Living the skier‘s dream

End of August last year, I thought about that some distant day in the future I will go skiing in the morning and then work in the afternoon. Then I thought, why wait. So I asked my boss and he was fine with it. 

Rhaetian Railway

Due to my ankle fracture I had to postpone the plan from December to February. Early Sunday morning, I took a train from Munich and after switching twice, the Rhaetian Railway brought me to Davos Dorf before lunch. One stop by bus and I left my luggage at the sports store for safekeeping while I hit the slopes. 

Davos Mountains

I spent 8 days skiing in Davos Parsenn, Jakobshorn, Rinerhorn, Klosters and Madrisa. 

Davos-Klosters

Most of the time I spent there, also as the hotel was less than 5 min away from the Parsenn funicular. The slopes were well prepared and I was usually on the first car up in the morning. The slope directly down to the bottom station was not the best. Instead I really liked black slope 13 down to Wolfgang, also black 16 was fine. From Wolfgang, the bus went every 15 min (:10, :25, :40 and :55). 

Often I went down to Schiffer and took the gondola back up to Weißfluhjoch. Taking the red 21 was taking me down to Klosters from where to big two big cable cars went up again. 

Early morning, fresh slopes

View from Davos Wolfgang

Rinerhorn

After a couple of days in Davos, I took the bus in the morning to go to Rinerhorn. I was so early, I had to wait till they opened at 8:30. There was one gondola up the mountain and then several ski lifts up the mountain. I made lots of runs till lunch time before ending in time to catch the bus home. The red slope was the most convenient down while the black was not prepared in the lower part.

Juonli to Hubel

Skibus

Davos Platz/ Jakobshorn

Ski buses to Davos Platz run more often than to Rinerhorn. From the stop it was a bit of a walk crossing below the railway station to make it to the cable car up to the Jakobshorn in two sections - the big ski area spans out with lots of chair lifts. I tried all out over the course of two skiing days. The first time I went down to the valley, I chose the blue slope which is more a road/way which slowly winds down the mountain. In the valley, the slopes ended a bit far away from the cable car so I had to shoulder the skis and walk quite a bit to get back on top. There was also a chair lift with a mid-way stop for the learners' area and a top stop for the ones who want to do the black slope. 

Cable Car from Davos Platz to Jakobshorn

Exiting from the cable car on top, there went off a ski route (Teufi - devil) left from the first curve of the prepared slope. After looking at it for a day, I decided to tackle it on Saturday when I would have a whole day in this skiing area. The skiroute was marked only by a red pole every 100 meters and a sign said that 15 meters to the left and right of it, it would be safe to ski. 

Teufi Top

I was the only one on this sun kissed day who ventured that way. The start was over a couple of snowy wavy hills and a big fun. Then the slope turned really downhill and had lots of moguls with hard snow that cost more muscle power. It took much longer than I thought, so I missed the hourly bus back to Davos. To make use of the waiting time, I enjoyed lunch at the Teufi restaurant which was well visited as a cross country skiing slope passed by below the restaurant.

Teufi Valley

Teufi Restaurant

Madrisa

Only a couple of hours, I spent in Madrisa after skiing from Davos Dorf to Klosters and then taking the train for a stop. Madrisa is a rather small area for families. A gondola brought me up to the main area with lunch restaurant and several options with chair and ski lifts to go further up. It was less crowded than the other areas. And after lunch I took a nice black slope down to valley (the only option) which I had all to myself. Unfortunately, I had miscalculated the time it would take to get down and then walk to the train station and so I missed the train by 1-2 min and then had to wait for an hour. 

Madrisa

More photos from around Davos and Klosters.

Overall, it has been a fantastic stay and I was very to do this work cation - I was very focused at worked and enjoyed skiing the fresh slopes in the morning.