March 22, 2009
"Melchsee-Frutt Skiing down the Alps"
After three nordic skis in the Alps, my legs were nice and warmed up from their cramped desk position over the past week, so it was time to hit the slopes of Melchsee-Frutt, in the Alps between Luzern and my friend's home on the lake in Sachseln. It would be an early morning, in our attempt to beat the crowds that would surely hit the sunny slopes by mid day, so up at 6:30am I was, a quick coffee, toast, and naturally, cheeeeese, and Ihsan and I were driving past farms, climbing steadily into the mountains to meet Anddrea Baettig, another Swiss fishing friend who I'd last met at our place in Alaska two years earlier. Andy was an alpine skier, Ihsan was happy to hang out in the mountains, at the various day lodges having coffee and reading, so he had paired the two of us up for the day, to ski in this incredible place.
From the parking lot we had a short uphill walk to our first mode of transport on the slopes, a Gondola with room for just 4 skiers, and a rack on the outside for your skis. The Gondola lifted us up and over a knob of the mountain, delivering us to the higher base of the ski area. From there we'd ski down a short hill as we said Ciao till coffee time to our friend Ihsan, and grab on to a steel cable that would pull us across a wide flat expanse along the shore of a frozen lake, already welcoming ice fishermen for the day.
Our third mode of transportation would be a high speed quad lift, taking us up to one of several high points, backed by an amazing abyss of a canyon. We'd ski on this side I hoped, and sure enough we did. Andy was a very competent Swiss skier, but not the least bit in a hurry nor a daredevil, so it was a perfect match for me who was admittedly a little apprehensive to be skiing here in the Alps for the first time, when I'm lucky to ski alpine in Alaska maybe once every few years.
This was cool, overwhelming in a ear-to-ear grinning kind of way, wow, I was skiing in the Alps, a real lifetime dream come true, and thanks especially to Ihsan for his friendship and generosity in making it all come true. He had found skis for me from a friend who owned a sport shop with rentals in the village next to his, and he had found a perfect partner, Andy, who would make the day a very enjoyable experience from start to finish. It turns out that Andy had worked in Bern at Swisscom for a half dozen years or so, commuting from his home in Luzern by train every day, but was now working for Emmi, manufacturers of great Swiss dairy & cheese products, like the fondue we buy back home in Alaska.
Andy and I checked in on Ihsan at the first day lodge, where we'd left him, and joined him for coffee and cake. We made a plan to meet at another day lodge, just up the hill 100 yards, to have lunch outside on the terrace, where we could listen to live music, check out the reindeer that were hanging out there, and kick back in the sun for a break. Ihsan ordered Schnitzel for lunch for me, along with fries and a hot potato dish of some sort. It was all excellent of course, along with a bottle of Apfel Wein, and I couldn't have been better taken care of.
More to tell, standby as I rest my fingertips....
