Getting out of Zermatt was a bit of a logistics challenge. You need to pack up like for the airport to take the train down to Tasch. Then we wound up with all the luggage on the wrong floor from where the car was parked with no internal ramps between parking floors. I managed to change floors with an illegal U-turn near the entry/exit.
At any rate it was after 11AM when we got to Saas-Fee’s parking garage. View up to lots of rock and ice:
After a bus shuttle, gondola to 2,550 meters, tram to 3,000 and underground funicular to 3,500, we got on skis about noon.
Fraser thought Friday would be bitterly cold at Saas-Fee with wind chill. But it was sunny with no wind. It was probably still <10F as one of the locals said it had been -4F up there early in the morning. Our first view was of snow terraces we have seen also at Tignes and Zermatt to pack and preserve snow for summer skiing.
Looking back to restaurant above top of funicular:
We went to the upper T-bars, which have upper terminal mounted into the rocks because glaciers can move. The unload tended to lift you up and so required significant counterforce to get off.
Ice above the catwalk skier’s right from the T-bar:
The catwalk and below:
We skied piste 10b into the Morenia terrain pod.
The haze behind Liz looks like wind blown snow but it’s really a thin fog. More fog wisps below:
With the altitude and temperature the groomed snow was all soft packed powder. Off-piste was very wind hammered and not tempting.
There was a short skiroute 15a (center of pic) from Felskinn to the path to the Egginerjoch surface lift (far left with its piste #9) which looked like windbuff. But when I tried that it was breakable and best to stay in the skier packed line.
We went back up the funicular and top T-bar to the scenic #19 piste, overlooked by towering ice. Liz at top of the piste for perspective:
A sea of sastrugi beside the piste:
Base of the top T-bars:
Piste 10a below the T-bars:
Once you start down 10a you are split from the Morenia area by this glacial icefall.
It’s about 9,500 feet here. Saas-Fee is set so deep into the Alps from all directions that I don’t think it gets a lot of snow, but I suspect it’s a cold microclimate to preserve the glaciers.
There are smaller glaciers on the wall left of pistes 10a and 11.
Lower down Piste 11b is cut into the rock face for a while, then descends more steeply. Here’s the view down to some of the resort at lower right.
From the top of the upper T-bar the run down pistes 19, 10a and 11 is a continuous 6,000 vertical descent, about the same as Fraser’s favorite at Les Arcs.
We got down about 3:30, in time to take a final run from west facing Plattjen 2,570 to the 1,800 meter base. We skied 17,100 vertical and as mentioned before saw everything in 4 hours of cooperative weather so we could appreciate the renowned scenery.
At any rate it was after 11AM when we got to Saas-Fee’s parking garage. View up to lots of rock and ice:
After a bus shuttle, gondola to 2,550 meters, tram to 3,000 and underground funicular to 3,500, we got on skis about noon.
Fraser thought Friday would be bitterly cold at Saas-Fee with wind chill. But it was sunny with no wind. It was probably still <10F as one of the locals said it had been -4F up there early in the morning. Our first view was of snow terraces we have seen also at Tignes and Zermatt to pack and preserve snow for summer skiing.
Looking back to restaurant above top of funicular:
We went to the upper T-bars, which have upper terminal mounted into the rocks because glaciers can move. The unload tended to lift you up and so required significant counterforce to get off.
Ice above the catwalk skier’s right from the T-bar:
The catwalk and below:
We skied piste 10b into the Morenia terrain pod.
The haze behind Liz looks like wind blown snow but it’s really a thin fog. More fog wisps below:
With the altitude and temperature the groomed snow was all soft packed powder. Off-piste was very wind hammered and not tempting.
There was a short skiroute 15a (center of pic) from Felskinn to the path to the Egginerjoch surface lift (far left with its piste #9) which looked like windbuff. But when I tried that it was breakable and best to stay in the skier packed line.
We went back up the funicular and top T-bar to the scenic #19 piste, overlooked by towering ice. Liz at top of the piste for perspective:
A sea of sastrugi beside the piste:
Base of the top T-bars:
Piste 10a below the T-bars:
Once you start down 10a you are split from the Morenia area by this glacial icefall.
It’s about 9,500 feet here. Saas-Fee is set so deep into the Alps from all directions that I don’t think it gets a lot of snow, but I suspect it’s a cold microclimate to preserve the glaciers.
There are smaller glaciers on the wall left of pistes 10a and 11.
Lower down Piste 11b is cut into the rock face for a while, then descends more steeply. Here’s the view down to some of the resort at lower right.
From the top of the upper T-bar the run down pistes 19, 10a and 11 is a continuous 6,000 vertical descent, about the same as Fraser’s favorite at Les Arcs.
We got down about 3:30, in time to take a final run from west facing Plattjen 2,570 to the 1,800 meter base. We skied 17,100 vertical and as mentioned before saw everything in 4 hours of cooperative weather so we could appreciate the renowned scenery.
