Our last spectacular stay at Engelberg was only marred by the Hotel Clerk denying my credit card, charging Freddy, only to realize when reviewing my bank statements that he had double charged us. When I called to inform him, he said he would see to it. He said this every time I called him for the past month. Fed up and with no plan for the coming weekend, I asked if I could just be comped a night, and he agreed. We were going back to Engelberg!

And just in time for this warm, dry spell to subside. A series of storms were about to grace the Alps!

We took the 5:49 am tram through Zug and Lucerne. It’s amazing what you can do in a train vs a car! I meditated, did some Duolingo, and listened to my book, Detransition Baby (recommended by Marlene!). In the blink of an eye we arrived in Engelberg at 7:53.

It was a perfect setup - it had snowed all night, then stopped at 10 am. With 20 cm of fresh snow, and moderate winds to provide refills, I really braced myself for the dreadful PPP (Palisades Powder Panic). What took me by surprise, however, was that we did not wait in a single line that day! 

Freddy bought the Engelberg Outdoor Guide, which came in handy to orient ourselves and put names to faces we had seen in our last visit. We started our morning warming up on untouched groomers with 6 inches of powder on top! Though we make fun of Conor for this being his favorite type of skiing, it’s a real pleasure. We then dropped into Sulz, which is a cool face with many chutes, spines, rolls, and features to play around on. What also took me by surprise was how very few were willing to traverse a little or click out and boot up for a minute to secure untouched goods. Oh well, more untracked delight for us! 

Once the clouds lifted, we moved over to Laub, which is this 1200 meter 30-35 degrees face that can be seen from town. It clearly avalanches a lot, as the word “Laub” is an ancient word for Avalanche. Wow, it was joyous! We yoyo’d the whole thing in an effort to be safe (though let’s be honest these thighs can’t ski 1200 meters straight..). It truly felt like hero skiing, the kind of pitch where the skis and gravity do all the work as you bounce to the rhythm of the freshly fallen snow. Mid-run, I pulled over to Freddy and said this is the best ski line of my life.

After 30,000 feet of vertical descent, we called it, picked up our shoes and extra clothes from the train station (weekend trips are easy when you can just store your toiletries/shoes/extra clothes at a locker), and wandered along the river path to the Banklialp Hotel. 

There we met my favorite Hotel Clerk (he really is a nice guy!), and hopped in the sauna. This time, we filled a tub next to the sauna with cold water - my Wim Hof brethren know where this is going… Three cycles of unplugging the human computer from the power outlet was enough. We staggered to dinner where we sampled 3 types of Käsefondue (plain cheese, cheese with sauerkraut, and cheese with ham). It was truly an eating display; even us dairy lovers couldn’t even finish this amount of cheese. We rolled our Oompa Loompa bodies to bed.

We had set our sights on touring at least one day this weekend, but when we woke up Sunday, things didn’t go as planned

1. There had been moderate to strong winds in the last 24 hours, stripping all west facing slopes of anything but ice
2. It was stormy and low visibility up high
3. The options that we knew of close by were west facing

Begrudgingly, we both realized we had to ski inbounds again. Begrudgingly LOL I’m such a brat. There were half as many people and twice as much powder than the day before. It was incredible!

This time we started on Laub. It felt very eerie at the top with low visibility and the wind whipping. You had to rely on how your skis felt more than your eyes. On our second lap, Freddy spotted a chute that ran into the main funnel. We tiptoed over, and the snow was super reactive! Freddy ski cut it, and the whole thing broke and shot down the mountain. I’ve never been witness to an avalanche that big before, so it really blew my mind how it moved with such speed and fluidity. (Bruce Temper is saying “Grl.. have you read my book?”). Unfortunately for the run, what was under the windslab was not as soft, but we still had fun.

We then headed over to the Vagina Couloir. An edgy name for an edgy line that can be viewed by all passersby on the main gondola. It is a mandatory straight line for 20 feet into a mellow chute with cliffs on either side. We had seen folks rap into it earlier in the season when the entrance was ice, but it was skiable now. Freddy shot through with ease. I steadied myself at the top of the line; I’m not into lines so committing, but I had to do it. I tried counting down, but couldn’t budge. Freddy yelled up saying that was easy, that didn’t move me. He said to film it, but my trembling hands were in no state to start the GoPro. With some deep breaths, I pointed and screamed rather loudly, my voice echoing off the cliff walls. It was in fact not as bad as I thought it would be. Confidence flowed through me, it feels really good to feel like you’re skiing well!

We ended the day with fun powder laps lower on the mountain as visibility had stayed poor. All was going well until Freddy called Last Run. We took one last heated seat chair lift (truly a luxury you didn’t know you needed) and started skiing down when Freddy’s heel piece moved back and the ski delaminated. Not the ending we wanted for the day, but of course the brightside is that it’s New Ski Day for El Fred! RIP Pinkus, he’s a Scott Boiiii now!

I learned a lot this weekend. 

1. We didn’t set ourselves up well for ski touring with this storm. The tours that I was looking at were west facing and above tree line. I think this comes from not having dependable places that I know are good and safe for storm skiing.
2. I don’t have a ton of experience making avalanches. With wind slab being our problem, Freddy felt more confident and easily predicted where things would slide, and managed that risk (by ski cutting). I certainly feel grateful to learn from him in that terrain, and avalanche education is an endless journey.
3. Skiing inbounds is freaking fun! Having worked at Palisades Tahoe since I was 15, I rarely got to ski all day on a powder day without working. This means I mostly skied packed powder then waited in line for 30 minutes. It was really refreshing to wiggle your own tracks lap after lap.
4. I javelined Freddy's pole at Freddy, pretending like it was a bow and arrow. Direct shot to his right forearm. It's been swollen and very painful for the victim for the last four days (and counting). I remember being 12 and my ski coaches saying "No ski pole swords on ski team!" I have now learned that one shouldn't hurl a pole at anyone. I'm sorry Freddy!