My luggage slides past me, bound for my “forest house” aboard a human-drawn, metal-framed sled that looks like it was made in a shed by an eccentric, pragmatic tinkerer.
asserted
it → slide → tinkerer
I shuffle from the cable-car station to the Hotel Waldhaus in two minutes, powder snow puffing from my boots.
asserted
snow → shuffle → boots
Not a single internal combustion engine has been fired up in my name since I left Zurich Airport for Aletsch Arena, a triple village Swiss Alps ski resort cloistered away in the southern canton, or state, of Valais.
asserted
I → fire → Valais
A handful of anxiety-inducing tight train connections – perhaps only possible in Switzerland or Japan – deliver me to Bettmeralp Talstation, where the hydro-electric-powered cable car swooshes me up, over a sliver of Rhone River, into Bettmeralp.
asserted
car → induce → Bettmeralp
Helicopter or hiking notwithstanding, this is the only way for travellers to reach the hamlets of Bettmeralp, Riederalp and Fiescheralp because these snow-globe-esque Bernese Alps villages are car free.
asserted
villages → reach → Bettmeralp
If not for the falling snow and low clouds, I’d already be snapping shots of a couple of Swiss Alps celebrities: the Matterhorn (well south-west) and Jungfrau to the north.
asserted
I → fall → north
Aletsch Arena’s ski lifts and dapperly groomed trails have a Swiss-train-network quality to them.
asserted
lifts → have → them
Fanning upwards from Bettmeralp, the clinically logical piste layout makes it easy to swoop down into and back out of Riederalp, gondolas soaring over snow-dolloped chalets.
asserted
it → fan → chalets
It’s actually challenging to get lost here, although one particularly tantalising forest run flows all the way down to the valley floor, finishing between villages.
asserted
run → ’ → villages
A five Swiss francs ($9) taxi ride will rectify your “mistake”.
asserted
ride → rectify → mistake
The south-facing (sun-facing, when it’s out) ski area is beginner- and intermediate-focused.
asserted
area → face → ?
The terrain, relatively mild by Swiss standards, is peppered with a healthy smattering of approachable and family-friendly terrain parks and snow-cross courses, with easy plans Bs if you want to chicken out.
asserted
you → pepper → Bs
I zigzag towards Fiescheralp, lunching at Battmerhitta mountain hut where I order a Valais staple, Walliser Cholera, thankfully not an intestinal infection, but a pie made with apples, cheese, potatoes, onions, leeks, bacon, and pears in flaky pastry.
asserted
I → zigzag → pastry
Over lunch, I gossip with the restaurant’s owner about the condition of his fighting cows – a springtime tradition in this part of Switzerland, through which local herds establish a social hierarchy.
asserted
herds → gossip → hierarchy
Sated, I ride the Eggishorn gondola to the resort’s craggy high-point (2869 metres), a prime perch to behold the Aletsch Glacier.
asserted
I → sate → Glacier
The 20-kilometre UNESCO-listed glacier (unfortunately receding) is the resort’s dramatic natural northern border, two kilometres wide and 800 metres deep in places.
asserted
glacier → list → places
I wholeheartedly recommend executing some turns on trails on the resort’s extreme west (above Riederalp), if only for a glimpse of kitschy Villa Cassell.
asserted
I → recommend → Cassell
The compact early 20th-century castle was a folly of a burnt-out German-born English banker, who holidayed here in summer on doctor’s orders.
asserted
who → burn → orders
Winston Churchill also hung out in the parquet-floored curiosity, now home to the conservation-focused Pro Natura Centre.
asserted
Churchill → hang → Centre
I slide into Hotel Alpfriden for premature après, resting my Aperol Spritz on al fresco wine barrels.
asserted
I → slide → barrels
“Good evening altogether,” toasts my host, David, even though it’s early afternoon.
asserted
it → toast → ?
Apparently, a local bishop once tried to ban day-drinking here so the day-drinkers simply redefined the meaning of evening.
asserted
drinkers → try → evening
Shouts of “santé” and “ciao” rise above the après hubbub, a soundtrack of early ’90s bangers and the occasional buzzing snowmobile.
asserted
Shouts → rise → bangers
The Valais German dialect is patently flavoured by its geography – France, 60 kilometres west; Italian mountains in plain sight southwards.
asserted
dialect → flavour → sight
Unlike glamour-puss resorts like St Moritz (80 kilometres east), most of Aletsch Arena’s visitors seem local, more or less, as you might expect of a place so far off the radar that it’s rarely a first-choice ski town for foreigners.
uncertain
it → seem → foreigners
It’s also a place still unapologetically comfortable in its own skin.
asserted
It → ’ → skin
I over-confidently schuss back to Hotel Waldhaus, settling into my Holz100 room, a design made from a quarter of local timbers, with dowels replacing nails and glue.
asserted
dowels → schuss → nails
I love the panoramic-window alcove, the 1980s-spec rotary phone and the turn-down Swiss chocolates.
asserted
I → love → alcove
Daniela Berchtold’s family has owned the hotel since 1955, a couple of years after the cable car was built, pre-resort days.
asserted
car → own → years
Before that, farmers would walk up their cows to graze on summer pastures, leaving before winter snows settled.
asserted
snows → walk → pastures
The ingredients for Waldhaus’s cholera pie are grown in the same “hippy” organic way that Daniela’s parents have always done; heaving with garden potatoes, apples and onions.
asserted
parents → grow → potatoes
Every household has a different recipe for this dish, the unappetising name for which is either linked to families making-do during the pandemic, or Chola or Cholu (Valais German for coal), as the pastry was baked on coals, depending on which story you choose to believe.
asserted
you → have → story
When I depart Bettmeralp, the human-powered sled slides my luggage back to the cable car.
asserted
sled → depart → car
Snow falls, heavier now, settling on the storybook Chapel of Maria zum Schnee (Mary of the Snows).
asserted
Snow → fall → Snows
People walk their fluffy dogs, ski into the store for local cheese, and drag their hyperactive kids out of snowdrifts.
asserted
People → walk → snowdrifts
Back on the train, these car-free days already seem like make-believe.
asserted
days → seem → believe
DETAILS Hotel Waldhaus Bettmeralp has rooms from 230 Swiss francs ($400).
asserted
Bettmeralp → have → francs
See waldhaus-bettmeralp.ch/en; an eight-day Swiss Travel Pass, with unlimited travel by train, bus and boat, costs from 665 Swiss francs.
asserted
Pass → see → francs
See switzerland.com; swisstravelpass.com
The writer travelled as a guest of Switzerland Tourism.
asserted
writer → see → Tourism
The Aporia
