A quick ski trip to Engelberg

Took a quick break to get some pre-Christmas skiing in. Early am flight to Zurich, with plenty of time to get an afternoon on the slopes. Except for the plane being an hour late departing, traffic jams in Zurich and fog all the way. We gave up and took a long late lunch instead.
The World Cup Ski Jumping circuit was in town for the weekend, so the resort was quite busy, and together with a Christmas Fair in the centre, it felt very festive.

Strangely, all the shops in the village closed up at 5pm on the Saturday, ignoring the crowds staring through their windows.

Engelberg is situated at around 1000 metres, rising to 3028 metres with glacier skiing available. Access to the glacier is via a revolving cable car, which gives great views. It rotates quite slowly, and I did wonder if it had a spin cycle.

The glacier had the best snow, so was pretty busy at the weekend. It was really great to get onto well prepared glacier slopes, really early in the day, and be able to go as fast as I can, with no-one else about. On the lower slopes, conditions were quite variable, with rocks, ice and bare patches to catch the unwary. Our skis needed a full service and repair after three days in these conditions. We braved the two days of fog, which made the slopes quite challenging. The resort had also started their snowmaking cannons, which added to the fog effect.

Our journey home was also eventful, as our plane was cancelled, we were put onto an earlier one, which was then delayed, and flew into a fogbound London Heathrow, where we waited ages to disembark, initially waiting for a stand, then waiting for a bus, followed by chaos in the baggage hall due to a machinery breakdown earlier in the week.