Engelberg valley –Central Switzerland
It’s dark. With the skis strapped on our backs, we are walking on an icy road . There are some lights , but they seem so far away .No idea for how much longer we have to continue.
My Garmin watch shows 1,082 m altitude. We just just skied , climbed , rappelled , skinned up and skied more down more for the last 8 hours.
An hour later we reached a barrier, and behind it -the lights of Alessandro’s van . The 9 of us somehow squeezed in the 7 passengers van and drove to the Sporthotel Eienwäldli.
The pizza could have not tasted any better. Carlo said to me -“We almost pushed it to the limit”
The Titlis Round Trip just ended .
It is considered one of the most attractive ski tours in the Engelberg area .It starts on Mt. Klein Titlis, at 3,035 m . After skiing down over glacial terrain , we put on crampons , roped up and climbed over the exposed ridge , or “Messer”(sword edge in German).
The first crux was an 80 meters rappel with skis on backwards through a narrow and steep couloir,(45 degrees ) which had an abrupt turn , and this was followed by some more downhill skiing to the second rappel point.
After that came a two and a half hours ascent for a gain of 608 m’ on the south side of Mt. Titlis up to the Grassen bivouac.
On the north face we skied down -initially with great snow conditions which eventually turned into icy conditions. We had to cross over blocks of ice from previous avalanches, and finally we bootpacked down, crossing a river back and forth , and walking on
narrow mountain trail with our phone light guiding us,
Due to those conditions the trip that normally takes 7 hours need up being 9 hours long.
We descended 2,530 m. For those who dont ski-this is a lot of descent.
We stayed in Engelebrg for 3 days, and had more ski touring , but not all days were so intense.
Engelberg is home to Mt Titlis, , which at 3, 238m is the highest one in central Switzerland. It’s accessed by a rotating gondola, one of the first in Europe . I actually visited this place in 1975 with my parents.
From there we continued for 3 days to Andermatt , close to the Gotthard tunnel.
It has the largest ski area in central Switzerland .We stayed at the very comfortable Radisson Hotel .
The town is located in a valley . On one side there are lots of ski lifts and runs, and on there side -Gemmstock .It’s considered one of the best free riding areas in the world.
After the second gondola we found ourselves at 2,961 m . With a short traverse , we had 2 uninterrupted 1,500 m’ each vertical descents , -in different areas – through untouched powder -and had the mountain all to ourselves.
The trip was guided by Carlo and Alessandro, who picked us up and dropped us at Malpensa .
What was unique about this trip was that we had no idea where we going when we purchased months ago our tickets to Milan . Our guides waited ’till the last moment to find the location with the best snow.
Unfortunately Lou had a fall which caused injury to his shoulder and.Rob strained his back .But they stayed ’till the end .
For me , it’s a memorable trip . An awesome ski touring experience that encompassed all mountaineering skills , and the longest descents in untouched powder, with no other people around – rivaling Heliskiing .
The team :Lou, Joe, Ed, Rob, Garret, Jeff and myself .
BAM!!!
