Pentecost Skiing in Zermatt (26-28 May)?

Sports and Hobbies
1
Hey guys,

Do any of you people know the in and outs of Zermatt in late May?

I live in Zürich, and I'd like to head over with my teenage kids for the long weekend (Swiss get Monday off). Don't intend to do anything particularly epic, just work on technique, see the sky, feel the snow. Go fast maybe. I just want to ski. Bad. And my teenagers are game.

However, May-June is the absolutely dead time of year. The sommer ski areas aren't open yet. Saas Fee is closed completely, for example. In Zermatt, as far as I can tell (website and phone call with the tourism office lady), there'll be exactly two pistes open: Furgsattel (72) and Theodulgletscher (71). That's pretty thin.

I've never been to Zermatt before so I could use a little advice here.

- What are those two pistes like? Completely flat glacier stuff?

- I have my own kit, but I'd need to rent skiis for my daughter, skiis AND boots for my son. Is anything even open??

- Anything else skiish up there you'd recommend? We're good on-piste skiers but we've never done back country. Maybe we could warm up Saturday, hook up with a guide/teacher Sunday for some back country skiing? Are there even any guide OUT there in May??

Peace,

Mike

2
It the lifts are open , some shops will be on standby to take your money.

3
No, not at all. They’ve actually got a bit of variety wrt the slope gradient, with one or two sections which are relatively steep. I used them quite a lot when doing a BASI course there in November, and they certainly have enough variation to do the different exercises and demonstrations we were practicing. Big wide open runs, either side of the 6-man chair that serves them (accessed directly from the now very efficient Klein Matterhorn cable car that runs all the way from the village in one go).

They’re quite long runs too, so you’re not stuck in just the one little bit of snow, and they’ve both got some great open carving opportunities as well as some more gentle cruisy bits. Depending on snow conditions there may be decent ungroomed stuff between the two runs as well, which can be quite entertaining without having to get away from the officially open bits.

Yes. At the very least the shop at the base station of the KM lift will be open.

If you want a proper mountain guide then you’d need to organise it well in advance. I think just walking into the Guides’ office and asking for a guide may not be the best idea. And I have no idea of what sort of terrain they might consider appropriate at this time of year. If you’re not thinking of proper touring stuff I think the opportunities may be somewhat limited.

Of course, if it’s more about just brushing up on the basics and having a bit of a laugh in variable snow, then you could alternatively come to Engelberg, which is still open until Monday, and I’ll gladly oblige. Not as much terrain, and not as high, as in Zermatt, but still enough variability, and certainly a higher level of difficulty, available to you.

Let me know if you want to book something. All proper and above board, of course, through Prime Ski School, for whom I’ve been working part time this last season.

4
Wow!

Thanks so much for that message!

I talked things through with the kids, and they'd particularly like to hit Zermatt (we've never been there).

One thing, though: Did I understand that there are fewer kilometers open in Titlis but those that are open are more challenging? We could get plenty of training in on a couple of nice reds, but a little more adventure would be fun too ... And: the chance to book some time with you and head off piste would be pretty cool.

Thanks again!

Mike

5
That's correct. Seems that it's just separate two red runs on the glacier and the run down from it ("Rotegg") that are open, but the latter is graded yellow, which they've used to mean 'more difficult than the blacks' and the Engelberg blacks are pretty steep.

Having said that, it's possible to get back up to the top and down the cable car from the glacier area, so it's not necessary to ski down it. But it's steep, often mogulled and can be rocky in places. A great run, in other words

Wouldn't be doing much actual off-piste, as it's glaciated terrain which we don't do without proper mountain guides. But there's certainly unpisted bits to learn and develop off-piste skills on. Next to Rotegg particularly, dependant on conditions, of course.

6
Man ... that sounds like fun.

I think I'm going to have to check up on you again in the future.

Does Engelberg still have a Sommerski? (I seem to recall that they shut it down a few years back ... )

7
No proper summer skiing since 2005, as it wasn't making economical (or ecological) sense to do it. But there's a fun park, including snowtubing and sledging, with a moving carpet lift, and usually a bit of pisted snow with some jumps for the boarders, so it's still possible to ski a bit if you really want to. Might be worthwhile for testing out nwe kit or something, but not much else.

Ski season, after finishing this coming weekend, will start again the first weekend of October, and we normally get quite a large area open by late November. Look us up on www.freeride-school.ch if you want to book lessons for then.

I'm assuming from your comments that you're not now thinking of coming over this weekend? I'm available on Monday as well if you're still interested... PM me if possible

8
No Engelberg this weekend - my kids took a shine to Zermatt, so that's where we're off to. (I'm not wild about the 4 hour train ride, but since I've never even seen the place, I'm interested too.)

That beginning of October business sounds interesting, btw. My mother-in-law lives in Interlaken; ergo, we been getting our season passes in the Jungfrauregion for years now. (Nothing like free room and board.) But I've been wishing we could get in some early season work for a long time now, and Engelberg would be cool. We could come up for a few weekends and get a better start on the season.

While I'm nattering: What is the ecological thing with summer skiing? I'm guessing that the problem is with the artificial snow machines. Or do the animals need some peace and quiet?

9
For some reason I thought you might be thinking of a couple of days there and coming up to Engelberg for Monday as well. No worries though. I'll be skinig Monday at least anyway.

Nothing as fancy as that, just referring to the energy consumption and pollution from running the ski lifts and piste bashers.

The effect of wear on the glacier itself was also, I believe, a factor.

10
So how was it? Pretty good weather conditions, so I imagine it must have been a worthwhile trip.

We skiied yesterday in Engleberg and were frankly astonished at how good the conditions were. The glacier runs were just superb, and there's an under-the-ropes section up there that I'd not got round to skiing all season, but did so yesterday for four or five runs, each time making fresh tracks in perfect Spring Snow.

Lower down we were delighted to find that skiing all the way down to Truebsee was still possible, albeit with a few steps over mud/grass in two places. Better than just 'possible', actually, as the snow was only really getting a little bit glue-like very late in the day, and skiing conditions earlier both on and off-piste (for unpisted values of 'piste') were excellent. Skiied until 1630 or so, it was so good.

Sadly the last day of the season

Then again, only 18 weeks before next season starts

11
It was nice - real nice.

REPORT!

We had perfect weather (burned my face even though I had on strong sun screen), and the the piste was a lot of fun- particularly because they had a snow park with jumps, half-pipe and the like set up in between the two pistes. There was enough off piste for some fun, and some guys even pounded out a mogul-run - though it was way too tough for me. (I not exactly the king of the bumps, and in soft snow the moguls were more like pits ... )

Not a lot of choice about where to go, but really: how much do you need? We skied a lot, worked on technique, had some fun mucking around on the jumps and off piste. That's a complete ski experience in my books, even if you don't have 50 different pistes to do it on! The only thing really missing was a good, long Abfahrt.

We made friends with a couple guys who hired a guide and went touring. They had a lot of fun, but uphill skiing isn't really my thing. If it is, that would be a great place to do it.

From the sound of it, you had better snow in Engelberg. Our stuff started going gummy around between 12 and 1pm, and the long, flat second half of the run required some patience. Particularly, we started the last day with some fresh snow that was really nice early on but turned to rubber toward the end. If we end up making a Pentecost ski outing a family tradition, I think I'll try Engelberg.

Good experience renting skis for my daughter (15) and skis and boots for my son (13). (Bad situation though. SportXX made us bring back their season rentals two weeks before. I've learned my lesson on that. My daughter will get her own skis before next season anyway, but in the future I'll rent my son's stuff from "our" Fachgeschäft in Wengen, where we get our season tickets. Yeah, it costs a little more - but you they would have given us an extension, they would have serviced the skis, and the kids' boots would even have fit, which the SportXX didn't ...) Anyway, the rental shop directly below the lift station did a GREAT job and were generally terrific. They were generous in a bad situation, too (see below).

Got a small Ferienwohnung for 3 nights over the internet. The lady was a French-speaker married to a D-Walliser. The combination of heavy French accent plus Walliserdialekt was a little tricky - but they were nice. In particular, they let us keep the place until Monday afternoon after we'd done skiing. Time to pack and shower. Decent price.

Three national C-Kader men, a few ?-Kader ladies and a gaggle of racer twerps were training. I like that - watching their form is like getting a lesson every time you ride the lift. I appreciated that they only took half of one of the pistes, so that we still had a choice between the two. I do often wish those folks were more approachable - they usually seem nice enough, but they don't mix with the unwashed masses; and I'm always afraid I'll get them out of the zone if I do something crazy like saying good morning. (Maybe I'm just a bit too gaperishly awestruck ...) I also missed the situation you have in the winter where they leave their gates unmanned around lunch time so that the rest of us can try - and realize that it's harder than it looks.

The bad bit: Second day in my son tried out a pair of park skis. On the first run (first lift up) he slipped on some early-morning hardpack, caught an edge, crashed and banged his head pretty good. He felt woozy. The Pisten-people came over for a look and had a heli sent directly in, which flew him directly to Bern. Bummer - though it was absolutely the right call - you don't take chances with brain injuries. Providentially, my wife was already in Bern with my mother-in-law. They met him there. He was very disappointed but he's come through with nothing worse than some whiplash. My daughter and I finished up the time on our own. Nice to have some one-on-one time with her, even though we missed my son.

After my son's crash, we brought his skis down to the shop - but the boots flew with him to Bern in the heli. The Ski shop guy said not to worry about the rent on the boots - just send them when we have time. I appreciated that.

Money (dad and two teenagers):

- ca. 375 Fr. for a flat in Zermatt (3 nights)

- ca. 270 Fr. for ski passes (3 days)

- ca. 250 Fr. for rental equipment (2 pairs of skis, 1 pair of boots)

- ca. 120 Fr. for two 9-Uhr Tageskarten (train trip from Zürich area to Zermatt)

So yes, it was a lot of cash - and we could have avoided the rental fees - but I'm happy we did it!

Mike

12
Cool. Sorry to hear about your son, but glad he was OK. Sounds like you made the most of the weekend anyway.

13
Great review.

How much people were on the runs ("pisten"). Full like in winter?

14
Thanks!

Fewer than in winter - and, well, colorful. My daughter and I discovered five different species:

1) The pro skier. They're up there because they have a career to get off the ground. Stick to themselves and talk about anything but skiing, except with their coaches.

2) The wacky tourist. They just happen to be in the area and suddenly think, "Hey, instead hiking like normal people, let's go ski!" There were two complete beginners from the UK with an instructor. They spent an entire day sliding down head first and admiring the scenery. (Pretty inspirational, actually.)

3) The fanatical skier. Not necessarily very good, but obsessive-compulsive about skiing. Just DYING to talk to the pros about proper hip to knee angles when carving at 63 kph. (Probably the reason the pros seem a little shy and nervous.)

4) The radical park dude. Ride down backwards and turn double back-flip-twisty things while rolling a joint with one hand and filming themselves with the other. Some of the boarders may have thought they were actually on skateboards. Friendlier than the pros - and they get to the slope later.

5) The civilized mountaineer. Hairy people who spend the entire morning skiing up the side of the piste carrying ice picks, ropes, flares, tents and rubber rafts. Presumably, they then disappear into glaciers or climb up sheer rock faces - but I suspect that they actually just ski back down the piste once and go home again.

(All in good fun ... )