As mentioned in my Crans-Montana report, we have been studying the weather forecasts to decide where to ski each day. Prediction was that Sunday night/Monday a storm well to the north would brush our region with clouds, then break for much of Tuesday before the larger warm storm hit Wednesday/Thursday. According we decided to relocate to Le Chable Monday night to ski Verbier Tuesday.
For Monday the forecast was that the cloudiness would only penetrate partway up the upper Rhone Valley, so we chose Aletsch Arena (also south facing) for Monday. As with Crans-Montana we bought lift tickets online the night before because those areas charge a bit more at the window. At Monday breakfast in Sierre we could indeed see patches of blue to the east. But by the time we packed and drove east, the clouds had followed us. Here’s the view riding the transport tram up from Betten Telstation just before 11AM.
But here was the real problem:
James knows before reading any further that this day would be a bust with maybe ¼ of the ski area open. Even on the Moosfluh lift we were forced to unload at its Blausee mid-station. At the end of the day I inquired, as we know Alps areas don’t close lifts that often just for visibility. They said wind was the reason, though we experienced almost none while skiing.
We started by riding Blausee and skiing toward Riederalp. We know the top of Hohfluh was our only shot at the famous scenery, so we went up there right away. At least we were between the two cloud layers.
Behind Liz is the Riederalp village and view down the Rhone Valley.
We walked up a short hill to this viewing platform for the Aletsch Glacier.
To the south is a map of the peaks on the south side of the Rhone.
These are the best views we got of the largest-in-the-Alps Aletsch Glacier.
Here’s an impressive summer hotel at the top of the Riederfurka chair.
Aletsch must thrive as a summer resort.
Most of the Riederalp pistes have catwalk sections to get around outcroppings. With no more than 1,000 vertical in what was open, there was not a lot of fall line skiing. We knew this before from James. The best skiing is on the today closed Fiescheralp side. This view down the Blausee chair looks wide open but is misleading.
From below, the Blausee chair is at upper left, so the short upper pistes lead to a catwalk to get around that cliff band.
There is a piste coming down out of view to the right but it is only accessible from the top Moosfluh station that was closed.
We tried the only ungroomed skiroute #16 along the lower Moosfluh.
There was an inch or two new snow but with the south exposure it was dust on crust skiing. As some of the catwalks turned corners, the new snow was occasionally scraped down.
The only part of this day I got right was the visibility. On maybe 2 of our 9 runs did I have to ski through thick cloud banks. We skied 8,300 vertical, covering almost every piste that was open.
If you want to know Aletsch Arena properly, read James’ report.
For Monday the forecast was that the cloudiness would only penetrate partway up the upper Rhone Valley, so we chose Aletsch Arena (also south facing) for Monday. As with Crans-Montana we bought lift tickets online the night before because those areas charge a bit more at the window. At Monday breakfast in Sierre we could indeed see patches of blue to the east. But by the time we packed and drove east, the clouds had followed us. Here’s the view riding the transport tram up from Betten Telstation just before 11AM.
But here was the real problem:
James knows before reading any further that this day would be a bust with maybe ¼ of the ski area open. Even on the Moosfluh lift we were forced to unload at its Blausee mid-station. At the end of the day I inquired, as we know Alps areas don’t close lifts that often just for visibility. They said wind was the reason, though we experienced almost none while skiing.
We started by riding Blausee and skiing toward Riederalp. We know the top of Hohfluh was our only shot at the famous scenery, so we went up there right away. At least we were between the two cloud layers.
Behind Liz is the Riederalp village and view down the Rhone Valley.
We walked up a short hill to this viewing platform for the Aletsch Glacier.
To the south is a map of the peaks on the south side of the Rhone.
These are the best views we got of the largest-in-the-Alps Aletsch Glacier.
Here’s an impressive summer hotel at the top of the Riederfurka chair.
Aletsch must thrive as a summer resort.
Most of the Riederalp pistes have catwalk sections to get around outcroppings. With no more than 1,000 vertical in what was open, there was not a lot of fall line skiing. We knew this before from James. The best skiing is on the today closed Fiescheralp side. This view down the Blausee chair looks wide open but is misleading.
From below, the Blausee chair is at upper left, so the short upper pistes lead to a catwalk to get around that cliff band.
There is a piste coming down out of view to the right but it is only accessible from the top Moosfluh station that was closed.
We tried the only ungroomed skiroute #16 along the lower Moosfluh.
There was an inch or two new snow but with the south exposure it was dust on crust skiing. As some of the catwalks turned corners, the new snow was occasionally scraped down.
The only part of this day I got right was the visibility. On maybe 2 of our 9 runs did I have to ski through thick cloud banks. We skied 8,300 vertical, covering almost every piste that was open.
If you want to know Aletsch Arena properly, read James’ report.
