jamesdeluxe
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2020
Whereas the previous two days, I stayed in the middle of the ski area, I took advantage of today's clear weather to travel counter-clockwise around the perimeter. If you've never been to the Alps, that's the incredible thing that no ski resort in North America can offer -- being able to travel long distances on your skis and visit different villages. Salt Lake City *could* do it, and there are proposals on the table to connect the four Cottonwoods mountains with the three in Park City, but my money is on it never happening.
Here's the map again if you're interested in following along:
Starting at Idalp -- where eight different lifts/trams/gondolas converge -- I went looker's right to Höllenkar:
Then further down to Fimbatal:
Up one HSQ that ascends 3,100 verts to the top of Palinkopf:
Then down a long expressway that drops 4,000 verts across the Swiss border:
and into the village of Samnaun:
... which allegedly has 64 duty-free shops selling everything imaginable that you then schlep in your backpack to your hotel in Austria. Seems like a lot of work to save a few shekels, but duty-free is a huge racket there:
You then take a double-decker tram back up 4,000 verts to the Alp Trida section, which is still in Switzerland:
Alp Trida is like a huge volcano crater, easily a mile wide, with lifts going in every direction from its center. I spent the next 2.5 hours trying out the different terrain pods, which had beautiful conditions. Unfortunately, that is where the day's clear, sunny weather went poof as a storm moved in with 50 mph winds and stinging graupel, so no decent pix from Alp Trida, however, before that happened, I found this French couple getting zany:
I went all the way back to the Fimbatal section and had lunch at a lively outdoor restaurant/bar/cafe.
One thing you have to come to terms with in the Alps is Euro Disco. It's unavoidable and part of the scenery, so you just make do, like this lady who was shaking her moneymaker to, I kid you not, a disco version of Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again."
Here's the map again if you're interested in following along:
Starting at Idalp -- where eight different lifts/trams/gondolas converge -- I went looker's right to Höllenkar:
Then further down to Fimbatal:
Up one HSQ that ascends 3,100 verts to the top of Palinkopf:
Then down a long expressway that drops 4,000 verts across the Swiss border:
and into the village of Samnaun:
... which allegedly has 64 duty-free shops selling everything imaginable that you then schlep in your backpack to your hotel in Austria. Seems like a lot of work to save a few shekels, but duty-free is a huge racket there:
You then take a double-decker tram back up 4,000 verts to the Alp Trida section, which is still in Switzerland:
Alp Trida is like a huge volcano crater, easily a mile wide, with lifts going in every direction from its center. I spent the next 2.5 hours trying out the different terrain pods, which had beautiful conditions. Unfortunately, that is where the day's clear, sunny weather went poof as a storm moved in with 50 mph winds and stinging graupel, so no decent pix from Alp Trida, however, before that happened, I found this French couple getting zany:
I went all the way back to the Fimbatal section and had lunch at a lively outdoor restaurant/bar/cafe.
One thing you have to come to terms with in the Alps is Euro Disco. It's unavoidable and part of the scenery, so you just make do, like this lady who was shaking her moneymaker to, I kid you not, a disco version of Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again."
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