After four days with mostly nice weather here in the Valais region, a wet, blustery storm came through on Wednesday so instead of skiing through poor visibility, I stayed in the town of Brig, hung out in a cafe, bought groceries at Lidl, and took it easy. Since last weekend, Fraser at Weather to Ski had been pointing to Thursday as my only chance of powder on this trip and it panned out as advertised. I woke up to clear skies and the Aletsch Arena's Gazex exploders booming in the distance.
15-20 inches of new snow were waiting when I got out of the Riederalp gondola from the valley:
At the top, I asked a small group of locals who were farming both sides of the 1,200-vert Hohfluh chair if I could join them:
The snow was neither champagne nor concrete and stiffening up a bit as the morning progressed so the group was moving with an almost American sense of urgency.
Around 11 am, the locals headed back to the valley so I started out on an end-to-end tour of the circuit:
At 65 miles (104 km) of marked trails and a little under six miles wide, it's considered on the smaller end of the Alps' interconnected circuits. On either end are two independent ski areas, Belalp and Bellwald:
There was plenty of fresh snow along the sides of the trail:
At the top of Bettmeralp, dozens of people were taking photos of the Alps' largest glacier:
Here's a Wikipedia pic that shows more of the glacier:
It's the resort's one superlative so they remind you of it in signage all over the circuit:
After skiing down to the village, a ski instructor with a group of little kids asked me to chaperone them on the lift:
I made it to the far looker's right, Fiescheralp, around 1 pm, had lunch, and did a bunch of runs there. It's certainly the Aletsch Arena's best terrain sector:
At 2:30, it was time to head back so I took some of the many "autobahns" that move you horizontally across the circuit:
In summary: gorgeous views, fantastic conditions, and cute villages; however, I have to agree with the criticisms from Alpinforum -- the circuit is very oddly laid out with 2/3 of it having short verticals and criss-crossed by trails resulting in a lot of coasting rather than actually skiing. Only the far looker's right, Fiescheralp, had the terrain I was expecting.
15-20 inches of new snow were waiting when I got out of the Riederalp gondola from the valley:
At the top, I asked a small group of locals who were farming both sides of the 1,200-vert Hohfluh chair if I could join them:
The snow was neither champagne nor concrete and stiffening up a bit as the morning progressed so the group was moving with an almost American sense of urgency.
Around 11 am, the locals headed back to the valley so I started out on an end-to-end tour of the circuit:
At 65 miles (104 km) of marked trails and a little under six miles wide, it's considered on the smaller end of the Alps' interconnected circuits. On either end are two independent ski areas, Belalp and Bellwald:
There was plenty of fresh snow along the sides of the trail:
At the top of Bettmeralp, dozens of people were taking photos of the Alps' largest glacier:
Here's a Wikipedia pic that shows more of the glacier:
It's the resort's one superlative so they remind you of it in signage all over the circuit:
After skiing down to the village, a ski instructor with a group of little kids asked me to chaperone them on the lift:
I made it to the far looker's right, Fiescheralp, around 1 pm, had lunch, and did a bunch of runs there. It's certainly the Aletsch Arena's best terrain sector:
At 2:30, it was time to head back so I took some of the many "autobahns" that move you horizontally across the circuit:
In summary: gorgeous views, fantastic conditions, and cute villages; however, I have to agree with the criticisms from Alpinforum -- the circuit is very oddly laid out with 2/3 of it having short verticals and criss-crossed by trails resulting in a lot of coasting rather than actually skiing. Only the far looker's right, Fiescheralp, had the terrain I was expecting.
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