We found the snow!

Today we went up the mountain to do some skiing (although not Luke, he was still not feeling up to it). It is amazing what a difference of about 1300m (from the village up to the mountain top) and experienced Swiss mountain staff can do to a ski area! The snow was amazing, the pistes were beautifully groomed and there was more than enough snow on every run. Nothing like Swiss efficiency to get perfect slopes prepared in a season where the snow is poorer than usual. It was so quiet, no queues on the lifts and no crowds! It will get busy for about week from the 27th December, but other than that we never have a problem with long queues and crowds which is why we like coming here.

This is a view of the Prattigau Valley, looking back towards Zurich - not much snow in the valley but nevertheless still beautiful. I have added an extra of the ski runs at the top to show how much snow there is there.

It was also good to see some more investment in the area - a little bar on one of the popular ski runs has been rebuilt as a beautiful chalet restaurant with wide sunny wooden terraces and inside there is a large glassed section, with a retractable glass roof for when it gets too warm. We stopped for a morning coffee there, and as it was not cold today it got very warm and toasty inside that glassed area with the sun streaming in.

We did not stay up the mountain for too long as Thomas has plenty of revision to do for his mock GCSE exams which take place when he gets back to school. Adam arrives tonight, so it will good to have the family all together again.