It is a dark, dark day when a week goes by in the heart of winter in Switzerland and not one little snowflake has fallen. Sigh…. However! Snow is forecast for Thursday and you will be pleased to hear that with true British grit we have sought out the best snow-kiting terrain in the area and kept our Big Blue punters very happy and sleeping soundly at the end of the day. Luckily, the various snow-kiting areas are very high up the mountains so the snow is still in good condition, bad news for those families in the resorts who have booked a weeks holiday and were hoping to spend all day, everyday on the slopes, icy and painful!
At the moment we have a gentleman called Andrew out with us for three weeks. He came out last year when we were renting a chalet up in a little hamlet called Hasel and is now getting used to staying in the hotel. When we met for a drink on the first evening of his arrival downstairs, he stated that he may have to move rooms due to there being a lifesize monkey painted onto his cupboard door and it was already freaking him out somewhat. Ah, the Hawaiian room! Now moved into one of the more recently refurbished rooms, he can sleep easier at night.
There is a snow kiting area just above a town called Visp, around half an hour from Brig. We headed there at the end of last week with the hope of making the most of a particular wind direction that doesn’t work so well up on the Simplon Pass ( our local spot ). After a chair lift, a t-bar (don’t make the mistake (I won’t name names) of letting go of the t-bar half way up thinking that you have reached the top, blonde!), and a short snowboard / ski you arrive at this huge open plain that sits right on top of the mountain and is absolutely breathtaking. Unfortunately the wind refused to blow so after a couple of hours of enjoying the view we headed back to Simplon for the afternoon.
We had a fantastic day yesterday up at Simplon. A steady wind blew all day allowing Andrew and ourselves to enjoy the terrain on 9 – 11 metre kites. Pascal (Swiss Snowkiting) let us borrow some deckchairs so as you can see from the photo all we are missing is three beers and the image would have been perfect! We all felt pretty tired after spending the whole day in the sunshine but we stopped and had a drink at the new restaurant that has opened just across from the hotel. Stunning views over the entire valley, amazing local red wine (Dole) and raclette (melted cheese, potatoes and a small side of tomatoes, onion and gerkin) for only 7 francs (£3.50)! Very dangerous. Goodbye New Year Resolutions 2011!
Special Offer of Half Price Rooms for January still applies so get in touch!
Whoah! Yeah, they look cute doing those things. I really want to try flying my kite with snow. It really looks cool. Nice pictures.
By: Ozone Kites on January 24, 2011
at 3:48 am