2009 - D T Price - the DHO

D.H.O Spring Tour 2009
Jane McCormick
Downhill only Journal 2009
Drawn by our love of skis and the mountains, the D.H.O Spring Tour Group comprising Annabel Cameron, Ian
Carmichael, Trish Dale, Phil Gepfert, Sally Ireland, Sue Jacoby, Jane & Ian McCormick, Clive Mitchell, John Rigby
and John Wright, , , , and Ian Murray (for just two days), together with our guide Adolph Schlunegger and aidede-camp
Rene Seiler, gathered at Gsteig on Saturday 21st March.
We stayed in a charming chalet style hotel with rather small
rooms and enjoyed their speciality Raclette the first evening,
although it did sit rather heavily on our travelling tums.
Unfortunately, we were without Annabel for a few days as her
son broke his arm just as she was leaving, and Ian Carmichael’s
skis which he had left in Gstaad..
Sunday
Breakfast at 8.00am while Adolph went off to Gstaad to rescue
Ian’s skis. We set off in convoy to Diablerets where we took a
telecabine,T bar and poma to Isenau. Two very icy runs on the
piste to get our ski legs and then “Off Piste”. Adolph found
some beautiful pieces of powder despite the snow conditions
elsewhere. We had lunch in the sun by an old cowshed and
then on with the skins. A 1½ hour walk up following Adolph,
who cut our first and last “Paddy Hollington corner” at one
nasty point. We arrived at Stuedelistand, had a tea break and
then skied down finding more powder. Rene, distracted by Ian
McC’s cry of “ptarmigan” (as he near skied over a brace), fell
and injured his shoulder quite badly but bravely skied on. We
had a long run out on a path leading to a final icy road. John
Rigby’s hips held out and Sally, Sue and Jane’s knees survived.
That evening, the hotel gave us a delicious dinner overseen by an
over-enthusiastic (with the wine) waiter and his small, pompous
miniature poodle who sat in a shopping basket. Exhausted by
this gastronomic effort the hotel staff promptly went on holiday
for 2 days, leaving us the back-door keys and instructions to go
to the hotel down the road for our meals.
Monday
Trekked down the road for breakfast at 7.30 am. Storm
warnings so Adolph cancelled previous plans. At 8.30 we set off
for Reusch and by lifts various reached Sex Rouge that failed
to live up to it’s name! We had a couple of runs on a T-bar
with horrid snow and poor visibility. We then skied onto the
glacier and put on our skins cautiously, aware of the potential
crevasses under our feet. We climbed, aiming to reach the peak
of Diablarets, but stopped some 150 metres short as visibility
was closing in.
We lunched behind some rocks and built a D.H.O cairn at
3080m. Skied down over crusted wind-ridged snow with that
horrid feeling you aren’t moving because of the fog effect. Back
onto the piste and then up to the restaurant by the impressive
Devil’s Skittle Rock where we revived ourselves with glüwein
and chough feeding before skiing down a long run to the
cablecar restaurant. Phil disappeared off to make an important
property deal and Jane disappeared feeling seasick, whilst the
rest went back up for two more fast runs (keeping well in front
of a pack snowboarders), then more drinks and home. Trekked
down the road again through a few snowflakes for a warm
Swiss welcome and an excellent dinner at our locum eatery.
Tuesday
Woke early to the sound of snow ploughs! We had the most
magical day. It had snowed and snowed in the night - 50 cms
of new snow! After breakfast we donned our skins in the car
park of the nearby Victoria Hotel and walked up through the
snow laden trees for 2 hours to Adolph and Vreni’s family
summer chalet. Adolph went ahead for the last 150 yds and by
the time we arrived, the shutters were open and a welcome fire
was blazing. We ate our sandwiches, washed down by wine
and schnapps. We then climbed for a further hour to the peak
of Walighurli 2,100 m, before skiing down in glorious powder
through the trees, with intermittent snow and some sun. Even
Adolf fell once, blinded by snow going over his head as he
turned.
Afterwards Adolph and Vreni invited us for particularly
delicious local wine and cheese at their home and Adolph
showed us some film of his work in Kyrgizstan, teaching the
locals to be mountain guides. The equipment, especially the
lifts looked very uncomfortable!
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