We decided sometime back that we’d go up to the Hotel Weisshorn on Christmas Day for lunch, we’ve both got new skis and skins that we wanted to try and it’s an easy climb up to the hotel. I’ve been up in this area before doing longer tours and I was last up at the Hotel Weisshorn in April (blog entry), that was picked up fairly randomly by the Guardian newspaper for their on-line section in a feature on winter sports blogs.
Like Zinal and Grimentz it seems pretty quiet over at Saint-Luc although we quickly left the lift system skiing down the Prilet run, the run drops you some way from the village and you need a bus to return and as that bus doesn’t start until 13:45 you don’t get many people on it in the morning. From there we took an easy climb up the prepared track to the hotel arriving in perfect time for lunch.
For anyone like me that was searching for an online copy of the ski bus timetable for this season I have scanned a copy as an image or JPEG and you can find it here :
It’s also a menu item along the top of this page along with some information about local avalanche conditions and snow pack stability, this is is just information published by SLF but I’ve collected it in one place. The snow pack stability image links back to the SLF site and from there you can click on the individual icons and see the detailed analysis worksheet which is pretty interesting.
The lift companies are confirming their opening for the weekend, there’s actually planned to be quite a bit running :
Grimentz
Télécabine
Tapis roulant
Téléski Ecole
Téléski Marenda
Télésiège des Grands-Plans
Télésiège de la Tsarva
Saint-Luc / Chandolin
Télésiège du Tsapé
Téléski des Etables
Zinal
Téléphérique
Télésiège du Chiesso
Télésiège de la Corne
Mini
Tapis roulant
Téléski de la Remointze
Vercorin (from 15/16 Dec)
Télécabine Vercorin-Crêt-du-Midi
Téléski du Crêt
Téléski des Chardons
This is all subject to conditions of course and as it’s only partial opening lift tickets are reduced by 35-50%. Zinal will open weekdays as well now although it’ll be interesting to see how much demand there is for that so early.
Winter seems to be on the way now and I know people are starting to think about their plans for the upcoming ski season.
I think there’s a growing number of people who’ve got apartments or chalets in the Val d’Anniviers and I thought it might be interesting to find a way of linking those people up and keeping in contact. This would give us a chance to find other people to ski with, plan trips and maybe arrange days out with local ski guides sharing the costs. For some people it might be a good way to arrange shared transport and for me to ask you all to bring me decaffeinated tea bags !
I’ve created a group in Facebook, I’m a bit new to this Facebook thing but it looks like a good way to do this. Just add me to your network on Facebook and I will add you to the group. If you want to email this to someone else then please do so!
Some local news from the area :
1. Right now most of the roads are being dug up, the most noticeable piece of work is down at the valley, a new exit on on the auto route replaces the the old junction to the Anniviers and some shiny new tarmac is in place. Elsewhere the road seems to be continuing to slide down the hillside and some major work is under way to shore it up.
2. The area has been in the ski press a little , the on-line magazine “Snow” has a couple of mentions for Zinal and Val d’Anniviers.
3. Local press coverage for the proposed new lift between Grimentz and Zinal, this is considered to be a serious proposal locally but it seems to me that 20 million francs is a lot of money and that Zinal might want to spend their money on renewing the cable car!
4. Buy your own snow cannon ! Actually the dead line for this has passed but Grimentz are trying to raise 4 - 6 million francs by public inscription. Some more information here and here.
Grimentz plan to open 22nd December and close 6th April, some weekend opening is planned from 8/9 December. Zinal, taking advantage of the new cannons, are hoping to have some weekend opening from 10th November before opening on December 8th and closing 6th April.
We decided sometime back that we’d go up to the Hotel Weisshorn on Christmas Day for lunch, we’ve both got new skis and skins that we wanted to try and it’s an easy climb up to the hotel. I’ve been up in this area before doing longer tours and I was last up at the Hotel Weisshorn in April (blog entry), that was picked up fairly randomly by the Guardian newspaper for their on-line section in a feature on winter sports blogs.