Before I get started with the proper trip report, here's a perfect opportunity for a minor grumble about European skiing, the dreaded hyphenated resort name: Engelberg-Titlis, Warth-Schröcken, Silvretta-Montafon, Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Damüls-Mellau, Mundaun-Obersaxen, St-Luc-Chandolin, Grimentz-Zinal, and yesterday Melchsee-Frutt (these are only ones that I've skied). They seem to be most prevalent in German-speaking regions and to be fair, the reason for them is logical enough -- they often started out as separate resorts that eventually combined lift operations and didn't want to give up their hard-earned market brands.
My beef is simply that they always sound odd and I wish that the resorts would adopt one name or create an umbrella brand, e.g. Portes du Soleil or Les 3 Vallées. But it's not only ski areas; German married women often keep their maiden names AND their spouse's last name, for example Schmitt-Hoffmann, Wolff-Becker, etc. Going back to when I learned the language 38 years ago, it was always annoying for me to say "Guten Morgen, Frau Wolff-Becker!" Rant over.
* * *
Only six miles southwest of Engelberg as the crow flies with Titlis clearly visible from the ski area's backside, the 45-minute drive from my hotel along Lake Lucerne was not promising with pouring rain the entire way and I wasn't sure how far up the mountain the precip was going to stay liquid. In fact, I sat in my car listening to the radio in the parking lot for half an hour waiting for the rain to relent because I didn't want to get soaked walking the 150 yards to the base lodge. Around 11 am, it finally stopped.
With a base of 1,080m and a summit at 2,255m, you could describe Melchsee-Frutt as a medium-low elevation ski area. While this map is accurately rendered, it skied bigger and wider:
After taking the gondola from the Stöckalp base in Melchsee, the first half hour wasn't pretty with nasty flat light. Luckily, four inches of heavy snow had fallen overnight. Obviously not enough to cover the offpiste hardscrabble; however, the groomed trails were nice and soft. On several runs, they only groomed 2/3 of the width so it was nice to feel a dusting of untouched snow. Beggars can't be choosers and this was the closest I was getting to a powder day on this trip!
I quickly learned that sledding is a big profit center for Melchsee-Frutt with several dedicated trails for them including one T2B run covering 3,000 verts. Throughout the afternoon, I saw almost as many sledders as skiers. I'll never get used to the British spelling of that word:
Thankfully, around 11:30 the skies cleared up and the rest of the afternoon was beautiful with virtually empty slopes:
All in all, an enjoyable afternoon and it qualified for me as a little area that rocks (of course, compared to U.S. ski areas, it isn't exactly little). I'd like to return there to ski all the beautiful low-angle offpiste with proper cover.
My beef is simply that they always sound odd and I wish that the resorts would adopt one name or create an umbrella brand, e.g. Portes du Soleil or Les 3 Vallées. But it's not only ski areas; German married women often keep their maiden names AND their spouse's last name, for example Schmitt-Hoffmann, Wolff-Becker, etc. Going back to when I learned the language 38 years ago, it was always annoying for me to say "Guten Morgen, Frau Wolff-Becker!" Rant over.
* * *
Only six miles southwest of Engelberg as the crow flies with Titlis clearly visible from the ski area's backside, the 45-minute drive from my hotel along Lake Lucerne was not promising with pouring rain the entire way and I wasn't sure how far up the mountain the precip was going to stay liquid. In fact, I sat in my car listening to the radio in the parking lot for half an hour waiting for the rain to relent because I didn't want to get soaked walking the 150 yards to the base lodge. Around 11 am, it finally stopped.
With a base of 1,080m and a summit at 2,255m, you could describe Melchsee-Frutt as a medium-low elevation ski area. While this map is accurately rendered, it skied bigger and wider:
After taking the gondola from the Stöckalp base in Melchsee, the first half hour wasn't pretty with nasty flat light. Luckily, four inches of heavy snow had fallen overnight. Obviously not enough to cover the offpiste hardscrabble; however, the groomed trails were nice and soft. On several runs, they only groomed 2/3 of the width so it was nice to feel a dusting of untouched snow. Beggars can't be choosers and this was the closest I was getting to a powder day on this trip!
I quickly learned that sledding is a big profit center for Melchsee-Frutt with several dedicated trails for them including one T2B run covering 3,000 verts. Throughout the afternoon, I saw almost as many sledders as skiers. I'll never get used to the British spelling of that word:
Thankfully, around 11:30 the skies cleared up and the rest of the afternoon was beautiful with virtually empty slopes:
All in all, an enjoyable afternoon and it qualified for me as a little area that rocks (of course, compared to U.S. ski areas, it isn't exactly little). I'd like to return there to ski all the beautiful low-angle offpiste with proper cover.
