Silence.....in the mountains

We enjoyed a short moment of total isolation in terms of noise and visual impact when in Zermatt recently. We decided to head down piste no 69 which runs near to the Matterhorn and into it's own valley away from any other pistes. We stopped part way down and realised that we couldn't see anyone or any signs that we were in a ski resort (other than the narrow groomed piste) and could hear absolutely nothing. No wind, no voices, no mechanical noises from lifts, no birds, nothing. Quite a special feeling to be honest and perhaps relatively unique to the pastime that we all enjoy so much?

Anyone else had a moment like this?

Had the same at La Thuile, but at half term believe it or not. Just standing on an empty piste, sun out, birds singing....magic. It must have been two or three minutes before a bloke and his son came past to which I said ..."what do you think you are doing on my piste"...They looked a little confused!!!

Meribel in mid Dec 2012. Epic conditions with fresh powder on the slopes and at one stage we didn't see another skier for a good twenty minutes. It was bliss. Mid week in December can be a great time if the snow is good.

Just about every ski day, on the first and last runs.

A couple of years ago my daughter and I were ski-ing at Tignes/Val d'Isere at the end of April, and there was 3 feet of fresh snow and hardly anyone around. We were in one of the mountain restaurants and we were the only customers in it!
That was the best ski-ing ever! :)

bedrock barney wrote:Anyone else had a moment like this?

Quite a few over the years, and they stick in the mind...

Les Deux Alpes, a season or two back. The weather cleared at the end of a pretty hostile day; almost everyone headed for the bar but a friend and I just caught the very last chair back up Valentin before it shut. Stood for a minute at the top with not a soul around, the sun long down behind the hill and the town lighting up in the twilight below... 8)

I had a we moment in Sauze this year.
Having skied off alone i found a small patch of powder begging to be skied so i dropped in behind a small ridge an cut myself off from the rest of the resort.
I wasn't far away but tucked in here it was silent and the view was immense. I had a little sit down in the sun and just stranded at the vista for around 15 mins.
The Alps really are stunning.

Many times. We have been skiing lot of off-piste lately and in places you can forget that civilization exists. No sign of lifts or people and very quiet. First time this year we had to put in a fresh bootback because the old one got completely snowed in and despite hard work involved in walking up the hill in snow above knees it was amazing feeling knowing that we will be the first ones up there.