Adelboden slopes fabulous after a storm

1st February 2020, by Dave Watts

Stunning views from the outdoor pool of Hotel Cambrian

What a difference a day makes. Editor Gill and I started a week’s tour of five Swiss resorts this week. Our first day’s skiing was supposed to be in Adelboden in the beautiful Bernese Oberland on Wednesday. But snow and 120kph winds meant the lifts were closed, the lift company and mountain restaurants lost a fortune and we lost a day’s skiing.

The main street on wipeout Wednesday

Fortunately, we were staying at the excellent The Cambrian hotel at one end of the main street. So after a few hours work, a stroll down the long main street (lined by interesting and non-flashy shops including one selling wonderful wood carvings by a local family) and delicious soup for lunch at one of the local tea shop/bakeries, I retreated to the The Cambrian’s excellent spa.

After an hour or so soaking in the indoor and outdoor pools, sauna and steam room, it was time for dinner. It’s a tough life researching ski resorts. But my salmon tartare in the The Cambrian’s Axe bar (named after the ice axes secured to the walls to prevent drunken murders) was top-notch.

The views from the village and the slopes are fabulous

Thursday dawned to clear skies and light winds. Magic. We headed up the mountain and were delighted to find great powdery snow that had not been too affected by the winds – presumably it fell after the winds subsided.

We headed over to the link with Lenk (a bus ride across Lenk). Editor Gill researched that while Joel (son of the The Cambrian’s owner and also a ski instructor) and I rode the gondola back up and inspected the local Adelboden slopes.

Views of Lenk and its ski area from the Adelboden side

Amazingly, in my many years skiing and writing WTSS, I had never skied Adelboden before. And I was very pleasantly surprised. It has great varied terrain, with something for everyone – some excellent easy blues, challenging reds and a lovely black in an isolated valley away from all the lifts. We ended up the day skiing the black run that is used to host men’s World Cup slalom and GS races every year in the second week of January.

All in all, a fab day and worth riding out the storm for.

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