Andermatt Gemsstock, CH, Jan. 29, 2019

Tony Crocker

Administrator
Staff member
There was thick cloud all day Monday with intermittent snow so we did not ski but I finally got the first reports from St. Moritz a week earlier done. The Sunday/Monday storm was quite substantial across the northernmost tier of the Alps, 18 inches at places like Portes-du-Soleil and the Arlberg (presumably good for ChrisC) but was probably only about 6-8 inches in Andermatt. The new snow was light and dry so you could hit bottom in shallower or wind affected spots.

The weather arrived later than predicted Sunday and also moved out later than predicted Tuesday. We packed and waited, still socked in at 10:30. The clouds started breaking about 11:15 so we suited up and walked over to the Gemsstock base in time to get a noon discounted ticket.
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It was all clear by the time we got to the top.
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The upper tram passed overhead.
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There was a short powder slope near the top of Piste #70.
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And a longer slope along the middle of the piste.
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View back up from the lower piste.
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Liz repeated thus area while I explored the skier’s right side of Gemsstock. From there the sunny Andermatt-Sedrun side and lifts 3, 4 and 5 are visible.
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I traversed farther right into the area I had skied with ChrisC on Saturday.
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Around 2PM the wind picked up at the top of Gemsstock.
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Fortunately it remained calm lower down.

I found the deepest powder traversing left near the tram towers.
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Lower down was this patch of untracked.
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I’ve seen varied jumpsuits skiing before but at the top of my last tram this was the first pineapple I’ve spotted.
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I met Liz at midstation and we found some more powder under the Gurschenalp chair.
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We skied piste #77 to town.
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The main piste goes to the Gemsstock base and parking lot, we skied the #77b branch skier’s right to the center of town where we had spent the past 3 nights at the 3 Koenige Hotel. I skied 18,200 vertical, about 10K of powder. We got on the road about 4PM.

Tuesday was the only consensus clearing day for the rest of the week in most of the Alps. We thus decided to finish the week in Portes du Soleil. It has lots of terrain below tree line and is close to our departure airport in Geneva. It’s a long drive from Andermatt. We got to our hotel in Morzine at 10PM after a dinner stop in Montreux at the eastern end of Lake Geneva.
 
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