jamesdeluxe
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2020
Since the first four of my ski days on this visit had been to decent-sized, generally well-known (at least amongst the Swiss) ski areas, I wouldn't have been living up to my reputation as a "Mountains Less Traveled" kook if I didn't go somewhere a bit odd for Day 5, so early Monday morning I reviewed the situation:
-- Final outing of my inaugural 2017-18 ski trip: my legs were a bit fatigued; I didn't require top-shelf terrain or hundreds of miles of trails.
-- Had to be at Zurich airport by mid-afternoon for a 5:15 pm departure, didn't want a long drive back to the city
-- 6-8 inches had fallen overnight in addition to the previous days' accumulations.
-- Forecast called for more heavy flurries and low clouds; I needed a low-elevation joint with top-to-bottom trees.
The answer was Atzmännig (pronounced AHTS-MENNIG), not even an hour east of Zurich -- a comparatively tiny ski area for local families with 1,200 verts, old lifts, a pile of summer activities at the base (swimming, mountain carts, ropes course, camping), and a handful of cut trails through the woods. Basically about the same size as Plattekill, maybe a third again wider. To state the obvious: given the competition, this place is not on any ski tourist's itinerary, especially someone from overseas, but all I needed was enough pitch to keep me going through the fresh snow.
Driving there from my hotel in Amden was sporty. About four inches of slippery snow on the roads, a few steep inclines and switchbacks, a narrow road that went right through people's garden's and barnyards, and absolutely no signage (zero, and I kept an eye out) indicating that a ski area was nearby -- thank god for GPS.
I pulled in at 10 am to see... five cars in the visitor's parking area:
Looking uphill from the base was a 46-year-old double chair moving VERY SLOWLY (once again, similar to the double at Plattekill) and a t-bar. Unfortunately, they were only running the chair; I'm sure the drag lift would've been faster.
A full-day lift ticket is $35 and they offer three convenient half-day options for $25 -- I went with the midday variant. I asked the ticket lady how many people were on the hill; she held up four fingers on each hand.
The 13-minute uphill ride gave me plenty of time to consider the graphics on my topsheets:
And then I enjoyed three hours of a private-ski-area experience where the most difficult thing was finding people to use as photo subjects. Just like the previous two days, great visuals weren't in the cards -- this is what it looks like with moderately better sight lines -- but great conditions were: bootcuff-deep untracked on the groomers, knee-deep offpiste. Due to conditions, my pix are nice and blurry, the way Harv likes 'em:
Between the total quiet, the lack of other people, and getting into a nice rhythm of gliding down non-technical double-blue trails with no interruptions, it got pretty zen at times:
I arrived at the airport by 3 pm, quickly packed my bags in the rental-car garage, and drank a couple beers while waiting for my flight:
While only one of the five days had the grandiose panoramas that one hopes/expects from the Alps, four straight days of powder is a great way to start the season, and way better than what I would've gotten had I gone forward with my planned Wasatch trip.
-- Final outing of my inaugural 2017-18 ski trip: my legs were a bit fatigued; I didn't require top-shelf terrain or hundreds of miles of trails.
-- Had to be at Zurich airport by mid-afternoon for a 5:15 pm departure, didn't want a long drive back to the city
-- 6-8 inches had fallen overnight in addition to the previous days' accumulations.
-- Forecast called for more heavy flurries and low clouds; I needed a low-elevation joint with top-to-bottom trees.
The answer was Atzmännig (pronounced AHTS-MENNIG), not even an hour east of Zurich -- a comparatively tiny ski area for local families with 1,200 verts, old lifts, a pile of summer activities at the base (swimming, mountain carts, ropes course, camping), and a handful of cut trails through the woods. Basically about the same size as Plattekill, maybe a third again wider. To state the obvious: given the competition, this place is not on any ski tourist's itinerary, especially someone from overseas, but all I needed was enough pitch to keep me going through the fresh snow.
Driving there from my hotel in Amden was sporty. About four inches of slippery snow on the roads, a few steep inclines and switchbacks, a narrow road that went right through people's garden's and barnyards, and absolutely no signage (zero, and I kept an eye out) indicating that a ski area was nearby -- thank god for GPS.
I pulled in at 10 am to see... five cars in the visitor's parking area:
Looking uphill from the base was a 46-year-old double chair moving VERY SLOWLY (once again, similar to the double at Plattekill) and a t-bar. Unfortunately, they were only running the chair; I'm sure the drag lift would've been faster.
A full-day lift ticket is $35 and they offer three convenient half-day options for $25 -- I went with the midday variant. I asked the ticket lady how many people were on the hill; she held up four fingers on each hand.
The 13-minute uphill ride gave me plenty of time to consider the graphics on my topsheets:
And then I enjoyed three hours of a private-ski-area experience where the most difficult thing was finding people to use as photo subjects. Just like the previous two days, great visuals weren't in the cards -- this is what it looks like with moderately better sight lines -- but great conditions were: bootcuff-deep untracked on the groomers, knee-deep offpiste. Due to conditions, my pix are nice and blurry, the way Harv likes 'em:
Between the total quiet, the lack of other people, and getting into a nice rhythm of gliding down non-technical double-blue trails with no interruptions, it got pretty zen at times:
I arrived at the airport by 3 pm, quickly packed my bags in the rental-car garage, and drank a couple beers while waiting for my flight:
While only one of the five days had the grandiose panoramas that one hopes/expects from the Alps, four straight days of powder is a great way to start the season, and way better than what I would've gotten had I gone forward with my planned Wasatch trip.
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