Saas-Fee (pronounced SAHS-FAY) is very high and its glaciers enable skiing into the summer. We expected better snow conditions than we found in Interlaken – and we found them. As usual I only took my camera with me on one day of skiing, but we saw plenty of scenery on the slopes.
The Fee Glacier, one of several glaciers in the area, is in the background. This is the general area where we will be skiing.
Click for a trail map to get an overview of the area.
Like the Interlaken area, Saas-Fee has a funicular. It runs within a tunnel to a revolving restaurant below the Allalin peak.
Above the restaurant there was a rope tow to the glacier.
A cross-section of the Allalin glacier showing its many layers. The small blip on the left is a skier, which provides a bit of scale. The glacier was huge! I wonder what it looks like now (2023).
The view from the top of the rope tow. According to the note on my slide, the peak is Alphubel (4206 meters / 13,800 feet).
The glacial ice is a lovely blue.
Skiing down from Allalin.
The
higher peak in the picture on the right is the
Dom. It's
the highest mountain (14,911') contained completely within Switzerland
and the third highest in the Alps.
Getting a bit closer to the glacier.
Although the marked trails were actually on the glacier, there didn't seem to be any worry about potential crevasses. We weren't tempted to ski off the trail because the conditions looked treacherous.
Break time! It was a long way down from the top. We still have a third of the way to go. The vertical on this trail is 1700m (almost 5600ft).
Those were the days when we could have a beer and still have the energy to ski the rest of the way down!
We're within sight of town.
I'm not sure why we never went back to Switzerland to ski (except that it is more expensive than other places). We really enjoyed this trip and this area.
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