The next day, the sun was again shining, and the call to the ski slopes was too great for most of the part who headed off for the downhill slops at the end of the valley above the train tunnel. Kandersteg is famous as being the valley where the road stops and the cars are loaded on to a train, for the journey under the mountains, before continuing on the road at the other side.
Bryon and I had other ideas ... the beginning of a shared vision of the future was lit in the corner of our minds .. Given the difficulty of moving around in winter in the mountains, how could we make it easier, or at least possible - people do it, but we were short of knowledge and experience.
So we decided to hire some more XC skis and try them out "fully loaded" so, with a rucksac of standard issue alpine gear, we set off to see how they performed.
We discovered that, at our skill level, it was a non starter. Not only was progress difficult, but anything away from the prepared track was worse than walking. The skis were not "fat" enough to prevent sinking, and were a great effort juts moving up hill with the weight.
After a valiant effort we called it a day.
Bryon and I had other ideas ... the beginning of a shared vision of the future was lit in the corner of our minds .. Given the difficulty of moving around in winter in the mountains, how could we make it easier, or at least possible - people do it, but we were short of knowledge and experience.So we decided to hire some more XC skis and try them out "fully loaded" so, with a rucksac of standard issue alpine gear, we set off to see how they performed.
We discovered that, at our skill level, it was a non starter. Not only was progress difficult, but anything away from the prepared track was worse than walking. The skis were not "fat" enough to prevent sinking, and were a great effort juts moving up hill with the weight.
After a valiant effort we called it a day.