Today was the big day I had been looking forward to more than anything else. A friend had clued me in about "extreme sledding" in Switzerland. I had no idea this was a thing, but it was definitely a thing! I did my research, reserved 5 sledges in Wengen, which was up the canyon from Interlaken, and was ready to hit the trails today.
We were not the only ones hitting the trails. The wonderful thing about hiking, skiing, sledding or generally traveling around Switzerland is that the public transit can get you there easily. We walked 2 blocks from our lodging to the train station, transferred to a regional train and rode up the canyon with several hundred others who were set for winter fun. Most were carrying skis, but some had sleds too.
Our first stop was Lauterbrunnen. I was here a few summers ago and hiked to the waterfall. We didn't do that today, but could see it powering off the cliff not far from the train station.
It was a sunny morning with a blue sky, couldn't ask for better weather! Temp about 40 at Lauterbrunnen.
We transferred to a cog rail in Lauterbrunnen and rode up to Wengen. I had hiked here last time I visited and had in mind running the sled run that came down into the town, but as you can tell, there was not a lot of snow to be seen in town, so I wasn't sure where we were going to sled... fortunately the guy at the company where we rented the sleds had good advice for us. He said the Wengen run was technically open, but was an ice rink (sheer sheet of ice). The better spot was to take the Mannlichen gondola up to the top of Mannichen and to sled down the backside toward Grindelwald. Then to loop back to the top again. Come back down the Wengen gondola at the end of the day to return the sleds.
We were off. First stop, the gondola to Mannlichen. Us and 50 of our good friends crammed in like cattle and were at the top in minutes.
I'm a broken record at this point...it was stunningly beautiful. I had to keep telling myself to just put the camera away and have a good time sledding. Jungfrau is just below the globe of the sun on the left.
We had a little bit of trouble figuring out where the sledding trail started. Unlike ski slopes in the US that are clearly manufactured and marked, everything here was largely above tree line with wide open slopes. We eventually figured it out, sat down on our sleds and took the first part of the slope (it flattened out between the lifts and we had to hike a short distance). We looked pretty ridiculous. The only instructions we got were - put your left foot down to turn left and your right foot down to turn right. Simple, right?
The sleds were a simple design with a fabric sling seat (complete with several drain holes in the center for when you got snow under you and it started to melt - helped keep our behinds a little drier). Some of the other designs we saw simply had a wooden seat. We discovered this was especially beneficial when going over bumps - the cushion helped! The runners were covered with hard plastic that made a zingy noise when you got going fast. The rental guy gave us two warnings - keep a hold of the strap. If you fall off and let go, the sled may go on without you. And don't leave the sleds alone - they are expensive! Noted.
It was honestly a little distracting to have such an amazing view all around while trying to stay on the trail.
The red arrow shows the Mannlichen gondola. The green S shows the sled run we took on the other side of the mountain.
This is a view of a small part of the sled run from the gondola. There were a good number of people sledging. Many with young kids either riding double, or controlling their own sledges with a great deal more ease than we were. We eventually figured out a few tricks by watching others, but it was a physical sport and tiring. It was just the pace I wanted instead of skiing. Still a chance for injury and soreness, but less likely than skiing and carrying the sled was way easier than lugging skis while wearing ski boots.
You can see from my hiking app that the path we travelled was 3.7 miles long with an elevation change of 2,300 ft. It took us about 30 mins to run down and about the same to go back up again. Our fastest speed according to my app was 6 mph, which felt crazy fast in some places.
View of the Jungfrau observatory from the top of Mannchilinn. There were a lot of people on the mountain, but the runs were so spread out it never felt super crowded. The waits at the gondola were less than 5 mins each time. We did a total of 3 runs (the first took us a while to get the hang of it, then we were flying)
Top of Mannlichen gondola. Looking down at the snow fences. These are very visible from below and when walking the Wengen trail in the summer). Obviously not much danger of avalanches today.
I couldn't stop taking pictures at the end of the day.
This is looking across the canyon to Murren with Lauterbrunnen in the valley.
This guy was in a full cow suit. Apparently there were several other cows and unicorns, but this is the one I could photograph without being obvious.
The little kid next to him mom (green jacket) was only about 2 (maybe younger). He was on his own sled and being towed behind a parent (on skis). They start kids very young on the winter sports here. No wonder the 8 year olds were flying past us on the sledding slope.
At the end of the day, we took our sleds back down to the rental place in Wengen and boarded the train back to town. The train was absolutely packed, not even any standing room left in the end. I would not have wanted to be the person cleaning the floors in the evening after all those ski boots tromped on and off. I was so glad that all I had on were snow boots. I can barely walk in ski boots, let along commute from town to the slope wearing them!
No comments:
Post a Comment