Semana Blanca
Feb 28th, 2014 by willmarks
Last week was “Semana Blanca” at school (White Week, meaning many head for the mountains), and with no classes, we ventured to Switzerland, really a dream of mine to ski with the family in the Alps.
The flight to Zurich was just over an hour, but trains are the real form of travel in Switzerland. A short escalator ride down to a lower floor in the airport, and we were at the train station, prepared for the 2.5 hour ride to Klosters. Unfortunately, we had to switch trains twice, and the first change, at the main station in downtown Zurich, was marked improperly (it left from a different track than normal), so we were stuck for an hour. No Wi-Fi, so we actually had to talk to each other.
Still, we arrived in Klosters in the late afternoon, giving us ample time to rent equipment at Bardill Sports, a 5-10 minute walk from our lovely Silvretta Park Hotel. The store is perfectly situated next door to the Gotschna cable car; with ski storage at the shop, life was made very easy as we didn’t need to lug our equipment through town every day.
And, as you can see, the Klosters Platz train station is across the street from the cable car station, Gotschnabahn. This makes travel back and forth to the different ski areas easy. Trains are really a way of life for skiers here.
Klosters is a beautiful village from almost any angle. This was the view from our hotel room.
The skiing was very good, with snow falling on all but a couple of days. These were not blustery storms, as the snow dropped straight to the ground and with temperatures not too far below zero (celsius). Skiing in Klosters/Davos is generally above the tree line, and this did prevent good visibility at times. Still, the powder was wonderful and it is difficult not to smile while skiing the looooonnnnnggggg runs.
Taking the Gotschna cable car put us on Parsenn, the mountain that spans from Klosters to Davos. In fact, on the first day, we covered much of the territory in between these two towns, and skied down to Davos in the afternoon. To rise back up the mountain from Davos, we boarded a unique train (Parsennbahn), which heads up very steep tracks.
The photo doesn’t do this train justice, but here are Maggie and Ella on the Parsennbahn train, which rises over 1,100 meters vertical.
On Day 2, we headed to the Klosters Platz station and took the train to Davos Platz, about 30 minutes, to access the Jakobshorn mountain; confusing, but this is a different Davos mountain than the one that is directly connected to Klosters. The Davos/Klosters pass includes what are really 5 different ski areas. Near the train station exit, we boarded the Jakobshornbahn, a cable car rising about 1,000 vertical meters. Here is Ella on the Jakobshornbahn, with the town of Davos in the background.
Visibility was poor but this meant few skiers; importantly, the powder was amazing. Evelyn did have a scary tumble, leading to a sore neck, but she recovered enough to test the nice soft snow the next day.
The below photo is at the highest point of the Davos/Klosters ski area, Weissfluhgipfel, on a sunny afternoon, one of just two we experienced during our week. Later, on our final day on the hill, we had a great lunch at the cozy little restaurant near where we were standing. Unfortunately, there was no view as the sky was completely clouded over; the link shows you what could have been…
From the point we are standing above to the town of Kublis is more than 12 kilometers in length, one of the longest runs in Europe. After skiing to Kublis, we walked a few blocks to the train station and then headed back to Klosters.
Here is Ella on the run down, where we passed through multiple villages and farms, crossed roads, and were almost completely alone on the long trail.
We also skied to the town of Serneus one day, and from here boarded a bus back to Klosters. Here we are trudging through Serneus, some of us waiting as long as possible to remove our (rented) skis.
Our friends from San Francisco, the Headricks, joined us for our last few days; they are living in Madrid. Gannen, Mariner, and Lauder are relatively close in age to MEM.
Only one of our on-mountain lunches was cafeteria style. The Europeans seem to enjoy their meals on the slopes, and we did the same, while testing out the local offerings of bratwurst and other sausages, as well as rösti, a traditional local dish consisting of grated potatoes and a variety of toppings, including bacon, cheese, spinach, egg, and onions.
On our last ski day, we hired a guide, Hans; you want your Swiss ski guide to be named Hans, right? A native of Klosters, Hans wakes every morning at 4 a.m. to milk the cows on the family farm, and then takes guests on ski and snowshoe treks. We met up with Hans at Bardill Sports, and were outfitted with backpacks containing shovels, probes, and airbags; we also carried beepers.
After a warm-up run, here we are climbing to our off-piste destination.
The visibility weakened after the morning of exploring with Hans, so we stayed on the trails in the afternoon. After the long ski down to Klosters, Chris, Laure, and the Headrick children posed with us and Hans.
Before our train departed Saturday, we had time for a toboggan run, which begins at the midway station of the Gotschna cable car.
On the toboggan run, looking down at Klosters…
As for our Klosters dinners, Italian food seems to please all, so we enjoyed two meals at Fellini and one at Alberto. Both spots were good, with Fellini the better of the two, and convenient just a block from our hotel. We also tested the fondue, as one should in Switzerland, with a delicious but overpriced restaurant next door to the Silvretta at the Rustico Hotel. We had two dinners at our hotel; much of the dining in Klosters is at hotels and the fare was good at our own. Our final dinner was at Bargis Gasthaus, and it would certainly be a recommendation for anyone heading to Klosters.
Our flight from Zurich back to Barcelona didn’t leave until 9 p.m. on Saturday, so we jumped off the Klosters-Zurich Airport train in downtown Zurich, put our bags in lockers, and toured the city after a snack with the Headricks at their hotel.
This one is for Barbar…
Looks like a great trip – glad everyone had a wonderful time. Too funny, when I skied in Germany, we hired a guide name Hans as well. He should have been called Hans the Horrible as all he did was yell at us, “turn, turn, turn”. By the end of the day we ditched him on the slopes!
Klosters is great, some of the ski lifts could do with an upgrade though.
I hear you, but love the long 15km run into neighboring town, with train ride back.