With mostly blue skies we packed the car, caught the train to the Klosters tram base, and were on top of Gotschnagrat by 9AM.
Richard headed down to the chairs we had first skied Sunday, but I wanted to get to the north facing Totalp chair ASAP. There’s a valley dip so you have to use one of the T-bars first but you can get off partway up to get to Totalp faster. Riding the lift there was a traverse track visible skier’s left with just a few tracks dropping from it. I extended that traverse a bit for my first run to this point.
With so few people I returned for my second run. On the 3rd chair ride my tracks from the first 2 runs are still alone at center and center left between small rock outcroppings.
The powder fall lines covered about half the 1,600 vertical of the Totalp chair. While riding Totalp I also had this view of the upper mountain, which had exactly one set of tracks.
So I took the tram up there. In the tram I spotted another set of tracks skier’s left dropping down to the Hauptertali T-bar. Here I’m on the approach to those tracks.
And here’s the view of the tracks when riding the T-bar back up.
In this terrain I stayed close to other tracks to avoid any surprise cliffs not visible from above.
Next I cruised under Totalp but this time followed tracks off-piste to skier’s right.
This soon rolls over to a nicer pitch.
Now you’re in that valley dip below the T-bars and Grunenalp. Overview of the terrain from across the dip at Grubenalp restaurant.
I would be a solid 20 minute hike out of there so I skied the #16 black piste that runs down that valley to Davos Wolfgang. Wolfgang has no lift so I had to take bus into Davos to catch the funicular. I got lucky and waited only ~2 minutes for that bus. View of Davos from the funicular.
Riding the funicular I spotted tracks to far skier’s right so I followed those. It was mostly traverses with a few short drops along the north facing wall. Eventually the traverse bent around to overlook Davos opposite the funicular mid-station.
The pitch below this was good but low down and in the morning sun very heavy snow but fortunately only a few avoidable tracks. Above this area was a strange formation of snow like whipped cream peaks, perhaps buried boulders
The funicular and the piste into Davos have bad reputations for congestion, but there were no issues on either midday. The piste was just soft enough from the morning sun to be quite nice skiing. In the shade at 4PM with lots of people perhaps not so much.
One more time up the funicular it was now overcast so I put the goggles on. I skied to Grubenalp to meet Richard for lunch. It was packed inside and without my glasses I did not see Richard. I got a pastry outside with my Swiss cash (Grubenalp does not take credit cards) and eventually met Richard half an hour later. We agreed to try for the 2:26 or 3:06 trains at Klosters.
After lunch I tried the Seetali T-bar which was the only lift I had not used Sunday. For both runs there was some untracked beside or a short traverse away from the piste, though in a few spots the light was difficult.
For my last run I took the tram up top. There was some fairly deep snow (powder plus blow-in) skiing from there down to the piste under the Schifer gondola. Unfortunately the light was really bad so it was one turn at a time skiing by feel with a couple of crashes when I couldn’t read the contour of the slope well enough. The light on the Schifer piste was better, and about halfway down there’s a branch to piste #21 which goes all the way down to Klosters. Due to my slow adventure up top I got the 3:06 train back to our hotel.
22,200 vertical, 9K of powder, probably best full day of skiing on the trip, though the backside Velluga was probably the most memorable moment.
Richard headed down to the chairs we had first skied Sunday, but I wanted to get to the north facing Totalp chair ASAP. There’s a valley dip so you have to use one of the T-bars first but you can get off partway up to get to Totalp faster. Riding the lift there was a traverse track visible skier’s left with just a few tracks dropping from it. I extended that traverse a bit for my first run to this point.
With so few people I returned for my second run. On the 3rd chair ride my tracks from the first 2 runs are still alone at center and center left between small rock outcroppings.
The powder fall lines covered about half the 1,600 vertical of the Totalp chair. While riding Totalp I also had this view of the upper mountain, which had exactly one set of tracks.
So I took the tram up there. In the tram I spotted another set of tracks skier’s left dropping down to the Hauptertali T-bar. Here I’m on the approach to those tracks.
And here’s the view of the tracks when riding the T-bar back up.
In this terrain I stayed close to other tracks to avoid any surprise cliffs not visible from above.
Next I cruised under Totalp but this time followed tracks off-piste to skier’s right.
This soon rolls over to a nicer pitch.
Now you’re in that valley dip below the T-bars and Grunenalp. Overview of the terrain from across the dip at Grubenalp restaurant.
I would be a solid 20 minute hike out of there so I skied the #16 black piste that runs down that valley to Davos Wolfgang. Wolfgang has no lift so I had to take bus into Davos to catch the funicular. I got lucky and waited only ~2 minutes for that bus. View of Davos from the funicular.
Riding the funicular I spotted tracks to far skier’s right so I followed those. It was mostly traverses with a few short drops along the north facing wall. Eventually the traverse bent around to overlook Davos opposite the funicular mid-station.
The pitch below this was good but low down and in the morning sun very heavy snow but fortunately only a few avoidable tracks. Above this area was a strange formation of snow like whipped cream peaks, perhaps buried boulders
The funicular and the piste into Davos have bad reputations for congestion, but there were no issues on either midday. The piste was just soft enough from the morning sun to be quite nice skiing. In the shade at 4PM with lots of people perhaps not so much.
One more time up the funicular it was now overcast so I put the goggles on. I skied to Grubenalp to meet Richard for lunch. It was packed inside and without my glasses I did not see Richard. I got a pastry outside with my Swiss cash (Grubenalp does not take credit cards) and eventually met Richard half an hour later. We agreed to try for the 2:26 or 3:06 trains at Klosters.
After lunch I tried the Seetali T-bar which was the only lift I had not used Sunday. For both runs there was some untracked beside or a short traverse away from the piste, though in a few spots the light was difficult.
For my last run I took the tram up top. There was some fairly deep snow (powder plus blow-in) skiing from there down to the piste under the Schifer gondola. Unfortunately the light was really bad so it was one turn at a time skiing by feel with a couple of crashes when I couldn’t read the contour of the slope well enough. The light on the Schifer piste was better, and about halfway down there’s a branch to piste #21 which goes all the way down to Klosters. Due to my slow adventure up top I got the 3:06 train back to our hotel.
22,200 vertical, 9K of powder, probably best full day of skiing on the trip, though the backside Velluga was probably the most memorable moment.
