Skiing in Wengen/Touring in Vienna-Part I

The skiing highlight of the trip was having a wine and cheese party/lunch at the Piz Gloria, a revolving restaurant sitting on top of a mountain. From the top of the Schilthorn, at almost 9,842 ft (3,000 meters) altitude, you can admire Switzerland’s most breathtaking 360º alpine panorama. The Schilthorn was transformed into the "Piz Gloria" for the filming of James Bond.s "On Her majesty’s Secret Service." Dramatic views of snow-covered mountain peaks and the modern aerial cable way gliding all the way to the mountain summit impose an awesome background.

This was taken from the Tram on the way up. It was a clear day as you can see and the views were great. To the left you can see the way to ski down, which I did (twice). Most took the tram back down.

We stayed for 2-3 hours.

The first two days we were at Wengan, it was warm and sunny, near perfect ski conditions. One day it snowed. We got wet, couldn't see but somehow managed to find a family owned restaurant/bar near the bottom of the mountain where we hunkered down for the rest of the afternoon. Overall though, the ski part of the trip was less than perfect. Walking, cog trains, buses, and trams were all involved to get to all three skiing areas. Toting skies and poles and walking in ski boots takes energy best saved for skiing. The buses were crowded and difficult to be comfortable on. Although trains were on time, we always seemed to just miss one requiring a wait of 10 minutes or longer. Our hotel was up a steep hill and the food at dinner time was not good and their internet charges were ridiculous. I never carry my skies to Europe finding it much more accommodating to rent the latest new skies to try them out and also to avoid the problem of having too many bags for one person. Luckily the rental shop had overnight storage of skis and boots (with driers) near the tram and cog train. At a fee of course.

Wengan is the home of one of the World Cup Downhill races (the Lauberhorn), and a couple of weeks before our arrival, Bode Miller won the event catapulting him to the top of the World Cup overall standings. But of course, no one in the United States would ever know that. The town of Wengan sponsored a GS race while we were there with the start of the race beginning at the Lauberhorn start gate.


The picture on the
left is the Lauberhorn course with the Eiger Mt. in the background .

Three of us signed up for the race and we came out of the start gate, like the one to the right . Our course ended at the first bend to the right. We finished 4th, 5th, and 6th with me at 4th, just out of medal range.

Later as we went down the rest of the Lauberhorn course, there was a speed trap I jumped into my best tuck and I went through it at 83 kph which converts to 50 mph. I was flying.

Most of the people in the trip went on to Vienna. See part II.