Last blast of the season

As had become my pre-covid routine, I booked a four-night trip to Saas-Fee for their last week of the season. Having skied in bitterly cold January and slushy mild March, I was not expecting much, to be honest, in terms of snow conditions. But I was pleasantly surprised and conditions were much better than at Nendaz/Verbier in the middle of March. Against a backdrop of reported horror stories of ski bags not making it onto flights at Terminal 5, I switched to an early Swiss flight from Terminal 2. Ironically, on the evening before travel, my flight was cancelled and rebooked onto a flight departing two hours later. This scuppered plans for skiing in the afternoon but otherwise was ok. Baggage reclaim at Geneva was far less hassle than in March and straight on to the train and to Saas-Fee via the connecting bus from Visp. I stayed at the Hotel Christiania in the main street - traditional, friendly and comfortable and decent value at just under 100CHF a night. Also fortunate to have the Magic Pass 2022/23 spring supplement which meant I could ski all week for just 99CHF - an exceptional saving on the normal lift pass prices. Inevitably, the resort was beginning to wind down for the end of season but there were plenty of bars and restaurants still doing good business. The Spieldboden ski area was closing but the rest of the mountain was open and uncrowded. The snow was typically spring-like, hard first thing, softening through the day, slushy later. But above 2,300m and up on the glacier conditions were excellent. Had an outstanding lesson with Ski Zenit's ski school director - perhaps the best instruction I've had in 50 years of skiing. The return trip was painless. Ski until 2.15pm, quick change and back on the 3.22pm post bus and the train straight into the airport with no dramas! Unlike March, the security/passports etc were busy but the lounges were open this time so took full advantage of the refreshments and food in the Swiss business lounge (felt they owed me a little bit for the cancellation!). Back in the UK at 9.30pm to conclude a most satisfactory 21/22 ski season!

Great to hear, thanks for posting, Saas Fee was one of my first trips in early 1980s and been back a few times since, always loved it. I'm off to Val Thorens tomorrow for final weekend of season there, main fear is whether BA manages to get us there and back. We start in Inverness, change at T5. They've cancelled flights on 5 of 6 planned trips over past 18 months so a tad nervous as to whether it will happen, but we are checked in!

I was checked in too, seats allocated etc. Unusual for Swiss but I reckon there were insufficient passengers at 06.45 to make it worth their while.