animiert magazin nummer19 winter

The earliest skis were nothing more than a way to get from A to B across the snow. Tourism director Frédéric Füssenich and team donned their skis for a trip reliving skiing in its most primeval form along the Urner Haute Route from Andermatt (Realp) to Engelberg. Five days, 5, 482 metres up, 5,939 me- tres down, highest point 3,503 metres above sea level, nor th-east exposure – these char- ac teristics mean that the Urner Haute Route is a lso of ten referred to as the “Skier’s Haute Route”. Ascents in the sunshine and descents

but when the f irst rays of sunshine lit up the majestic mountainsides the tiredness simply vanished and we felt ready to face the day. Our f irst descent through the f inest powder snow cer tain ly delivered, and f rom then on we were raring to go. On ski tours, you have to earn your descents – so shor tly af ter we made it down, we had to put the climbing skins back on our skis to head up to the Winterlücke. Peter, our journa list f rom Stockholm, had on ly limited experience of ski tours, so he quick ly worked up a sweat. But good mountain guides are like shepherds; they We reached the Winterlücke (2,852 metres a.s.l.) at around 10 a.m., and the Göschenen va lley opened up below us. We then whipped of f our skins and tack led the 1,000-metre descent in a state of euphoria. But – whoops! – we weren’ t dea ling with powder snow this time; the wind had formed a thin layer of ice on the sur face of the snow. It was exac tly the kind of snow where you mustn’ t shif t too much weight forwards or backwards, but just stand neatly on your skis. We a ll more or less managed to do that. Snow conditions aside, the landscape was impressive, bringing to mind Tolkien’s Midd le-ear th. If a troll had popped up f rom behind a rock, we wou ld probably just have said a cheer f u l “Hello there!” At Göschnera lp lake, we treated ourselves to a long lunch break in T-shir ts and high spirits, before heading down into the long, narrow Chelena lp va l- ley. Towards the end, there was another tricky ascent – this time to the Chelena lp mountain hut. This lovely self-catering SAC hut was instantly know when one of their charges needs a lit tle ex tra suppor t. So thanks to our mountain guide Markus, ever yone including Peter made it with f ly ing colours.

in the shade, through f resh powder snow, sounded ver y promising to me. The deci- sion to tack le the trail came about through the well- nur tured love-hate relation- ship between Andermat t and

The Urner Haute Route leads from Andermatt to Engel- berg in around five days.

Engelberg. I happened to meet up with my colleague Flurin Riedel, tourism direc tor in Andermat t, at a hotel bar af ter a somewhat uninspiring conference and we were each boasting about the excellent powder snow conditions in our respec tive hometowns. Af ter a few beers, we found out that there is ac tua lly a connec ting route between the two Centra l Swiss locations – the Skier’s Haute Route. With the generous suppor t of the Mammut A lpine School, we inv ited journa lists and photogra- phers f rom Germany, Sweden and Switzerland to tack le this relatively unknown haute route. Our sa les manager Janicke Svedberg joined the ranks, and the f ina l team was formed. We star ted our adventure in Rea lp around midday on a warm day in March. Af- ter a gentle climb of around three hours, we reached the gorgeously situated A lber t Heim mountain hut, run by the Swiss A lpine Club (SAC). The nex t morning was a lot tougher: we set of f at 5 a.m., which was pret ty early,

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