The Belk's Go Alpine
I've been skiing since I was about four years old. The mountains in Winter have been part of my life my whole life, with the exception of about seven years where my first two kids were too young to start skiing. However, up until a few years ago, I had never been to the mountains in summer. Like a lot of skiers, my feeling is, why bother, you can't ski, and that's what mountains are for. Well, a couple of years ago, my family and I went to Colorado in the summer, had a blast, and have gone for at least a few days each year. Colorado is wonderful, Colorado has a lot to do, but it ain't the Alps. Especially these Alps. We rapidly learned that Saas-Fee, still cold, was not this unknown place, it was a wonderful town that does not allow cars (electric carts only), and is built around 'real' mountain lovers. Summer glacier skiers (or snowboarders). Summer "off piste" skiers with their guides with them, and their avalanche radio beacons strapped to their chest. Summer Ice Climbers, axes and ropes in hand. Summer hikers, casual and expert. Rock climbers, some good, some unlucky whose remembrance plaques line several mountain areas. Casual mountain bikers, downhill mountain bikers. Plus with all the prerequisite 'Swiss Stuff. Alpine architecture, cows with big bells, goats with smaller bells. German food portions, and better than expected food quality. Friendly and efficient. And all the above without the 'sign the waivers here, and keep between the ropes or you might stub your toe' philosophy of many places in the U.S. Because, for a lot of the sports in Saas-Fee, you are outside the ropes most of the time, and if you don't pay attention, and if you go over your skill level, you are gonna die. But if you are a family, with kids, you can still have a great time as well, as we discovered as we stretched our three day booking to five days.
First day, more hiking in the snow. Thankfully with new sweaters under our existing light sweatshirts and several layers of T-Shirts. The town is at about 1800 meters (roughly 6000 feet), and the ski infrastructure is used to get you up-hill if you are with kids (or just call us wimpy).
Makes me want to go yodellleyhehooo…in fact, we did have a family yodeling contest, but it sounded mostly like various wounded animals.
It was downhill, but it really was not wimpy hiking. We were prepped, plenty of layers, plenty of fluids, but a lot of the local dayhikers were dressed and packed as if they could go on for a week. And maybe they were.
The next day, we did the alpine ropes course. This is another GRANDPARENT SKIP THIS SECTION time, as I went up with my ten and twelve year old, belayed above the mountains and canyons, and did all sorts of wacky stuff. The temperature was finally springtime again, certainly not summer, but we could pull some layers off…
But then, after almost two hours doing various and ever harder routines on the "Tarzan meets the Alps" obstacle course, you get to the end, which you hope is not the end…the 350 meter 'cross the canyon that goes so far down you can barely see the bottom'. I went first, and then waited for my ten year old…
Believe it or not, she IS a dot in the distance, but I had to cut the resolution down.
There she is, nice to see her again!
There she is…ooops…not enough speed, not much I can do, as I talk her into getting her hands on the line and pulling herself backwards on the line until I can grab her at the end of the canyon and pull her in. More dramatic than it looks, but it was a little bit dramatic.
On the way back, once more into the breach, about 75 meters less on the return. This time with daughter one, who at the start of the day SWORE she would not go across the canyon.
If my twelve year old were allowed to say Holy S***, she would be saying Holy S*** here… The clump at the end of the bridge is what it looks like, a big clump of people the same psychographics as folks that go to car races…
But wait, there's more. You can go up to 3500 hundred meters, to the world's highest revolving restaurant. How do you get there? Two cable cars, then the world's highest underground Metro. The whole thing was pretty surreal. As much as my kids wanted to ski, we would have had to buy a tremendous amount of stuff, even if we rented gear, so we were relegated to observer status, albeit with a snowball fight at the summit.
The first photo above is a group of glacier ice climbers, who did not really go anywhere in the hour that our lunch table took to go in a full circle at 3500 meters. The second photo is a long distance shot of folks at the base of an avalanche field…no clue of what they were doing, maybe they were seeing whose yodeling could get the snow going…
After lunch, you get to go into the "World's largest Ice Grotto" where the Swiss, who remember like putting tunnels through EVERYTHING, have cut over 55,000 square feet of the glacier. You start where the "Alpine Metro" lets you off, and then go down 10 meters and more right into the glacier. There are passageways, caves, even playground for kids. Some is just 'white snow', other portions are blue ice of ancient glacial streams, and in true alpine glory, there are always the wacky elements.
Sure doesn't look for feel like mid-July!
But then the next day, it's back to being summer again. A walk through a mountain vista, with views of shrinking glacial lakes. A long-range shot of a chunk of glacial ice, covered in ancient mud, now floating in a fairly small pond of water.
A hike into Sound of Music territory, up the next canyon of Saas-Almegel, which had a different dialect, and off-again on-again political relationships with the next canyon over, Saas-fee. Makes one understand the tiniest little bit of the Swiss spirit of utilitarianism and independence. Also with it's wacky side as well, as it seems that all the villages have a thing for dwarves and Snow White…
This is top and bottom of a huge alpine waterfall, dropping down to a manmade glacial lake. Very Swiss, as they have created a massive hydroelectric facility, one that channels the water over many kilometers, and through a 1000 meter drop.
I know it's been a lot of photos here, and I feel like I'm doing my own personal Warren Miller film (the Guru of Ski Films), but for us, it was truly a unique and special five days, and a true bookend to a lot of the unexpected experiences of Asia. No tournami's, no glitz, no churches or Buddhist temples, just a temple of it's own sort, with it's own sounds, like the sound of this waterfall, it's own shrines in the unlimited vistas, and it's own ethos. And just as special.
Lovely!
Posted by: Arun Inam | July 25, 2007 at 11:05 PM