-- Final outing of my 2017-18 inaugural ski trip, legs were a bit fatigued, didn't need top-shelf terrain or hundreds of miles of trails.
-- Had to be at Zurich airport by mid-afternoon for a 5:15 pm departure, didn't want a long drive back to the city.
-- 6-8 inches had fallen overnight in addition to the previous days' accumulations.
-- Forecast called for more heavy flurries and low clouds; all I needed was a low-elevation joint with top-to-bottom trees.
The answer was Atzmännig (pronounced AHTS-MENNIG), not even an hour northeast of Zurich -- a comparatively tiny ski area for local families with 1,200 verts, old lifts, a pile of summer activities at the base (swimming, mountain carts, climbing), and a handful of trails through the woods. Basically about the same size as Plattekill NY, Stoneham QC, or Pajarito NM. To state the obvious, this place is not on any ski tourist's itinerary, especially someone from overseas, but all I needed was enough pitch to keep me going through the fresh snow.
Driving there from my hotel in Amden was, uh, sporty. About four inches of slippery snow on the roadways, a few steep inclines and switchbacks, a very narrow country lane that went right through people's garden's and barnyards, and absolutely no signage (zero, and I kept an eye out) indicating that a ski area was nearby -- thank god for GPS.
I pulled in at 10 am to see... five cars in the parking area:
And lots of snow, even at the base of 820 meters:
Looking uphill was a 46-year-old double chair moving VERY SLOWLY and a t-bar. Unfortunately, they were only running the chair; the drag lift would've been faster.
A full-day lift ticket is $35 and they offer three convenient half-day options for $25 -- I went with the midday variant then asked the lady how many people were on the hill; she held up four fingers on each hand.
The 13-minute uphill ride gave me plenty of time to consider the graphics on my topsheets:
And then I enjoyed three hours of a private-ski-area experience where the most difficult thing was finding people to use as photo subjects. Just like the previous two days, great visuals (and pix) weren't in the cards -- this is what it looks like with moderately better sight lines -- but great conditions were: bootcuff-deep untracked on the groomers, knee-deep offpiste.
Between the total quiet, the lack of other people, and the pleasant rhythm of gliding down non-technical double-blue trails with no interruptions, it got pretty zen at times:
I arrived at the airport by 3 pm, packed my luggage in the rental-car garage, and drank a couple beers while waiting for my flight. Although only one of the five days had the grandiose panoramas that one hopes/expects from the Alps, four straight days of powder is a great way to start the season, and way better than if I'd gone forward with my planned Wasatch trip (I saw the weekend's LCC trip report
). 
