Blog posts about snow at Permanent Tourist

When the temperature of snow is above -10°C, it melts slightly when you crush it by walking on it. At temperatures below -10°C, the ice crystals are crushed, which makes a squeaking sound.

Strolling in a winter wonderland on an unusual Christmas Day.

Photos from a wander in the winter sunshine in 2019.

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Hiking in the snow between Le Noirmont and Le Creux-des-Biches in the Swiss Jura mountains.

Note to self. When the cloud is low, the snow is falling gently and the village paths are empty, get out and enjoy it.

For my first blog post in review of 2019, I decided to pick out a few of my favourite wintry photographs from last year in Switzerland, which show the kind of classical landscape photography I love.

I visit the wintry mountain-top viewpoint at Männlichen, above Wengen and Grindelwald, to photograph the annual combined Patrouille Suisse/SWISS airliner air show.

Dramatic, ice-clad peaks in the Swiss Bernese Oberland.

Filming and photographing at the mountain-top restaurant made famous by James Bond.

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Aerial sequences of the quiet and peaceful Diemtigal Valley in Switzerland.

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I love the alpine Susten Pass road and the mountain scenery there, particularly the area around the Steingletscher glacier and nearby hotel. It’s been a long time since I’ve visited in spring – before the upper reaches of the road have been cleared of snow – so Jo and I took a drive and walked […]

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The best time to visit the mountain villages near our home is between the tourist seasons, when many hotels are closed and the valleys, cable cars and mountain cableways are much quieter. We drove up to Grindelwald shortly before Christmas, to visit the mountain restaurant at Schreckfeld, where deep snow and temperatures as low as […]

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It had been a beautifully sunny start to the day, but by the time we’d driven up to Grindelwald, the clouds had taken over and the temperature had plummeted. We had to use a plastic loyalty card to scrape the ice from the inside of the cable car window, and the fondue at the mountain […]

Time-lapse video of the cable-car ride from Lauterbrunnen to Grütschalp in Swiss canton Bern.

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A testing and rewarding hike from the peat moorland of Lombachalp to two summits on the vertiginous Brienzergrat ridge.

I was half an hour early for an appointment at the Spiez council offices this morning, so I went for a brief stroll through the woods to the top of the vineyards while I was waiting. It was so peaceful, with fresh powdered snow slipping silently from the trees and only two or three other people there […]