Interlaken...

ShadyHillGroup

ShadyHillGroup

Active member
Hey guys, im going out to iterlaken, switzerland for 2 weeks in feb. I know its a tourist city and 45 minutes from the mt, but ive searched the internet and all the mts websites are god aweful. Can anyone tell me average snowfall, what set up im gunna wanna bring, is it worth jacking my dads AT set up, whats the deal with BC, park any good? that junk
 
i went to interlaken last year for spring break. It was a pain getting to the mountain every morning, but it allowed a few more minutes of sleep and to work on the hangover. There are three main mountains, all of which have decent terrain. While i was there i really didnt see a park at all. I think it might have been at the one mountain which i didnt go to. There are some really sick lines in bounds, but didnt go out of bounds since there was a ton of snow while i was there and the avalanche warnings were high. It was really easy to find some really good lines and plenty of fresh tracks.
 
I went to Interlaken for Spring break a few years back. Basically you should only ski at Murren-Schilthorn..don't waste your time with the other resorts, at least that is what we found..it could be different now. Murren-Schilthorn is really high alpine, tons of awesome, steep wide-open lines that never get skied because of avy warnings and europeans that never ski off piste. Definitely take beacons if you have them, and be very careful otherwise. Our first day, there was nothing fresh, but it was cool to get up there and explore. The lift systems are so different..trains, cog rails, weird cable cars on rails..stuff like that. The second day it rained and was windy and snowing up at the top so the mountain was closed. The third day we got to Murren (the town on top of the tram, but below the lifts, to find that only the bottom part was open, and it wasn't spectacular so we hit the park that they had. They had a few jumps setup right next to an outdoor bar and halfpipe..was really cool..Then, they opened up the top after lunch. The storm of the previous day hadn't brought that much new snow, but because all the lines are so exposed, it had winblown everything into an amazingly soft layer..we basically had fresh tracks down 1500 ft vertical open faces all afternoon..It was probably really dangerous in retrospect and I wish I'd had a beacon. But it was spectacular....ski-movie (warren miller) quality runs..

The next few days we got really good storms. It was pretty scary skiing in the storms out on the exposed faces. There were some great cornice drops in strange places, so look around for stuff to jump off. That night, the storm brought over a foot of snow so the next day we stayed down in the lower elevations under the quad chair that goes up from the village and skiied this really steep ravine that piles of powder had built up in.. It was great overall.

And..don't forget Balmers...the most famous hostel in Europe with a great bar..
 
From interlaken two different mountain areas are close. One is Meiringen-Hasliberg http://www.alpenregion.ch/winter/ which has good backcountry and a small, but good park from the beginning of january. The other one is the Jungfrau region http://www.jungfrauwinter.ch/pages/english/JWR/JWR_index.php. There you really have to check out Muerren-Schilthorn. In my opinion the best backcountry in the region. First, the resort above Grindelwald is very sunny and has a park and the only halfpipe of the area. The other two resorts Maennlichen and Kleine Scheidegg are really impressive from the panorama, but are a litlle bit too flat I think.

If you have some specific questions contact me. I live in the area.
 
i skiied muerren for 6 years, and i can tell you, its fuckin bomber. The town is awesome, the skiing is fucking beautiful. Bring avvy gear and some local knowledge and drop off the back of the schilthorn. that, or stare at the Eiger across the valley.
 
Don't listen to the guy above who says you should only hit Murren.

It's Berner Oberland, so the average snowfall is pretty high for the Alps, around 700 cm per year.

You will need a car or a train pass.

Basically you have access to two of the best parks in Europe. The easier park is in Adelboden, Gran Masta Park, you can check it out athttp://www.realboarder.ch/gmp/ The park is shaped to perfection like a swiss watch and Adelboden is a massive resort if you want to kill some slopes. The gnarlier park is in Meiringen-Hasliberg, one of Europes best kept secrets. Check it out at www.freestyle-park.ch Meiringen-Hasliberg also has some easy access back country and the resort is so unknown nothing really gets tracked.

For riding halfpipe you go to Grindelwald-First, the halfpipe is only shaped on Saturdays so otherwise don't bother. From First there are also some excellent hikes just look at the map it's pretty obvious.

To get vertical you go to Murren, if snow cover allow, it has an 8000 ft. vertical and the lines are insane.

All these resorts are within 40 minutes from Interlaken.

And if you want to eat more pow pow you can go a little bit further (bout 1 hour) to Engelberg they get about 1000 cm per year. And if you wanna see something special head to Melchsee-Frutt, also about 1 hour, it's so tiny basically they have Fruttpark, a chairlift, and a bunch of back country. But it's sweet because tourism does not exist in this spot.

 
Obviously hit a park or pipe if you see one, but don't choose a resort in Europe just for a park or pipe. You don't need the tallest mountains in the world to have a good park.
 
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