Retreat, Switzerland

Wake up to more snow ...  coupled with light drizzle..  As we had to move out of the apartment, and we finally had a message (11:30pm the night before) we packed up and had our final inspection..  then came the argument over the payment ..  how much had we already paid (actually nothing but there had been a test authorization against the credit card), together with the discussion that the web site says "cards allowed" but the agent insisting on cash ..  the only receipt we got was a text message .. so I assume there is some creative accounting going on here around tax!

Anyway once that had settled and we had checked out the Disentis and Sedrun ski areas ... Also the weather for the next day was the same as today. Add in the avalanches we had seen already meant we needed some serious frost before the hills would be safe to roam .. it was time to head home.

A last visit to the apartment to change and a final argument with the owner over payment, we were both wrong, but all could have been avoided if contact had been made the fist day.

Setting off home ...  a long drive in one hit, we had to exit Switzerland as the apartment charges had cleaned us out of Swiss Francs.

Stops for lunch (a baguette) and dinner (steak frites) and we were queuing for the 22:00 ferry.

Having bitten the bullet and got a flexible ticket we did not have surcharges this time ... and we could get into the "club lounge" only 2 others in there and free tea/ coffee and crisps/ etc. we made the most of it.

Home around 1am ... with just the clean up to follow.

Snow Day, Switzerland

We woke up and it was snowing ...  cloud down below yesterday and no overnight freeze....So not likely of any action today on the hills we settled for a rest day.

A lazy start and then we popped back to the Skigarage  ...  Bryon had decided to trade the rentals in for a new set of skis ..  he just had to decide on the rental binding or fritschi's ///  in the end he settled for the latter, and the overall package had a hefty discount so all were happy.

Lunch was spent back at the Bahnhoff buffet with an equally good meal as last time ..  the afternoon was spent trying to get in touch with the local agent for the apartment and/or the owner to sort out the leaving arrangements for the next day, as well as collecting Bryon's new skis once they had been assembled.

The clouds did lift once or twice, and the snow came and went ..  but by late afternoon there was not much change over the day ...  the forecast was not looking better either.

Dinner was again a repeat of Thursday with a visit to the pizzeria Surselva. Overall a "rest" day.

Oberalp Pass, Switzerland

very overcast and the clouds down in the town around the apartment.. we had two "bad" day routes picked out ...  one to go to Oberalp Pass and the second to go to Lukmanier Pass .. both from the respective road heads.

With Bryon looking to test out the rental skis we went back to the road head at Tschamut-Selva, this time heading up the road rather than down to the river.
There was a lot of flat light around but we were under the cloud at this point.
One worrying point was that between our descent late yesterday morning and early today there had been a fresh avalanche across the road.

Yesterday we had seen a quad bike with tracks go down the road from the refuge ..  today it past us going back up with a passenger in tow ... one way to get up!

 As we approached the end of the valley we got deeper into the cloud, which not only reduced the visibility but also lost the depth of view, so we could not see the steepness of the slopes around. Luckily for us we had posts marking the road to the pass, although the path took some short cuts between the zigzags.

As the road turned to the right to go up to the pass, the angle changed as things got a little steeper, and somewhere above us we could hear the lifts from Sedrun .. again which one was difficult to determine.

 The we came to a flatter section with a line of telegraph poles. this lead to the pass and the lift buildings with associated restaurants etc.

Behind us was just a sea of white.

Not many people around ..  most were huddled in the restaurants.  the interesting feature was the lighthouse sending out a red beam on a cycle, both Bryon and I tried to time the photo to the right part!

We had made good time up to her, and it seemed a shame to just go back down ... Bryon posed the question about dropping down to Andermatt and catching the train back up ... this would also cover another of our initial ideas. The alternative was to go up the piste .. but this was flat light skiing for the sake of it.

So sheltering under the veranda of one of the restaurants, trying to keep up wind of the smokers we took the skins off and prepared for a descent into the unknown.

The map showed the road heading west around a large lake following the train line .. so we dropped to the station (it was below the col level slightly) and then tried to find a way out ..  this ended in us going down to the lake and setting of across it .. skis without sins but binding undone so we could slide easier ..  it was flat but not worth getting skins back on.

We headed into the whiteness aiming for a vague gap between the two mountains coming down ahead.

Looking back it was all white.

The train track had disappeared into a tunnel just after the station, but luckily it reappeared after the secondary col and we had some pylons to follow.

At this point we had enough slope to actually start sliding, as opposed to walking. We slid/ side slipped down the hard snow which had been thrown off the tracks by the clearing efforts, which was much better than the softer "fresh" snow further away from our guide rail.

Confidence has a way of kicking you, and it was around here I had my second "face plant" of the trip .. not seeing a gully cutting the slope I piled into the opposite bank and without heels clamped continued until my face was buried... me lying in a heap allowed Bryon to avoid the danger and the ignominy!

Seeing some tracks on the other side of the rails, together with our side getting steeper down to the left we crossed the tracks and climbed up the other side.. there was not a lot of space and we had to ensure we were clear before the next train.

Once on the track, things became easier as it was semi pisted (ie there had been a rattrac along it). We, very soon, arrived at the Natschen station, and a form of civilization.

The drop down into Andermatt was simple from here ...  a blue run followed the road all the way (we did have a side excursion down a very thin red so Bryon could try tight turns on the new skis).
We chanced to drop under the rail line as a train was passing the other way.
Very quickly we were at the bottom of the run and a few hundred meters from the rail station.

A train was due to depart in a few minutes so we rushed to buy tickets then hopped on (the next would be an hour away so it was fortunate).
Eating and staring into the gloom to see where we had been, we relaxed on the journey back up to the Oberalp Pass.

We had seen some "funny" carriages on several of the trains .. It seems one of the revenue generating schemes was to put an "Apres-ski" bar carriage on the trains for the skiers returning from one end to the other. Although we avoided it, it was extremely popular on our train.

Back up at the train station we trudged up to the high point again, passed the hordes of tourists getting out into the snow.
From the top we set off back down to the van ... following the remembered tracks from the ascent ... not simple and luckily there were no surprises in the flat light.

Back on the larger road trail in the valley bottom we sped back towards the van, until we were interrupted by a new slide that had occurred during the day since we had passed that way in the morning... a lack or freezing and cohesion had caused snow to side down over the track with wet slushy debris ..  no difficulty to cross, just a poignant reminder of the dangers.

Back at the van we retreated back to our apartment and some tea.

That night we went out to another new restaurant .. Ustria Casa Cruna  More "fast" than the other places, with lots of tables.

Cavradi, Switzerland

The day dawned bright ...  we were up early and as we had our own breakfast, it was off early up the road.
We had chosen to aim for a top called Cavradi ...  from the end of the valley to Operalp, turn left passed the refuge da maighels. the advantage this gave was that we could use the track back from the cabina if the snow was not good. Overnight it had frozen quite hard .. there was some new snow on the higher ground (fallen after the freeze) so the omens were good, and we had contingency plans (or so we thought!).

From the road head we headed down to the stream (the guide book indicated to go this way out and back down the road .. we guess for avalanche danger from the slopes to the South.. but still), it meant loosing 100 Hm.
So ski down to the stream, and put on skins before crossing the small bridge and following the bank up river.
the overnight snow had covered the tracks, but we could see faint traces to follow.

The track gradually gained height as we worked into the bowl at the end of the valley, working around the lumps and bumps.

back at the height of the track, we continued to follow the left bank.

At the end of the valley the bowl opened out and we would head off left and up the valley leading that way ...   to the right was the way up to the Operalp Pass, and the ski lifts of Sedrun.

We contoured around the bowl gaining height to meet the track from the huts and valley cutting across the face at the point the slope angle changed. we would continue contouring to the right to come over the shoulder into the valley leading to the refuge. Meeting the a second road to the refuge.

As we climbed up this final slope to join the track, Bryon mentioned he had a problem with his binding and we should stop as soon as we found a relatively safe place.
Not knowing the issue and how serious it was I continued slowly and with a gentle angle until I got to the ridge of the should with minimum exposure.

Taking his foot out of the binding, it was all soon apparent the Titinal bar had failed under the heal piece ..  As the failure was in the tunnel attaching it to the heal piece it was hard to apply any fix. What we discovered was that we needed to jury rig a way that the heal piece could move as the foot came up in walk mode. .. So a spare boot lace was used to lash the heal binding release around the boot.
This gave us enough purchase to move safely to the road and then discuss what next.

On the way around the shoulder and down to the road it was apparent that this was only an emergency fix and we should not go further. Bryon did offer to wait whilst I went on .. but this never occurred to me and we chose to make a descent by whatever means we could .. as we were on the roadwe could at least walk if necessary, however it was expedient to try and ski.

In downhill mode the binding changes ..  the heal locks in place, so we juts needed to stop it wobbling around ... so changing the lashing so that it pulled the heal attachment to the toe one, did this, and also provided a neater solution which would not get in the way of the skis or feet.

The jury rig held up really well, and either because of the freeze or the early hour of the descent, or both .. the snow was the best of the trip. We had a great ski down to the valley head, only joining the track for the last few metres.

On the track back to the road head we could see our tracks both up and down ...  there were also more people now on the route both following our trails up and also the road route, but we seemed to have the best of the snow.

The road back to the van was one long schuss.

Back at the van we pondered what to do next ..

Just outside Disentis we had seen someone advertising Othovox ..  so seemed like a good place to start. We dropped in there on the ways back (after checking the railway at Sedrun to see how often car trains run ... not very - definitely no as often as the other routes we have used, and seemed to be only 3 time per daylight day.). Unfortunately the shop was shut, but re opened after lunch.

Back at the shop (Skigarage) we found a very talkative guy with excellent English who set about helping us. He had some skis to hire and also some end of season bargains to buy...  after much thought Bryon opted to remain with Fritschi style bindings on head skis to rent for a couple of days and see how it went. I am sure we could have spend days there just talking..

That night we went to Stiva Grischuna restaurant ...  this had an elaborately carved wooden ceiling, and the food was just what we needed to revive the day.