Just had a couple of splendid days skiing in Engelberg, with some of
the best Spring conditions I can remember. Only about half of the
mountain skiable, with less than that officially open, but the whole
Stand side still has lots of snow cover.

As is normal at this time of year, you need to time it right - the
lower runs below Stand started to get glue-like by late morning,
although there were some bits that had been pisted the night before
and stood up better. Off-piste was surprisingly good, even at that
level, although again it started to get unpleasant by around
lunchtime...

which is when the glacier area comes to its best, at ~3000m staying
much colder and barely getting above freezing[1]. Best snow was to be
found away from the normal pisted areas, skier's right from the
glacier drag lift and dropping down some of the slopes above Galtiberg
before cutting back to the draglift. Snow was really, _really_ good,
with about 15cm of fresh on Saturday morning, and still areas of
untracked snow to be found on Sunday.

We stopped by around 2pm on both days, as the run home was virtually
unskiable later than that[2] and we'd done so much skiing that we
really didn't feel the need to continue .


[1] Even at the lower areas it was quite cold for the time of year, so
although lightweight gloves and stuff were indicated, it was still not
too warm for proper outerwear to be at least partially zipped up.
[2] As confirmed by talking to people who didn't stop.

--
Ace
Ski Club of Great Britain http://www.skiclub.co.uk/
All opinions expressed are those of the poster and in no way reflect those of the Ski Club or its members