Day 10: Perfect weather, ski nations & Iceman Ötzi Peak

October 18, 2021

The altitude sickness is overcome, we wake up again around 7:30 am as the first skiers "trample" in the common room above us. Yawwwn...

After breakfast, we get ready leisurely and hit the slopes shortly before 10 am. The weather is splendid again - blue sky and plenty of sunshine - perfect weather!

The steep slope on the Grawand Chairlift is covered with slalom poles, between the entrance at the bottom of the Grawand Chairlift and the exit at the Gletschersee Chairlift, everything is filled with countless skis, backpacks, jackets with country labels hang everywhere, and the small hut at the exit of the Gletschersee seems to have been converted into a meeting place for professional skiers.

A barrier tape separates us "ordinary people" from the professional skiers and their coaches, we observe many youths (and adults too) diligently taking selfies with the professional skiers (damn - and we don't know any of them 🤷🏻‍♀️🙈).

Away from the steep slope of the Grawand Chairlift and the black slope at the Gletschersee, all the slopes are relatively empty. The professionals limit themselves to the 2 slopes. It's incredible, the crowds of people here! Everywhere teams with helpers, pole carriers, camera men, etc.

Crazy!

I start a photo challenge with my daughter: who can take pictures of the most different national teams? While my husband and son ride a few slopes on their own, my daughter and I go on the hunt for professional skiers from various countries. The Canadian team appears right in front of us - crazy - the Canadians are here too?

The highlight is a skier from the Japanese team.

Since today, many cross-country skiers are also using the high-altitude trail, which was prepared yesterday. They keep circling the course all morning - it doesn't look very exciting 🤭

We ski until 1 pm and then have lunch at the hotel. Again today, we cannot find a spot on the sun terrace outside, so we sit in the main dining room together with the professional skiers and their teams.

Sportspeople from the Italian team sit next to us, and on the other side, there are team members from the USA and France. Exciting!!! 😜

After lunch, we enjoy the empty ski area until 3:30 pm. Just like yesterday, all the professional skiers have disappeared after lunch. Apparently, the snow is too soft for training now!? Just a guess, as it's still above freezing... 🤭

From 3 pm, we are the only ones in the ski area... quite spooky...

After skiing, we spend our afternoon drinking a latte macchiato on the sun terrace again. The kids eventually say goodbye and go to their room to chill, and my husband wants to try to climb the Iceman Ötzi Peak today.

We start at 5:30 pm and plan to watch the sunset from the top later. With some breaks for catching our breath and taking pictures, we reach the platform quite relaxed.

There are several other tourists up here today, including a family from the nearby city of Mainz 😜

They are here with 3 kids, not skiers, and they tell us that they have always wanted to stay overnight up here. We briefly talk about our experiences and suggest that they maybe shouldn't drink alcohol tonight. Maybe they will cope with the altitude sickness better than us!?

We enjoy the sunset and later watch the groomer preparing the slopes - today, the groomer is hanging on the cable again.

During dinner, we see the Mainz family again at the neighboring table. However, one of the children is missing during dinner. Also, my husband leaves the table before dessert. Oh dear, hopefully they don't already have problems with the altitude...