A few days before Lodewyk de Beer, one of our friends from South Africa visited us in November 2001 the first snow - about 20 cm - had fallen (see Gallery 'Gampluet, first snow, 10 November'). This, associated with the good weather, impressed Lodewyk so much that immediately after his return to South Africa he booked the flights for a skiing vacation at Wildhaus in March.

And again - contrary to his reputation! - the weather throughout his ten days stay was so beautiful that he had problems with his sun burnt nose ... Luckily that did not prevent him to take great pictures with his digital camera and a selection is presented here in this Gallery.

After a short skiing refresher Lodewyk was eager to go to the Chaeserrugg. He had been up there only once several years ago in a heavy blizzard, but that's another story ...:
Image #01 = Waiting for the gondola at Iltios,  view upwards to the upper station of the cable car ar the top of Chaeserrugg
Image #02 = Same location, Joerg waiting for the gondola

At the top of the mountain we had to admire first the great view to the Southern side, the Walensee valley and of course to take pictures: 
Image #03 = Top of Chaeserrugg, Lodewyk
Image #04 = Top of Chaeserrugg, Annemarie & Joerg

We decided to do first the 'Northern Run' down to Iltios:
Image #05 = Start of  the 'Northern Run at the top of Chaeserrugg
Image #06 = Lodewyk, halfways down the run at the turn-off to Surenboden

 We safely arrived down at Iltios and had to wait for the next gondola:
Image #07 = Iltios and Siglu (bar), in the background Annemarie and Joerg sitting on the bench
Image #08 = Iltios, Annemarie & Lodewyk resting

One of the next days we went over to the skiing region 'Ruestel' of Alt St. Johann, but Lodewyk took only one picture when we rode on the chairlift there:
Image #09 = Ruestel Chairlift

Back at the top of Chaeserrugg Lodewyk liked the view down the Northern side to Iltios:
Image #10 = Top of Chaeserrugg, looking down the cable car tracks

This time we decided to take the 'Eastern Run' and to change over to the Wildhaus skiing area 'Gamserrugg':
Image #11 = View over the first slopes of the Chaeserrugg 'Eastern Run' and (where you see several skiers) the run leading to the 'Gamserrugg' area. (Note also the new 'track' along the the slope of the Gamserrugg)
Image #12 =  Annemarie at the turn-off to Wildhaus, camera looking back up the first slopes of the  Chaeserrugg 'Eastern Run'

We skied down the Gamserrugg 'Standard Run' and took the chairlift back up:
Image #13 = Gamserrugg 'Standard Run' where the run from coming from Gamsalp joins the run from the top
Image #14 = About halfways up on the chairlift to the Gamsalp

Next we took the run on the Eastern side of the Gamserrugg, the 'Warmtobel':
Image #15 = Warmtobel, Annemarie skiing
Image #16 = Warmtobel, Joerg skiing

Since the Warmtobel is a 'black' run, Lodewyk was quite proud and he was posing accordingly:
Image #17 = Lodewyk, Portrait

Back on top of the Gamserrugg we decided to return to the Chaeserrugg area:
Image #18 = Gamserrugg, Lodewyk skiing
Image #19 = Gamserrugg, Lodewyk at the turn-off to Hinterrisi and the lower part of the Chaeserrugg 'Eastern Run' down to Espel
Image #20 = Same location, Annemarie 

We arrived at Espel, felt hungry and had lunch at the 'Espel Stuebli'.
Image #21 = Espel T-bar (Skilift)
Usually the place is not so crowded but on that day there was a race of the juniors of a local skiclub (SC Uelisbach)

These are pictures taken at the 'Espel Stuebli' on different days with some more friends:
Image #22 = 'Espel Stuebli', Oliver, Erna, Joerg
Image #23 = 'Espel Stuebli', Oliver, Erna, Lodewyk
Image #24 = Espel, Erna, returning from the ...
Image #25 = 'Espel Stuebli', Rosle and Juerg Bidermann
Note: The 'Espel Stuebli' is our favorite place for lunch or just a short break. The Kueng family who runs it are very friendly, we and other frequent guests are treated almost as members of their family. Although it is a very small inn, they offer quite a selection of quick meals at very moderate prices.
Image #26 = 'Espel Stuebli', Mrs. Sylvia Kueng, Annemarie and our daughter Claudia
Sylvia (aka Mrs. Kueng) sells the best and freshest 'Cremeschnitten' and 'Schlorzifladen' (who can tell me the english names of these sweets?) at least of Eastern Switzerland, you can even watch her preparing them! In fact, the 'Espel Stuebli', little known by the average tourists and a real meeting point of the locals, is what we call a 'secret tip', so psssssst ....., don't tell anybody! 

Lastly we took the Stoefeli T-bar and skied back to Iltios:
Image #27 = Stoefeli T-bar, Erna and Oliver ahead. Note the formerly dense and now pityful looking forest, destroyed by the storms 'Vivian' in February 1990 and 'Lothar' at Christmas 1999.