Diethelm-Fluebrig (2092m)

With some new snow finally reaching the north side of the Alps, Tobias and I went to sample the conditions in nearby Wägital. Only 45 minutes by car from Zürich it's quite a little gem of a place. I've been there twice before on Redertengrat and both times I was eyeing the obvious serious-looking massif across the valley -- Fluebrig and it's peak Diethelm. It looks intimidating, but the ski route is quite benign in good conditions. Down low the temperatures have been quite high recently so there was a lot of refrozen snow, but up high the powder was wonderful. Although there were tons of tracks on the lower slopes, it turned out to our surprise that no one had actually gone to the summit in recent days, leaving us with a perfectly blank canvas on the upper part of the mountain. The final bit to the summit is a nicely exposed ridge with sweeping views... very nice little peak!

winter wonderland in the morning

some fresh sluff... 

on the upper slopes of Fluebrig -- Wägitalersee below

approaching the ski depot on the way to Diethelm

panorama experiment -- obviously this shouldn't be done with a wide angle, but still looks ok!

picturesque ridge

we climbed the little snow spur with the help of a fixed cable

descending

Tobias finding the powder on the upper slope of Fluebrig -- Zürichsee in the background

our lines on the right

skiing a fun gully

Tobias ripping a turn above Wägitalersee

Sahara sand layer wrapped in the giant snowballs

the whole Fluebrig -- almost the entire ski line is visible. The descent was from the upper right slope, down the leftmost (wide) gully.