Permanent Tourist

Cross-country skiing

Individual photographs, Life • Wednesday, 20th January, 2010

Jo learned to ski in Scotland when she was younger. After living here for several years now, she decided that it was about time to give cross-country skiing another try and give me my first shot at trying, as I’m not keen on regular skiing and had never tried cross-country before.

So, we headed to Saas-Grund by train via the Lötschberg tunnel and Visp, taking the post bus up into the mountains via the curving main road, taking in new views and pledging to return under our own steam at some point to take photos. The weather wasn’t ideal but it was a good day to visit; the valley was fairly quiet and most of the visitors to the region were up amongst the higher peaks, skiing at Saas-Fee or Tamatten. We had the cross-country track to ourselves, letting us go at our own speed and enjoy the route alongside the river, weaving between trees and past caravans buried in snow. (Parts of the route must, in summer, be meadows filled with campsites.) A hot flask of Ovo helped us on our way and after a couple of kilometres, we stopped for the photo above, then turned around and headed back to Saas-Grund and our bus home, with aching legs, looking forward to our next trip.

View most recent articles