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| So, Fritz was nice enough to lend us his Skoda for a drive over to Switzerland to reach some higher ski touring (if the weather cooperates) and visit Lisa’s relatives in the town of Frutigen (where Fritschi happens to be located).
We leave Austria and we’re immediately charging through a blizzard so bad the road signs eventually get covered, resulting in some interesting tests of family communication skills before, after, and during the creation of above photo. Talk about driving by braille… The ice covered one-lane pass driven at night was the capper. We made it, now wishing we could buy a Skoda to replace the crashed Tacoma. |
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| Weather here is really unstable now, with most days getting fairly heavy snow and high avy danger everywhere but lower angled terrain that’s not threatened from above. That’s the perfect situation for terrain such as that we were enjoying in Austria, but it’s tougher to find such tours around here. Even so, we got local advice and headed yesterday for a fairly “mellow” tour to a relatively nondescript area called Christihube, south of the village of Kiental. As pictured above, we got a few turns but the backcountry skiing was mostly just a walk in a snowstorm. Pretty walk, though… |
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| Switzerland is beautiful and fun, but wow is this place expensive. It’s not so much the prices of things but the way you end up being charged for something unexpected every time you turn around. For example, we had to buy this highway permit for about $40 US, which we knew about, but then while driving over the past couple of days we got stuck for everything from a tunnel toll to another toll for a tiny section of road on the way to Christihube. Such makes for tricky budgeting, meaning we couldn’t do this without friends such as the folks we’re staying with here in Frutigen. Thanks to the Rytz family! |
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| Instead of road tolls, here is what we want to be cleaning our wallets for — the cheese shop! Isn’t that some sort of Swiss thing? |
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| Yep, today is Easter Sunday and we’re staying with a church pastor, so the agenda was clear. Fun to enjoy Easter service at this little mountain chapel outside of Frutigen, on the road up to Adelboden ski resort. The service was in German, which I hardly understand a word of, but the spirit was good and the music well crafted, so we were glad to be there. |
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| I chuckled to myself over this view out the window from our pew. The church was built back in the 1930s, and I had to wonder how many alpinists had looked up to the peaks from this very seat, and wondered how quickly they could get up there after being dismissed from the service. More likely they were farmers wondering how to find their cattle up there in the hills, but a few must have been climbers or ski mountaineers. |
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| For Easter dinner we drove to the historic Swiss city of Bern, where we feasted on lamb at our host’s parents then toured the city for a few hours on foot. Above photo needs explanation. The building in the background is the Swiss National Bank, which is said to go deep underground 6 or 7 more floors where tons of the world’s treasure is stored. In the foreground that’s me displaying my empty wallet and an empty pocket, along with relative Joe having a Swiss Franc plastered to his forehead. Get the picture?
That’s our host Frank on the left, his father in the middle. Nice guys. |
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| And yes, we now have another “Guess That Pastry,” only this time from Switzerland. This disk of sugar and pastry dough is said to be a specialty of the Frutigen area. Can anyone name it? |
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
