jnelly
Member
I had planned on a solo run end of January to Central Switzerland which ended in a push to March. You always wonder if you made the right choice by choosing to push and go all in on your last chance for the year; but after checking webcams during the January timeframe (terrible fog for ~half the days~), I had no regrets placing the bet on March. Once I moved my dates; my wife (non-skier and known winter hater) said she’d be interested in tagging along to see what all this fuss is about. Being that the year had been so erratic and the new travel partner; I figured I’d forgo the idea of perfect conditions and local vibe for myself and tailor it to an all encompassing location. So Jungfrau made perfect sense. Its not the first place I would necessarily go for skiing straight away, but a place that I’ve personally always wanted to see; and for my wife, plenty of amenities, accessibility and grandeur for the non-skier w/o having to trek into some backwater to get a flavor of it all.
As for the trip itself, it was great…I really only got two days of skiing. As always talked about on FTO, specifically with the Alps, you’ll have some down days; which we did due to visibility but they were intermixed with a great train tour of the region, a great driving tour of the area and all in all it was a success. The only regret / longing I had was missing out on the 24” dump we got to witness the night prior to leaving….ohhhh so close!! Anyway…onto business.
Grindelwald: Kleine Scheidegg sector.
Took the completely amazing Eiger Express up first thing in the morning. I think I counted 24-26 seats; there were 6 of us in the cabin. So despite the seeming busyness of Grindelwald itself, there were virtually zero people on the lifts all day, I think I rode up with 2 other people the entire day. My expectations and sentiments on conditions prior to actually skiing were pretty low.; the visuals did not help. This however was short lived. In what I would call my first true spring conditions the skiing ended up being excellent. Temps were low-mid 30s and mostly sunny; no wind. The Eiger was on full display. For the entire day the snow was soft, and went between what I am sure was corn (not a snow ID expert here. Pic for analysis) and just a notch colder and more granular than corn ~sugary. (I can see why they call this Hero snow.) with little to zero hard pack and the remainder/ north facing, was the what the midwesterner in me would call packed powder... The connector run heading to Wengen was pretty much mashed potatoes and glad it was bc it kept me from going there (more on that later). I pretty much explored the entire sector to its fullest and mucked about at the Kleine Scheidegg station. I would add this as a note for those uninitiated. There is so much to take in in terms of views, skiing and infrastructure that you have to plan on that (if you like that stuff) bc it really cuts into the hard-core skiing aspect. (Prime example: I never made it over to Mannlichen as planned that day due to this and never did get there bc I got fogged out when I planned to go back.)
Corn? was prevalent everywhere
Ultra busy
Assessment of the day: Perfect conditions; amazing views and mind blowing network of engineering and accessibility.
Circling back to Wengen: We took the train from Grindelwald to Lauterbrunnen to get an overview and layout of the circuit which I highly recommend. It was nice to sit and just take in the views. The train was comically empty so it made it extra appealing to jump from side to side for views.
As said prior, I am definitely glad the terrible looking trail from Grindelwald to Wengen prevented me from making the effort to go there bc it was almost completely devoid of snow (at least what you could see from the train.)
...Wengen
Next: Ill peck away at a trip report posted from Murren and definitely want to add take-aways and sentiments about Jungfrau as a whole for anyone interested in the place in between getting caught up with my business and life in the days to come, promise!
As for the trip itself, it was great…I really only got two days of skiing. As always talked about on FTO, specifically with the Alps, you’ll have some down days; which we did due to visibility but they were intermixed with a great train tour of the region, a great driving tour of the area and all in all it was a success. The only regret / longing I had was missing out on the 24” dump we got to witness the night prior to leaving….ohhhh so close!! Anyway…onto business.
Grindelwald: Kleine Scheidegg sector.
Took the completely amazing Eiger Express up first thing in the morning. I think I counted 24-26 seats; there were 6 of us in the cabin. So despite the seeming busyness of Grindelwald itself, there were virtually zero people on the lifts all day, I think I rode up with 2 other people the entire day. My expectations and sentiments on conditions prior to actually skiing were pretty low.; the visuals did not help. This however was short lived. In what I would call my first true spring conditions the skiing ended up being excellent. Temps were low-mid 30s and mostly sunny; no wind. The Eiger was on full display. For the entire day the snow was soft, and went between what I am sure was corn (not a snow ID expert here. Pic for analysis) and just a notch colder and more granular than corn ~sugary. (I can see why they call this Hero snow.) with little to zero hard pack and the remainder/ north facing, was the what the midwesterner in me would call packed powder... The connector run heading to Wengen was pretty much mashed potatoes and glad it was bc it kept me from going there (more on that later). I pretty much explored the entire sector to its fullest and mucked about at the Kleine Scheidegg station. I would add this as a note for those uninitiated. There is so much to take in in terms of views, skiing and infrastructure that you have to plan on that (if you like that stuff) bc it really cuts into the hard-core skiing aspect. (Prime example: I never made it over to Mannlichen as planned that day due to this and never did get there bc I got fogged out when I planned to go back.)
Corn? was prevalent everywhere
Ultra busy
Assessment of the day: Perfect conditions; amazing views and mind blowing network of engineering and accessibility.
Circling back to Wengen: We took the train from Grindelwald to Lauterbrunnen to get an overview and layout of the circuit which I highly recommend. It was nice to sit and just take in the views. The train was comically empty so it made it extra appealing to jump from side to side for views.
As said prior, I am definitely glad the terrible looking trail from Grindelwald to Wengen prevented me from making the effort to go there bc it was almost completely devoid of snow (at least what you could see from the train.)
...Wengen
Next: Ill peck away at a trip report posted from Murren and definitely want to add take-aways and sentiments about Jungfrau as a whole for anyone interested in the place in between getting caught up with my business and life in the days to come, promise!
