30seconds.blogs.com: Family Ski Day at Engelberg, Nidwalden, Switzerland

(David in black, Jason in black/white/gray, and Emily in white/brown/pink coats, are all in each of the above photos, if you look carefully!)

Today we harnessed our car with the ski rack, loaded it up, and drove one hour south into the Swiss Alps. Engelberg in the Kanton of Obwalden was our destination. Breaking out of the soupy fog, which was so thick along the lowland highways that it deposited itself on the windshield, we parked and thankfully discovered it was a lot warmer in Engelberg this time than last year (only -2C/28F at the bottom, instead of -11C/12F). No need for handwarmers today. We were toasty warm, even several cable-car rides and 2000m/6,500ft higher up on the Titlis.

Engelberg/Titlis is known for its Rot-Air cable car, which is cylindrical and rotates in one full turn during the ride to the top of the Klein Titlis mountain (the first such a contraption in Europe). But before we even got to this fun one, we rode two other cable cars. The first was unremarkable, a six-seater. But oh, the second, oh my. It was a large standing-only cable car, into which piled WAY more people than there should have been. There was no attendant at any of these rides, and so after we got in, thinking we'd be the last to fit, everyone behind us just shoved on in, and more, and more, until I had a slight claustrophobic attack. I couldn't move my arms, and if I lifted a foot off the ground, my balance didn't shift in the slightest, because I was unable to fall over in any direction. I prayed and reminded myself that there was plenty of air, no reason to panic, I could breathe just fine, and we'd all alight at the top. Fortunately, the kids did fine, and we all survived. But I wouldn't particularly want to repeat that experience.

We got to start skiing - such great snow!!! Soft, powdery, forgiving, luxurious. Wow. And sunshine! Beautiful views and clarity, until later in the day, when the clouds came in and visibility got very low in the gathering dark at 3pm!

We didn't run into Jason's economics teacher, who said he'd be skiing at the same resort today, and we also failed to meet up with some friends who, it ended up, were skiing on the other side of the valley. Nonetheless, we had a nice lunch at the top of the Titlis - some good pasta, "Rindsfleisch mit Pommes und Krautbutter" for Emily (steak & fries with herb butter), and Sacher Torte slices for dessert. Just before lunch, I slipped down the the Ice Cave. I had wanted to visit it last year, but no one else did, so I skipped it. This time I was determined not to be deprived again, since I was so close. While the rest of the family went to the cafeteria at level 5 of the cable car building, I discovered entry was actually free to the room carved out of the inside of the glacier, accessible at level 1. I strode through the icy hallways in just a couple of minutes, and made it back to the restaurant before my co-skiers had gotten to the check-out. Great timing. I am no longer curious about the place - yes, it's a "150 meter long tunnel down to 20 meter unter the glacier's surface" - but little else. If you want an impressive ice cave, visit the Mer de Glace in Chamonix, in the French Alps. They know how to do it (it's like a whole house carved out of ice, with sofas, bathrooms, etc.). Still, this ice cave did have interesting red lighting (see below), and Swiss musical chants filling the corridors. One could even pick what sort of music one wanted - except a couple entered just before me and I didn't want to cancel out their choice (even if I could have; not sure about that). What would you have picked? I think I was listening to a Swiss folk/choir selection. I wasn't even sure what most of the other flags are, other than China - so I just used this really cool flag finder - you can tell it how many stripes, what color, etc, and it comes up with your choices! So in addition to Switzerland and China, it appears that we have India, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Thailand (apologies to friends from those place, for not knowing). Such an interesting selection! Is that where they have determined the most tourists come from, or is that just where the best music comes from, or the music that most people like or want to hear? The question is, how many people know all those flags, who come through? Fascinating. I love geography.

After lunch, a nice lady from Nebraska took our family's picture with the great view. I got a lucky shot of one of the black birds flying around over the drop-off:

Then Emily surprised us with her courage in deciding to take a "very difficult" slope down so we could all stay together. The color coding was "yellow" - which is sort of strange-sounding to me. Bumpy, ungroomed mogul runs are labelled as red trails, then comes black, which I guess is steeper. Yellow is described rather confusingly this way:

"In recent years, many resorts reclassified some black slopes to yellow slopes. This signifies a skiroute, an ungroomed and unpatrolled slope which is actually off-piste skiing in a marked area."

I mean, how can it be "off-piste" if it's marked? Isn't that an oxymoron? In any case, it was the only way down without riding the gondola back down again, so Emily said she was game. And she did it! Only one spectacular fall, which I prayed over from down the slope (David was near her). She did great. The snow was deliciously powdery and thick (except a few spots where the glacier's sheer ice poked through for whatever reason - wow, impressive, thick, hard stuff). Quite steep, bumpy, and deep. Fun! Very wide, so not scary to me, although the visibility was getting quite challenging. Time to go home soon after that.

Jason and David, up above Emily, on the steep slope.

I loved this massive rock face - you can only see a part of it, b/c it was way too big:

I also love the sign below: on the version at the right, it says, "Danger of falling" and in both versions it has a stick figure guy falling upside down off the edge of the mountain, having lost a ski and both poles. I try to stay safely away from these.

The fog into which we descended in the valley at the end of the day:

On the drive up in the car, I had tried to name all the Swiss cantons and their capitals. I couldn't think of the final (26th) canton (it was Fribourg that escaped me), and I only got 16 of the capitals. But I crammed a little again after that and hopefully will do better next time. Then, on the way home, David and I tried to list the 50 U.S. states - and Utah was the hold-out this time. Then I attempted to name the state capitals, and my success rate was 36/50. It's sad to say that for four states, I couldn't think of a SINGLE large town in the whole state, never mind the capital. Not telling which! Then there was the state for which I named a capital city in a different state. Oops. Well, it was good review for someone who grew up outside the U.S. and has now again lived abroad for 4.5 years. I'll have to get out our U.S. puzzle map and do it again.

Thanks be to God for a great family day in His mountains, with the gift of fantastic snow, sunshine, no injuries, and fears conquered.