Meiringen is famous for two reasons, first, it’s close to the Reichenbach falls where Sherlock Holmes fictionally met his death although people typically forget that Holmes returned after a public outcry in the story “The Return of Sherlock Holmes” with the explanation that Holmes had grabbed a ledge during the fall. The second reason is that it’s the birthplace of the meringue, this was invented by an Italian baker called Gasparini in the 18th century.

For some skiing you’ll need to read more

I have not actually skied at Meiringen before but I have snowboarded there, it was somewhere we went when we lived in Germany for the office ski trip weekend.

The reason I went today was to drop into the Stöckli ski test, I’ve pretty much decided to buy a pair but I wanted to try some different models and lengths.

We’re still having some unsettled weather, it was snowing when I left home and was snowing on and off all day. It threatened to clear all day but never quite managed it. As a result it was a bit wild at the top and not too pleasant so I kept down below the tree line.

It was snowing overnight at home and around the area so we decided to go somewhere with easy access, the Jungfrau stations Mürren, Wengen Grindelwald etc have easy road access so we headed round there.We parked up at Stechelberg to ride the cable car up to Mürren, it was pretty quiet riding up the lifts to the Schilthorn. Saturday doesn’t generate a lot of crowds and the weather wasn’t really perfect.

The flat light made skiing a bit awkward in places and the snow’s not as good as it’s been recently. The best skiing was in the Schiltgrat area today as the visibility was best round here.

I decided to go to Torgon today in part because I’d got some free tickets to use, we get get some “decouverte” tickets along with our Grand Massif season passes and I noticed they covered the Swiss side of the Portes du Soleil, I also wanted to pick some test skis from Stöckli who are just down the road in Vevey.

I’m not a huge fan of the Portes du Soleil really, the proposition of 14 stations in two countries doesn’t do a lot for me and neither does the fact there’s 650km of piste. It’s a quantity versus quality thing and clearly successfully aimed at the mass market.

The reality is a little different, lifts and pistes are sited so they form links rather than offering particularly good skiing, the pistes themselves are wide and in places just plain tedious. The pistes are aimed at the mass market low intermediate skier so they can cover a lot of distance and take a thrill from skiing in two countries. In reality it’s little more than a fantasy that there’s 650km of skiing, a lot of it’s linked by bus, by this logic you could add Geneva Airport to the Portes du Soleil.

Torgon’s on the Swiss side of the Portes du Soleil and linked with Châtel(FR) and Morgins(CH). It’s been so cold over the last few days I was wearing something like double the amount of clothes I normally wear.

Some of the pistes are quite good, the Barbossine isn’t bad but once you done one black mogul run you’ve done them all really, the Chermillon red piste is pretty good for a short way but flattens out and the Combe back in Châtel is about the best I skied today.

Some great views just above Torgon looking over to the Valais and Lake Geneva.

However, the Stöckli Laser SC I was skiing on was sensational though, I’m not a big fan of skiing fast normally but these just scream out for skiing fast. It was a little icy and this ski just have so much grip you can ignore the ice and just carve through it, just fantastic fun. These are the same ski Julie skied at Les Mosses a few back so i’t now looking likely we’ll be on the same the same skis next season which is a bit “his and her” really.