Trip Report: Davos and Engelberg

As an occasional lurker on this group I though I'd contribute this
report on an end of season ski trip I made to Davos and Engelberg in
Switzerland over easter.

Bit of a last minute decision to go and did a DIY job over the
internet to book travel and accommodation. Flew KLM from Glasgow to
Zurich via Amsterdam. Slight hiccup at Glasgow when airport security
didn't want to let me through with my ski boots as hand luggage. Some
new policy apparently (hopefully one that will be rescinded before
next season...). Anyway in the end they let me through on condition I
checked them in at the gate as "gate baggage". Otherwise all went
fairly smoothly, retrieved boots at Amsterdam and on to Zurich (no
further questions with taking boots as hand baggage). Got train from
Zurich Airport to Davos Dorf, via Zurich and Landquart. Had booked 3
nights in the Solaria (www.solaria.ch) which I've used before -
reasonable location and relatively cheap (SF97/night in their
"superior" 2 person studios). There is a bus stop at the entrance
which takes you to the Parsenn lift in 5 mins and Solaria run a mini
bus to the Jakobshorn lift.

Anyway, got ski hire and lift pass organised and next morning
(Saturday) made go up the Parsenn lift about 9am. Fairly sunny and
I'd characterise the runs as being busy but not crowded. Above about
2000 metres the snow was in excellent condition. I'm an OK
intermediate skier and happy to keep to the pistes and had an
excellent time. The run down to Klosters was open but the conditions
on the run between Obersaas and Shifer convinced me not to bother
trying (very heavy snow, and distinct "brown" patches lower down). The
black runs down from Weissfluhgipfel were however in excellent nick.
After lunch the weather started to get worse with clouds coming in and
light snow. The runs back down to Davis Dorf were open, but by the
time it was time to call it a day, I just skied down to Hohenweg and
caught the train on down. My legs didn't fancy the heavy snow and it
was raining at the lower altitudes.

Next day (Sunday), woke to more rain and low cloud. Decided to try
Jakobshorn (the only other ski area open at this time of year). Got
to the top in pretty unpromising conditions of no visibility and
snowing, but descending a few hundred metres took me out of the clouds
and within about 30 minutes the conditions changed dramatically with
brilliant blue skies, a few cm of fresh snow and almost noone on the
slopes. I think its fair to say that the blues and reds on Jakobshorn
are not too challenging (to be honest, this is probably true of the
Parsenn as well - there's just a bit more variety there), but the
combination of good snow, blue skies and empty pistes more than made
up for that. Had an excellent morning. In the afternoon I decided to
go back over the Parsenn area (which meant a lift down and bus from
Davos Platz back to Davos Dorf). Skied around the Gotschnagrat area
mostly, but the visibility wasn't great. Enjoyable enough, but the
snow lower down was pretty sugary.

Left next morning in brilliant sunshine (grrrh) for Engelberg. Had
booked two nights B+B in the Hotel Europe
(http://www.hoteleurope.ch/willkommen/e_start.htm) which was OK.
Only the Titlis/Jockpass area is open at this time of the season.
Unfortunately on the Tuesday the conditions were pretty poor looking -
rain at the town level and heavy cloud. As it was my only day for
skiing here, I had little choice. Visibility at the top in Klein
Titlis was a little better - cloud above and cloud below, but a little
pocket of half decent visibility. Apparently Engelberg is a well
known location spot for Bollywood films - so it was a little weird to
be taking the cablecars up with lots of Indian (and Japanese)
tourists. Fairly quickly got bored with the simple reds at the top so
skied down the black (only option - fairly mogully but since
visibility was 10 metres it was hard to know what to make of it).
Visibility between Stand and Trubsee didn't improve and the snow was
distinctly ropey on the last few hundred metres above Trubsee. Took
the lift across to Alpstubli, had lunch and then tried the runs up at
Jochpass and Jochstub. Visibility was a little better over there and
there was plenty of snow, albeit poor quality lower down. Finally
went back to the top of Titlis and had a final run down to Trubsee -
but again the visibility was very poor although (probably for that
reason) the runs were empty. Had to queue to get back down from
Trubsee - all the tourists returning from the mountain!

Of course next morning, when I was leaving, the sun was shining and
the mountains were cloud free... :-(

Hard for me to judge Engelberg. The skiing felt much more limited
compared to Davos (even allowing for the conditions). For piste
skiers like me I cannot imagine wanting to spend more than 2, maybe 3,
days here max. Perhaps more experienced off-pisters can get more from
the resort? Engelberg itself suffered a bit from the obvious "end of
ski season" air about the town, with some restaurants already closed.
It looks like the new rail tunnel is not that far from being
completed, so I guess the train journey there may become less
interesting when it does. I continued to be quite impressed by Davos
- though I guess none of the pistes on Parsenn or Jakobshorn are
challenging for the more advanced skiers, at least towards the end of
the season with the more limited ski area.

Anyway, enough of this - if you've read as far as this, well done ;-)

Rod

Thanks for the report Rod. I keep meaning to explore more of the Swiss
resorts and it sounds like I should give Davos a try one year.
Certainly appeals to the snob in me.. :-)

Cheers,

Matt

On 30 Apr 2006 06:50:13 -0700, "Matt T"
wrote:

Thanks for the report Rod. I keep meaning to explore more of the Swiss
resorts and it sounds like I should give Davos a try one year.
Certainly appeals to the snob in me.. :-)

That must just be good (?) Davos marketing then (and I suppose the
World Economic Forum descending on them every year helps). Davos
doesn't strike me as being a posh destination and to be honest
probably counts as being a bit of an ugly place - though its no Arc
2000 either. Its certainly not in the Zermatt league for conspicuous
wealth. Now Klosters is perhaps a different matter... ;-)

Rod

On Sun, 30 Apr 2006 12:52:00 +0100, Rod
wrote:

Hard for me to judge Engelberg. The skiing felt much more limited
compared to Davos (even allowing for the conditions). For piste
skiers like me I cannot imagine wanting to spend more than 2, maybe 3,
days here max.

There's a bit more than you've seen, with a couple of nice long runs
down to the resort from the Jochpass area, some blues (nursery runs,
really) with two or three drag lifts above Gershnialp, then another
mainly nursery area (Klostermatt) at the top of the village and an
entirely separate area just the other side of the village at Brunnli
with blues, reds and even a black run.

But even so, for Int-Adv pist skiers I'd suggest 3-4 days would be
enough before you started to get bored.

Perhaps more experienced off-pisters can get more from
the resort?

Hoyuss. I'd suggest that even if you just took all the 'known'
off-piste runs without any variations there is probably more mileage
off-piste than on. Over the back of Jochpass, for example, there's at
least five distinct routes, some of which need just a little walk out)
compared with a single piste down. Then there's the whole area between
Jochstock and Stand, with another three or four classic descents, plus
many variants, and several more on the glacier above it (only with
guides, of course) from the top of Titlis.

Then there's the Laub, dropping skier's right from the top of Stand,
with at least two distinct runs down, each with 1200m vertical all the
way down to Gerschnialp, or drop even further right (can't remember
the name of the run) to end up at the head of the valley and get a
taxi back to town. Plus the many routes above and over from Brunni
dropping down to the road below Engelburg, taking the train (included
on the lift pass) back into town.

I could go on, but I have to do some work today as well ;-)

Anyway, enough of this - if you've read as far as this, well done ;-)

To the bitter end - thanks for your report.

--
Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk
All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club.