Kloster

It's currently rest time at Camp Engelberg, between skiing and dinner, where people are either relaxing after a day of skiing, or enjoying half price drinks during happy hour at the pub opposite the train station. As you can probably guess, I'm doing the former, because I'm not too sure my ears can take another happy hour, or my sense of self a few drinks before dinner.

So I've been in Engelberg now for about a day, and it's been good. The people at camp are nice and friendly, I love the fact I don't have to cook (though I do have to help clean up), and I get to ski all week. *grins* The accommodation isn't too bad, I'm in a 6 bed room, which is currently only half full. It was very warm last night, and has a sink in it, which is very convenient, though it started making strange noises at 5am this morning.

My borrowed set of skis and boots are okay, I actually like the boots much better than the pair I rented for the season, but the skis are much heavier. Which is quite annoying, since we have a walk a fair way with them to either the close by slopes or the bus stop to the other side.

Yesterday, after arriving and going to the common area, I went with the group of people already there to the happy hour at the pub. Which was very full, and the only spot we could find to hang was under the speakers. Which was very loud. And somewhat awkward, since we didn't know each other, and we couldn't talk.

It was then dinner time, which was soup, pasta, then ice cream. Not bad at all. We also had the welcome by the organiser and an explanation of the rules and whatnot. The camp is run by volunteers, and isn't associated with any Swiss university, though it is advertised at all of them. The participants are a combination of previous participants, some taking time off work and flying here for the week, and others, like me, are students at a Swiss university.

We then were given our equipment and put into groups for skiing based on our experience and it was time to get some rest before our first day on the slopes.


This was the view from the slopes near the chalet, which we went to to avoid the weekend skiers. I was put into the beginners group as I said I wasn't comfortable on reds yet. This meant that instead of heading up the mountain, we just stayed on the blue slopes at the bottom. As you can see, the view wasn't half bad, but the slope was icy in the morning and slushy in the afternoon since it was on the south face of the mountain. I'm looking forward to the snow which is expected at the resort later this week.