Lauterbrunnen, Bernese Oberland - SWITZERLAND

TUESDAY 2ND FEBRUARY 1999

This morning we settled into the same routine as yesterday, but managed to get on the 8:25am bus to the station. The scenery the second time around was even more breathtaking than the first and again we were blessed by the sun god. At Wengen the guys jumped of the train and within 6 minutes picked up the skis and boots from the rental shop and ran back in a frenzy to dump them on the front of the train. From Wengen it's another twenty minutes uphill (past the run out trail we followed late yesterday afternoon) to Kleine Scheidegg. Here at over 2000 metres the train pulled into the station where trains from Grindelwald and up to the top of Jungfrau meet. Two six story wooden chalets absolutely laden with snow saddle the valley and a handful of jumping outdoor eateries and bars lure the skier at lunchtimes.

We left our skis at the station, bought a ticket up the Jungfrau and ran over to the other platform. There, like something out of the 19th century, shone two red carriages and an engine of the gods. Another 1500 metres above us loomed the Eiger and the Jungfrau framing the picture. Yet the Swiss had managed to conquer these massive monuments and burrowed a tunnel, where travelling at 25 km an hour it takes a train 50 minutes to climb. If you look up to the north face of the Eiger, the cliff-face reminiscent of a cross-section, as if the mountain was cut in half, two windows glisten in the sunlight as if the Swiss had put them their as a reminder to nature that it can be conquered. Twenty minutes into our journey this was our first stop and the views sprawled over the resort, across the mountains and over to the emerald waters of Lake Thun. Another stop led us to more windows which looked right into the crevices of a glacier, where sunlight refracted and resembled all the colours of the rainbow. Just like everything else in this Eden it took your breath away. At 11am we came to the end of the tunnel, a kind of underground station where engines, carriages, carts and snow mobiles lay idle. More wonderful concrete tunnels took us to the observation area, below an observatory. a lift thrust us up 100 metres, a sign told us that it was -10 and there we stepped outside into another world. On one side the Aletsch Glacier had carved a valley now covered in snow. The Monch was to our left and the craggy peak of the Jungfrau to our right. Below lay the tracks of a snow buggy, or something more reminiscent of a moon buggy and it had wound its way over the snow drifts and glacier. The observation area stood on a pinnacle on the saddle between Jungfrau and Monch and, if you stepped six paces around the balcony, clouds on the horizon, Lake Thun, the far plains, mountains and ski resort below glistened in the sun. Here we were on the roof of Europe and in clear skies nature showed us a glorious vision. It truly is a special place, we spent half an hour mesmerised by it's beauty.

The lift then took us back down into the maze of tunnels, where we followed signs to the outside viewpoint on the Glacier. The guys were fought over like rock stars to get into the photographs of young Japanese ladies on the terrace. One older couple even wanted me in their picture. It was all quite surreal. They then left and the three of us stood alone on top of Europe and contemplated the wonder of life. We returned out of the cold and into the "Ice Palace" where the Swiss have carved rooms into the glacier. Many an ice statue decorates the halls, where an eery silence and flashing blue tones fill the space. In sneakers we sled over the ice through every interesting room and tunnel until it was time to leave for the 12pm train. Dave had got us a space in the drivers compartment on the way down and in excellent English he explained the workings of the mountain railways to us, plus showed off a light display in the tunnel with his coloured lighting. It was the best way to travel as we had a birds-eye view when we came out into the light. Sadly our journey to the roof of Europe ended at Kleine Scheidegg, where we then strapped on our planks, feasted on a pizza overlooking the mountains and skied to our hearts content. We tried out a few new areas and then returned to a few hidden favourites, finding deep powder at almost every turn. We took the last lift up top and again made our way down to Wengen.

A warm shower back at the campsite was just what the doctor ordered and in fine gourmet style I cooked another casserole. We polished off beer, Pringles and nuts in fine apres-ski style, talked endlessly about the day, filling ourselves with chocolate and warm cups of tea before bed. I went to bed thinking that we'd conquered a part of nature today, but was soon reminded of its unpredictable wrath by a falling pinnacle of ice from the waterfall.