Europe Stop #3 - Engelberg, Switzerland

J Dogg — Tue, 31 May 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Rating

What do proper catholic schoolgirls, 7-11, death, and Engelberg, Switzerland have in common? Well not much, but they all have something to do with heaven... if you include rhyming. Heaven has always sounded pretty awesome, so we at doglotion.com were keen to get a taste of it. Death didn't sound very fun, convenient stores are a dime a dozen, and there's already plenty of websites featuring catholic schoolgirls, uh, so we're told. So with Engelberg Titlis ski resort boasting the motto "It's Heaven", it was an obvious stop on our Europe Tour.

Directly translating to 'Angel Mountain', Engelberg started as a quiet monastery way back in 1120. Those monks sure know how to pick a good location, and had the valley to themselves for a good 700 years. Eventually the outside world caught on to their secret, and the tourist potential grew. Ski lifts were built there in the early 1900's, so the 'Mountain' part of Angel Mountain could finally be enjoyed. Rotating cable-car anyone?

Martin Jonassen trying his best to track out the resort in mid winter. Photo: Johan Hellman

Skip ahead a century, and Engelberg has just burst onto the freeskiing scene as a new big mountain mecca, and for good reason. With cliff walls of any size stretching in every direction, it's a meat-chucker's paradise. In addition to the steady crew of Swedes who migrate south to Engelberg each winter, the resort has become a new bombing range for film crews and pro-skiers from every corner of the globe. And for those who really like airtime, there's so many huge cliffs that Shane McConkey and friends can do ski base-jumping laps in the middle of the resort! Just one more reason to never follow tracks in Europe.

Kristijan Thorstensen probably smiling, if we could see his face. Photo: Johan Hellman

Daniel Furberg gettin' the goods before we arrive. Photo: Johan Hellman

Somebody in the monastery must have been very good this year, as local shredders were skiing deep fresh powder all season long. We on the other hand forgot to say our prayers, and rolled into town just after the wintery madness had ended. Meeting up with Swedish imports Christian Bjork and Daniel Furberg, we once again began a week of 'shoulda been here last week' tales that left us hungry for more. From lines like "last week you couldn't even see those park benches" to "Jamie Pierre jumped that big one, that huge one, and that even huger one", we knew it was a good year to have called Engelberg your home.

Skier: Sebastian Percival. Photo: Johan Hellman

But even in the wake of the big springtime melt, we still had some spring freshies in the forecast and some epic skiing ahead. It was still winter up at the 3000+ meter peak of Titlis, yielding 1200 meters of leg-burning fresh lines to mid mountain before the slush kicked in. And now that the resort wasn't littered with chest deep powder stashes, the Swedes finally took the chance to hike and explore Engelberg's more obscure terrain. Short traverses and knife edge walks led to some pretty sweet stashes, but the real gem was still to come: the Galtenberg couloir.

Jamie Bond above the Galtenberg, wondering why there's nothing between him and the village, 7000ft below.

Dropping in off the 10,623 ft summit of Titlis, the line bombs down a wide open powder field hanging above a massive cliff wall, before skirting the cliff and weaving into the Galtenberg couloir. From there you pinball your way down a few thousand more feet of ominous cliff walls before being spat out into a farmer's field, over 7000 feet below your start point. And if that ain't good enough, a walk to the nearest street found us sipping beers at a small restaurant before the next bus whipped us back to town, and 2-for-1 beers at the Yucatan Bar ensued once again.

Does it get any better than that? Well, apparently it was better all season long, but we weren't complaining. While the 4000 feet of unremitting pow runs on the 'Laub' would have been incredible this season, the 180ft cliff drops can wait untill we return next year. After all, death still doesn't sound very fun, no matter how many schoolgirls or Slurpees we might find in heaven.

Jamie Bond wishing he'd know about this cliff while he was above it.

This was 7000ft of blessed blower powder, shortly before us sinners arrived.

Mathieu Miller discvers the perks of spring skiing.

DETAILS

Engelberg Titlis ski resort is in central Switzerland, an easy train ride from Zurich, via Luzerne. If this season was anything like the years to come, you won't want to miss this spot.

For more info, visit their website at www.engelberg.ch. All the Swedes and anyone on a budget will stay at the Hotel Bellevue. It's located right across from the train station, and has cheap rates (for Switzerland) and includes breakfast.

For 2-for-1 apres, the Yucatan is on the main floor of the Hotel Bellevue, and the Eden Bar is the other hot spot across the street. Doglotion

Skiers: Jamie Bond, Andre Charland, Mathieu Miller, Les Manley

Photographers: Andre Charland, Johan Hellman. For more of Johan's photos, visit his site at www.johanhellman.com

Locals logged so much airtime this winter that Christian Bjork doesn't even care if there's a landing patch below the clouds. Photo: Johan Hellman

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Europe Stop #3 - Engelberg, Switzerland