Brigels, CH: 03/08/20

For Day 4, next up was Brigels on the other side of the valley from the previous day's Obersaxen/Mundaun. Frequented almost exclusively by locals, 3,600 continuous verts with several ways down, a comparatively narrow ski area, maybe a half mile across.




Arriving into Brigels, you see that it's a proud home ski area to Switzerland's fourth official language, Romansh, which gets top-billing on street signs here in the canton of Graubünden.





In an inspired move: mid-afternoon on the upper-mountain HSQ, two friendly Romansh-speaking teens were giving out little booklets at the bottom that translated ski-area terms from German into Romansh, accompanied by an audio tutorial on the loudspeakers during the lift ride. Everyone on my chair was laughing while trying to pronounce the words correctly, which sounds like an odd 60/40 mixture of Italian/Spanish and Swiss German.

My SOP was to stay on the upper 2,600 verts, alternating high-speed cruising on velvety groomed trails with low-angle ungroomed runs through the windsift:





Gorgeous views across the valley from anywhere on the mountain:



Looker's left from the summit:



Looker's right along the ridge from the top, an excellent sidecountry run you can take all the way to the bottom. Would've done it if I'd had a partner:



The omnipresent Swizly Cider cow, always good for a photo opp:



While I wouldn't necessarily put Brigels in the "must-visit-again" category, it's a fun hill that underscores how even the comparatively less remarkable ski areas here are pretty damn good.

Very cool.

Do you ever connect with random people on the lifts and ski with them? Do Europeans do that?

great report
where is this located?
I get to Switzerland for work so I need to hit some of these smaller places at some point

I'd sign up for a James led trip to ski Europe.  Any interest in having some ski partners in the future?

You seeing any impact from COVID 19?  hearing about some impacts from my contacts over there - one of our plants is literally 100 yards from the Italian boarder

Z wrote

You seeing any impact from COVID 19?  hearing about some impacts from my contacts over there - one of our plants is literally 100 yards from the Italian boarder

Zero impact here in Switzerland. Everybody is carrying on as if nothing were wrong; no hysteria like in the U.S.

As you're aware, Italy is a different story.

Z wrote

the Italian boarder

I am not seeing hysteria. Where are you seeing it?

Harvey wrote

I am not seeing hysteria. Where are you seeing it?

US MSM!

Jamesdeluxe wrote

Harvey wrote

I am not seeing hysteria. Where are you seeing it?

US MSM!

OK no reason to get hysterical. I meant among the humans.

Take it to Politicrap, Buster.

Jamesdeluxe wrote

Take it to Politicrap, Buster.

Bwahahhaaahahahahaaaaa

JD with a funny!

Not political, just sayin not seeing any hysteria.  Maybe I need to watch TV?

We did have a brawl break out over some Clorox wipes in the grocery store. One lady was bashing a guy in his head with his own man purse.

Beautiful - love that 3600 vert is 'small'.

3600’ and a half mile across is about WFs footprint.  Would ski much bigger is all above treeline

Looks amazing James.

As always, your reports transport us to a different world. Thanks for posting, I really appreciate it.