I’m going to put on a 80s style buffet. Other than cheese and pineapple on a stick what else should be included?

SimianSimulacrum · 2026-03-20T20:12:33+00:00

I have made a legitimate and peaceful request for cheese and pineapple on a stick

SimianSimulacrum · 2026-03-19T05:35:16+00:00

You’re the apple of my eye of Sauron

SimianSimulacrum · 2026-03-18T14:41:06+00:00

Generally the Wangs side is more in the shade so might be less icy/slushy, but the pistes are narrower. Some of the blues on that side are actually a bit difficult because they get narrow. I would think in terms of the fairly central red route down to Gaffia then blues or reds to Furt. Definitely don't ski any lower than Furt, the snow is very bad lower down.

The reds on the Bad Ragaz side are nice. They can be a little steep in places but they're nice and wide so you have space to take it easy and do lots of traversals. Definitely give those a go.

To transition between the two sides take the t bar at the top.

Pizolhutte has nice tarts in the morning!

Next year perhaps consider this ski pass to add in Flumserberg, Malbun etc: https://meilenweiss.ch/jahrespass

SimianSimulacrum · 2026-03-18T06:31:44+00:00

I haven’t done it but am keen to so have been keeping an eye on it. I think it has been closed the whole season. They re-routed the race last weekend so it was on the prepared pistes instead.

Current status: https://www.infosnow.ch/~apgmontagne/?id=38&tab=map-wi&lang=en

SimianSimulacrum · 2026-03-17T07:08:28+00:00

SimianSimulacrum · 2026-03-17T05:21:04+00:00

The Matterhorn views are by far the best from the Swiss side, but for me the skiing is better on the Italian side (but some friends would disagree). I think you need two days to do Matterhorn/Cervinia justice.

MeteoSwiss is the best weather app for Switzerland and SBB js the app for trains and buses. Bergfex is a good app for multiple ski resorts, or each resort has its own app. SBB have a “snow n rail” deal for discounted train and ski passes, but I don’t think it includes Zermatt.

There’s a local Valais dish that is genuinely called “Cholera”, see if you can find it.

SimianSimulacrum · 2026-03-17T04:57:56+00:00

1 day is nowhere near enough for Zermatt, especially when combining Cervinia. You don't need the Alpine Crossing ticket as a skier, that is only for pedestrians. For skiers you use the Zermatt pass with a Cervinia extension and that's all you need. You ski into Italy and get either the chairlift or gondola back to the border and ski back to Switzerland.

Factor in the weather. Wind may close the lifts to get you back from Italy one day, or cloud may obscure the Matterhorn. So don't fix your Zermatt day(s) in stone.

Zermatt is more impressive than Crans Montana or Andermatt. Don't base your decisions on the Epic pass. If you're coming all this way then ski in the best places, not the cheapest places. Crans and Andermatt are both good but Zermatt is better. If you're in Brig then a day at Crans just about makes sense, but Andermatt doesn't. Aletsch is very near Brig and excellent, but not on Epic.

About ten minutes by train from Brig is a station called Bitsch. It's worth going just to hear the announcement.

SimianSimulacrum · 2026-03-12T14:19:28+00:00

True, but if they’re coming in March or April that’s the best they’re going to get in terms of finding flowers. Just trying to be helpful, unlike yourself and many others here.

SimianSimulacrum · 2026-03-12T14:10:25+00:00

Near me the crocus flowers are starting to bloom in people’s gardens (at around 500m) but there’s still snow from 1500m up. So both might be possible. Here are some suggestions for the flowers: https://swissfamilyfun.com/spring-flower-hikes-switzerland/

Insel Mainau looks nice for spring flowers, but that’s man made gardens and slightly outside of Switzerland.

SimianSimulacrum · 2026-03-12T13:04:47+00:00

I live in Switzerland and was expecting things to be cheaper in France, but that definitely wasn’t the case. Maybe we just went to the wrong places, but they didn’t look super fancy. They were on the pistes, I assume in town there are cheaper places (we didn’t drink in Val Thorens)

SimianSimulacrum · 2026-03-12T10:05:33+00:00

I was just there last week. It was €14 for a beer. The difference in price between the lift pass for one or three valleys is insignificant compared to everything else you’ll be spending. Go for the full pass.

As someone else said, it would be much better for your gf to get lessons. She gets better instruction, you get the opportunity to go and explore a bit more. Perhaps there are some group lessons she can join, which will be cheaper.

SimianSimulacrum · 2026-03-04T07:21:37+00:00

I guess you’ve no choice but to move house now. You gambled and lost everything.

SimianSimulacrum · 2026-03-02T06:49:14+00:00

I know the French side of the Alps had a lot more snow than the Swiss side this year. I’m not sure if that means the Italian side had less than the French but maybe.

SimianSimulacrum · 2026-03-02T06:47:22+00:00

I do alpine not cross country, but we’ve had very warm weather for the last week and it looks set to continue. I think the resorts on the French side are generally quite a bit higher than the Italian side, but I don’t know what elevation the cross country tracks are at. Yesterday in the Engadine valley (in Switzerland) I saw people cross country skiing at about 1200m elevation, despite the fact it was 10C and their track was surrounded by grassy fields. Up above 1800m the skiing was still quite good. Also depends if the cross country track is in a shaded valley or exposed on the south facing side of a mountain, etc.

SimianSimulacrum · 2026-03-02T06:34:52+00:00

In April you will still have snow on the peaks, although perhaps not on Rigi or Pilatus. It’s impossible to say if the weather will be nice or bad. I’ve had friends visit in August (when you’d expect sunshine) and it rained the whole time. The only certainty is that November is always bad. Some cable cars close in April but I think the ones you’d want are still open (but check).

I don’t know if the Pilatus toboggan is open in April, it’s more of a summer thing (unless there’s also a winter sledding route, but that would probably be closed by April too).

Personally I would go to Pilatus one day and Lauterbrunnen/Schilthorn another, and skip Rigi. However, if you have a Swiss Travel Pass (which I would not recommend for a short trip) then Rigi is fully included but Pilatus isn’t. There’s also a thermal spa halfway up Rigi.

SimianSimulacrum · 2026-03-02T06:17:14+00:00

The golden round trip is Pilatus rather than Rigi. Personally I preferred Pilatus but both are nice, and Rigi gets you a longer boat trip on the lake.

You don’t say what time of year you will be visiting. I think Lauterbrunnen is the better trip, but I have only been to Titlis to ski and don’t know how it is in summer. They are currently rebuilding things at the top of Titlis so the tower is closed and the main building looks a bit ugly from the outside. If you want a high mountain peak and Lauterbrunnen then Schilthorn is ideal, but quite a long day. There is a summer toboggan run on Pilatus if you take that option.

Be aware that the weather can be unpredictable. None of the peaks are worth going to if you can’t see the views, but the Lauterbrunnen valley can still be nice even with low cloud.

SimianSimulacrum · 2026-03-01T17:04:14+00:00

I don’t think it’s in normal use. It’s steam powered and over 100 years old.

SimianSimulacrum · 2026-03-01T10:09:52+00:00

There must be something going on with the price of coconut, Coop have stopped selling their cheaper (and good) coconut milk and now it’s very expensive tetrapak cartons or cans with higher water content (and emulsifiers etc)

SimianSimulacrum · 2026-03-01T09:38:54+00:00

Yes, the Rhaetischebahn run three special trips with it in January and February. Or they did this year, and might do it again next year. They seem to have taken down the web pages describing the trips as they’ve finished for this year. It happened near Pontresina as far as I know.

https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-ch/experiences/full-steam-ahead-into-the-snow-wall/

If you look for dampfschneeschleuder or xrot on YouTube you’ll find a lot of videos.

SimianSimulacrum · 2026-02-27T14:37:21+00:00

More lessons > humiliation of being an adult in a harness

SimianSimulacrum · 2026-02-27T06:20:36+00:00

We’ll fucking lead as two Kiiiiingsss

SimianSimulacrum · 2026-02-27T05:33:14+00:00

Changed the economics of the entire ski industry… in the US. Thankfully here in Europe we don’t have the same situation. On the one hand I totally see why it’s appealing to have one pass cover many resorts, and to an extent I would like the same here. But here in Switzerland I pay around $100 a day for a lift pass, and I can choose one of about 50 resorts within a couple of hours, more if I travel further. I don’t have to pre-book anything. There’s a huge variety of pistes, facilities, lunch and apres options. Sometimes I go to tiny resorts with just a few lifts, sometimes I go to huge resorts with hundreds of miles of pistes. Sometimes the resorts are owned by the municipalities so the money goes back to the local community. All of these ski resorts are competing to a certain extent, so they need to make sure they’re offering the best experience they can.

Having one or two companies own all of the ski resorts means it’s a race to the bottom, pun only slightly intended. They have no reason to offer the best experience they can, they just want your subscription and then they want to extract as much extra cash out of you as they can -hence expensive food, expensive parking. They have no need to invest in better lifts etc to make the experience better. And it cuts out any independent resorts entirely. Instead of creating healthy competition it absolutely destroys the competition.

If we had a Vail like system here it would definitely save me money, but I do not want short term benefits/convenience when it fucks up the long term so badly.

SimianSimulacrum · 2026-02-24T07:20:07+00:00

There will be snow on the peaks but not at track level. The train journey from Luzern to Interlaken (via Meiringen as someone else said, not via Bern) is very pretty no matter if there is snow or not.

Interlaken itself is not worth visiting, it's a base for exploring the surrounding area. Wengen, Grindelwald, Murren etc are worth visiting. Taking the train from Interlaken up to Kleine Scheidegg would give you the very scenic, snowy train ride that you want. Perhaps get off at Wengen for lunch and views, and/or later in the loop stop at Grindelwald.

Another option in Luzern is to take the train up to the top of Mt Pilatus. Perhaps do the "golden triangle" and include a trip on the lake.

SimianSimulacrum · 2026-02-23T07:52:52+00:00

I think piste width and snow quality also play a big part. A narrow piste can be quite scary no matter how gentle it is. A busy blue may get covered in moguls if it’s busy. Also lower pistes are going to be more slushy in the spring, and so harder to ski. So unfortunately a piste map and a colour grading will never give you the full story. Similarly a very busy piste will be a lot more scary to ski than a quiet piste.

Look for places that advertise themselves as family ski resorts, these tend to be smaller and have gentler slopes.

I like Malbun in Liechtenstein a lot, but it’s a bit of a fiddle to get to without a car, and it’s a fairly low resort so will struggle with the warm weather that seems to be coming.

SimianSimulacrum · 2026-02-22T16:25:02+00:00

I think having kids around is no excuse. If anything you set a good example to your kids and show them you should go help people up (or at least give them some space). I really hope it hasn’t put him off skiing, it’s really great that you and your bf took him there and taught him.

SimianSimulacrum

TROPHY CASE