Klewenalp, CH 03/06/16

It snowed all of yesterday, so I was expecting a powder pigout today and that's exactly what I got: absolutely one for the books. In German, whenever you want to say that something was killer/amazing/epic, the expression is "Das war ja der Hammer!"("That was the hammer!). Well, today was the hammer.

I went to a locals ski area called Klewenalp, located right alongside the stunning Vierwaldstättersee, known in English as Lake Lucerne. To get there from my hotel in a tiny mountaintop village, you go down a brutal switchbacked road that's literally 1.5 cars wide, more than 3,000 verts tall, and with a flimsy guardrail that I'm reasonably certain wouldn't stop a car from plunging to its demise. Let's just say that it was absolutely no fun driving up in a snowstorm last night in a manual, two-wheel-drive Peugeot. This morning, it looked a lot friendlier; the only danger was being hypnotised by the view and forgetting to keep your eyes on the road.






After driving through the six-mile-long Seelisberg Tunnel, you arrive in the lakeside town of Beckenried:



... and park right in the village parking lot, from which you board a tram to mid-mountain.



Here's the view looking down from the upper platform:





While posting the trail map, I'll once again state the disclaimer about locals ski areas in the Alps: small for them, big for us:



Even though I arrived a bit late, 10 am, finding the goods was not difficult. I warmed up with a few quickies on the Klewenstock peak:







... hit a few shots in/near the woods:







Then headed over to the Chälenegg sector, where I spent the next 2.5 hours lapping all that terrain just below where the arrow is pointing on that sign:



Chälenegg chair:



You can see the traverse just below the flatirons -- the best stuff was just beyond the ridge on the far right:




The same pitch as something like "Ballroom" at Alta, but much much wider and, ahem, no people.







A guy from Alpinforum who lives right near the base of the ski area posted virtually identical pix, but with a better camera. For our benefit, he even wrote in English what he thought of today! I have no idea how we didn't run into each other.

Private Club:



Around 1:45, I finally took a lunch break with the obligatory lounge chair in the sun:



Hey, Swiss people are into guns too!:

Living the dream!

I have always wondered about the "small" European ski areas. It seems like there is a lifetime of skiing to explore there even without the big places.

Wow! Beautiful!

You go girl!!!!!Looks like u hit pay dirt

These are some great pics.  Inspirational

HOLY. SHIT.

What a place that looks like

Thanks for sharing that......I look at that and drool, that right there is skiing!

Again? More torture for the desk jockeys? Those shots are crazy. You should organize a trip for us less fortunate.

x10003q wrote

Again? More torture for the desk jockeys?

Don't worry, at this time next week I'll be behind my office desk again.

Oh well, at least I'll have these pix.