SnowSlider – Blogging From the mountains by ise

On of the great things about snowshoeing, and living somewhere with a bit of snow, is you can quickly find yourself away from the beaten track. These pictures are just from a short tour around the forest behind the chalet. There’s no marked trails so you can wander through the forest as you want.

Apparently the abundance of rowan berries we seem to have this year is a good omen for a snowy and cold winter. So far it’s more in line with long range forecasts though, it’s not bad but we’ve seen temperatures ranging from -20′c to +4′c or higher.

The snow’s still pretty good although down here it’s below 2000m and it’s got a bit saturated by rain and melting, without the snowshoes it would be pretty heavy going.

Actually it is over, at least sort of. Today was the last day the lifts are running in the Val d’Anniviers, it’s tied to Easter and this year Easter is earliest it’s been since 1913 and it’s not going to be this early until 2228 again. We already know closing in the Val d’Anniviers is going to be April 19th next year and we can only hope the snow will be as good as it is right now.

Of course it’s not over at all, there’s still snow on the ground, and falling from the sky for that matter, so there’s still going to be some skiing. I’m not sure right now if I’ll be doing anymore lift served skiing though, the only firm plans I have are for some ski touring right now.


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David and Chris had planned to do the Bishorn today/tomorrow but the forecast for tomorrow is poor so David suggested the Val Rechy instead, by the time we’d got to the top of the Lona lift I’d persuaded him to try the Lona instead. My plan was to ski into the plateau near the Lac Lona and then climb out over a small col between the Diablon and Sassiniere before skiing down through the Alpage des Torrents to the Moriy Barrage. Incidentally, Chris Longbottom has just bought La Ferme here in Zinal, an old restaurant near the centre of the village and will be opening as the new owner in the summer.


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We got back from our Wild High Level Route on Friday afternoon (photo’s to follow) and it was pretty wild weather travelling from Sierre back to Zinal on the bus, the bus itself was just fine but a number of tourists had failed to make it up the valley and were blocking the road while they tried to fit chains.

So on Saturday we got up for the first lift hoping for a powder day, what we actually got was snow so deep it was actually hard to ski in places. But, it was a good day, clear skies for a time and although the skiing was a little difficult it was good. Sunday over at Grimentz was improved, the cold temperatures possibly drying out the snow a little and we got some great skiing around the area. Avalanche risk is running at 3 and on the high side so bigger off-piste excursions were not practical.