat-Sun until Dec 22. Further south, Bivio was likewise closed. By the time I arrived in St. Moritz around 1 pm, I didn't want to pay 70 CHF for an afternoon ticket.
When I arrived at my lodging, they were still clearing snow from the previous storm. The village was covered with snow and looked ready for the holidays.
After checking in, I decided to make lemonade out of lemons and rented some skis/boots to go on a beautiful 90-minute cross-country "loipe" (nordic trail) through town with the Hotel Kempinski backed by the Corvatsch sector. I really want to get back into x-c more when I eventually spend entire winters in a mountain setting. I was reminded how pleasant it is to ski on a rolling trail with none of the mechanization, crowds, and other downsides of downhill skiing.
The next morning, it was snowing hard with heavy clouds down to the valley floor. This is the type of day that those with a season ticket would pass on but destination skiers don't necessarily have that luxury so off I went to Corviglia where there was at least a foot of new snow up to mid-mountain and 18 inches further up.
As expected, visibility was mostly poor so I stuck to following the stakes on trails. I had plenty of knee-deep fun but also times when it was tough to see more than five feet ahead. I ground it out and skied for four hours broken up by an equal number of short hut visits. The only pic I took was this one on the valley run back into town:
Props to this lady in full Euro upscale regalia who went skiing despite the less than welcoming conditions. I dig the Yoko Ono-ish glasses, which have foam padding, similar to goggles. Maybe something like this should be Tony's next ski eyeware choice:
The next morning, I woke up to sun and was excited to head over to Corvatsch, where I had a memorable day in March 2019. I checked in with Fraser who advised that it would be a back-and-forth weather day with occasional sun along with a fair bit of gray.
I got an additional early-season surprise when I took the convenient/free bus to Furtschellas on the far looker's right of Corvatsch. After everyone disembarked at the Corvatsch tram, the bus driver asked "are you going to a ski area that I'm unaware of?" I told him I wanted to go to Furtschellas and he informed me that (similar to Diavolezza, Lagalb, and Zuoz: the smaller areas in the St. Moritz group), it wouldn't open until Dec 22. I boarded the tram, a bit disappointed.
As you can see in my marked-up map, losing the Furtschellas sector AND the lift providing access to the excellent valley run into town was not what I wanted; however, there's still plenty left for one day, especially with all the snow following yesterday's storm:
Pretty much the entire day was spent skiing the new snow alongside marked trails intermixed with velvety on-piste conditions.
Even with the big early-season accumulation, there are a number of boulder fields that'll take a lot more cover to put into play so it wasn't advisable to go poking around too far afield.
You can see the various levels of visibility, especially with the direct north-facing terrain in shade up until early-afternoon:
The highlight of the day was my two runs off the glacier at the top of the Murtel tram with gorgeous conditions:
Lake Silvaplana is still unfrozen, but only for a couple more weeks:
I stopped here for a nice lunch:
For mid-December, St. Moritz is in complete operation; it looks like peak season in town. I'm hearing a lot of American accents -- likely fleeing sub-optimum conditions in many parts of the country. I texted my friend from Solitude a couple pix and he said that I made the right decision with the decidedly low-tide cover there.
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