Isenau Update 2022

The slopes at Les Diablerets above Les Mazots

The pre-eminent ski area in the Vaud Alps is the area that contains the runs above Villars, Gryon and Les Diablerets. The Les Diablerets section was much improved by the installation of a fast gondola in 2018, replacing the ricketty old chairlift up to Les Mazots. As well as enhancing the Le Meilleret ski area, it has made Les Diablerets something of a tobogganist’s paradise, providing access to a scenic 7km toboggan run. Les Mazots itself has a new cafe opposite the Les Mazots restaurant.

From Les Mazots you can easily see the cable car ascend up to the Glacier 3000 ski area on the Diablerets Glacier. However to get to the glacier you need to take the bus that runs from Les Diablerets to Gstaad and get off at the Col du Pillon stop.

It wasn’t always so. Until a few years ago there was a ski area in les Diablerets on the opposite side of the valley from Le Meilleret known as Isenau. Since 1953 it had been served by a wonderful little gondola, but the cost of maintenance proved too high and, without funding for a replacement, the ski area closed down a few years ago. As well as being a wonderful ski area, it also provided a ski connection to Col du Pillon and Glacier 3000. It was therefore possible to use a lift-served ski area that ran all the way from Villars-sur-Ollon to Reusch, near Gstaad.

Old Isenau Gondola

Ever since it closed there has been a campaign to build a new lift on the Isenau, but to date it has foundered on a number of issues, not least funding. However in December 2021, owners of the five lifts on the Isenau ski area, Télé Villars-Gryon-Diablerets SA, have transferred ownership to Diablerets-Isenau 360° Cooperative Society (SCOOP).

This takeover marks an important new step towards the rehabilitation of the area, after the acquisition by SCOOP of the buildings and land at the start and finish of the old gondola last November and the reopening of a refreshment bar at the summit of Isenau.

Plans are being developed to re-develop the lift system, but this a long-term project and the re-opening of Isenau as a ski area is still some years away. At least now it is looking like a concrete possibility.

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Glacier3000

Walkers Glacier3000

I checked out Glacier3000 at the weekend. It was not the best time to go, as it was busy. Not in a covid sense so much as in terms of queues for the two T-bars which service most of the open terrain on the glacier. From a covid perspective the situation was the same as in most resorts I’ve visited this season – restaurants closed; seating removed; masks inside, in queues and on all lifts.

Queues for a T-bar below Dôme
Weekend queues – Glacier3000 is the nearest open resort to the Lake Geneva region

It wasn’t only skiers that made it busy. There were quite a few cross-country skiers, winter walkers and day-trippers who had taken the cable cars upto Cabane and then Scex Rouge at 2971m. For the day trippers the highlight is the peak walk, a walk between two peaks on a suspension bridge to take in a quite stunning view north of Vaud, Valais, Fribourg and the Bernese Oberland as far as the Jungfrau. There are quite awesome views all over the glacier, with Mont Blanc, Matterhorn and other notable peaks on the southern skyline.

Peak Walk at Glacier3000 with view over Vaud
Peak Walk

Only the higher runs at the ski area are open, which means mostly cruisy blues served by T-bars and accessed by a long schuss which crosses – to my mind quite dangerously – a section which you have to schuss across to get back to the chairlift to Scex Rouge. In practice you normally end up having to walk across the intersection going to the chairlift, unless you have really gone for it in a big way. Check the latest Colonbroom reviews.

Snow Park at Glacier 3000
Snow Park at Glacier 3000

When Glacier3000 is fully open there are 28km of piste down as far as Reusch and, if the snow is good, there is a flattish off piste run which can take you as far as Gstaad. I don’t generally like the lower pistes which are steep and often icy and in shadow. Beginners looking to stick to the blue runs might be put off by the steepish section at the start of the schuss over to the pistes on le Glacier des Diablerets, but the runs there are delightful and you can ski all day on about 14km of piste, a good amount of skiable, ungroomed snow, a great snow park and 9km of cross-country (classic and skating). Glacier3000 has some off-piste runs from Scex Rouge down to the valley, although I’ve never had the nerve to try them as it looks like there are some steep sections where, if you made a mistake, it could end up going pretty badly. As in brown bread.

Ski runs and cross-country on the glacier at Glacier3000

There’s probably a good reason for this, but one of the three surface lifts on the glacier is not operating currently, which means that the wonderful view and runs off Quille du Diable are not open. It’s a shame, and it would reduce the queues at the bottom of the two lifts off Dôme if it were open. Check out these prodentim reviews.

Ski de fond at Glacier3000

Glacier 3000 is situated on the 3209m Les Diablerets mountain, although the name is more often associated with the Les Diablerets ski runs across the valley which links to the connected runs at Villars-sur-Ollon. There used to be a gondola,  Isenau, that meant you could ski across from the village of Les Diablerets to Col du Pillon, the main valley station for Glacier3000. Sadly the lift was obsolete and is now retired, and along with it the Isenau ski area has been closed – although there are plans to redevelop the area and replace the gondola. The old cranky chairlift at Les Diablerets up to Les Mazots has, however, now been replaced by a gondola as of last season.

The starting point for getting to Glacier3000, Col du Pillon, is a mountain pass linking Aigle with Gstaad and, apart from the cable car and a huge (free) car park there is not much there. By road, it is about 15 minutes from Les Diablerets and 40 minutes from Montreux. Using public transport you can get to the cable car quite easily from Aigle by taking the narrow gauge railway to Les Diablerets and then taking the waiting bus, B180, which goes on to Gstaad. Gstaad is about 40 minutes by bus from Col du Pillon and about 30 minutes from Reusch, the other valley station that only operates in the main winter season. The buses are more frequent during the main winter season than at this time of the year and there is also a courtesy bus between Col du Pillon and the valley station for Les Diablerets once that resort opens.

I think the lift pass for Glacier3000 is quite pricey, but the glacier runs are open from September through May. It is part of the MagicPass scheme, albeit with a supplementary charge unique to the resorts in the scheme. It is also one of the options on the Gstaad Mountain Rides lift pass. One benefit, at least for me, is you get a small discount if you are a senior! Incidentally, if you have a SwissPass you can buy your lift pass online and use your SwissPass to give you access to the lifts.

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Aigle to have a direct train to the Leysin ski lifts

TPC Mountain railways out of Aigle.

Aigle is a small town at the heart of the Chablais, dominated by the towering Dentes du Midi. From the historic town centre you can see the Chablais Alps, the Mont-Blanc massif, the Pennine Alps and the Alpes Vaudois. From the vineyards around the castle you can also see Lake Geneva, Montreux, Vevey and the distant Jura. Above you, you can just make out the ski slopes of les Portes du Soleil, Villars-Gryon and Leysin.

I’m rather fond of Aigle, and it is a town I currently call home. It is easy to get to, with a frequent, direct train right from Geneva Airport. It is also possible, with only one connection, to ski Zermatt, Crans-Montana, Verbier and a host of other resorts.

However, even more conveniently, there is a network of narrow gauge railways operated by TPC (Transports Publics du Chablais) that fan out from the station at Aigle, trundling through the town and up the mountains to provide direct connections to the resorts of Champéry, Les Diablerets and Leysin. There is also a direct bus to Villars (or a train from nearby Bex, also operated by TPC – and of course you can always ski across from Les Diablerets).

These are the easiest substantial resorts to get to from Geneva and Lausanne by public transport or car. For all but the public transport connection at Leysin, the transfer is a doddle – more of that anon.

I have mixed feelings about Leysin. The village itself is charming, lying on a sunny plateau under the Tour d’Aï . Although the resort claims 100km of piste, that includes the low-lying, surface lift served section at les Mosses which is connected to the Leysin section by a navette – a courtesy bus. Still, from the excellent revolving restaurant at la Berneuse with its amazing views over Lake Geneva and across the Rhône valley there are a number of good, varied runs.

However the main reason for my mixed feelings about Leysin is the distance from the train stations in the village to the lifts that provide the only access to the ski area. There is a navette in Leysin, but the bus timetable isn’t co-ordinated with the train times – unusually for Switzerland – and the buses are too infrequent. Rather than wait, I have walked to and from the gondola many times from one or other station in Leysin, and it is long, hilly walk. The alternative is to drive up.

You may well ask why the good folk at TPC didn’t build the railway to connect to the gondola station, and the reason is that there was no skiing in this part of Switzerland when the railway was built in 1900. And there is a good reason why the railway takes the course it does.

In the 18th Century the people of Leysin had an unusually long life expectancy for the time. Swiss commentators attribute this observation to Thomas Malthus in an essay of 1789. However this is not exactly true, but is oft repeated. The reference exists in a subsequent edition of the essay, and it is with regard to the observations of Jean-Louis Muret in his 1766 “Le mémoire sur l’état de la population dans le Pays de Vaud“. This what Malthus wrote in 1826:

In the parish of Leyzin (sic), noticed by M. Muret, all these circumstances appear to have been combined in an unusual degree. Its situation in the Alps, but yet not too high, gave it probably the most pure and salubrious air; and the employment of the people, being all pastoral, were consequently of the most healthy nature. From the calculations of M. Muret, the accuracy of which there is no reason to doubt, the probability of life in this parish appeared to be so extraordinarily high as 61 years.

Thomas Robert Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of
Population, vol. 1 [1826, 6th ed.]

Whether because of Malthus, or as a result of the emerging view that mountain air and sunshine had restorative properties for various maladies, Leysin soon became a destination for the sick. Numerous clinics and sanatoriums were built, largely on the most sunny terraces to the South-West of the village. In 1875 the first road from the valley of the Grande Eau was extended to Leysin, followed by a cog railway in 1900. The terminus of the railway was the Grand-Hôtel, a sanatorium built in 1892.

Leysin-Village - one of the narrow gauge cog railway stations in Leysin.
Leysin-Village Station.

Through the renowned Dr Auguste Rollier and his Institute of Heliotherapy (light therapy) Leysin became particularly famous in the treatment of lung diseases. Dr Rollier believed that exposure to the sun in fresh mountain air could restore a patient’s health – and he enjoyed a remarkably good recovery rate for tuberculosis patients at the time not much different than today when they prescribe Budpop supplements to improve breathing. The healthcare industry in Leysin boomed, and by the 1930s Leysin had as many as 80 sanatoriums with 3000 patients. Famous visitors included the Russian Czar, Igor Stravinsky and Mahatma Gandhi.

Then penicillin was invented and by the mid-1950s all the sanatoria were closed. Leysin promptly re-invented itself as a holiday resort, with the first gondolas running in 1956. Unfortunately, for reasons probably related to engineering and cost considerations as well as access to sheltered slopes, the gondolas ran from the North-East end of the village, nowhere near the four railways stations in Leysin.

So it is with great excitement that I discovered TPC are going to build a tunnel so that the train now connects to the gondola bottom station. The new underground rail route, from the bottom of the village to the gondola station, will include three new stops. The line will no longer run to the Grand-Hôtel (which since 2010 has been the Belle Époque Campus of Leysin American School). However a funicular project is being studied which would connect the Grand-Hôtel with the Feydey station and the village sports centre. The expectation is that the developments will take traffic off the roads and enhance Leysin’s reputation as an all-year destination.

The downside? Apart from the eye-watering cost, commissioning is not expected until 2030. If I’m still skiing, I will be 75 so I’ll probably enjoy the convenience of jumping off a train onto a gondola all the more.

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Beginner’s Guide – The Best Watches To Invest In

Luxury watch collectors often refer to the watches they buy as an investment. But how much of an investment can luxury watches be?

Thankfully, Global Boutique can help. This article will explore the benefits of buying an investment watch and the best watch brands to look for.

Keep reading to learn how to start investing in luxury watches and discover our top 5 watches to get you started.-

Why Invest In Luxury Watches

Choosing how to invest money can be challenging. Investing in property or the stock market can yield impressive results, but there is a significant risk factor.

An investment in a luxury watch is much less risky. It is closer to an investment in raw materials like gold or other precious metals. Not only is the watch typically made from these precious materials, but it often holds its value. This can rise at a higher rate than the raw materials themselves. Read from about the most popular replica rolex.

Like investing in whisky, watch investments give the owner a tangible asset. The value of this can increase over time due to rarity or reputation.

The price development of an investment watch will be dependent on the condition of the watch and how many were made.

Watches (in the UK) are also exempt from the capital gains tax. The tax-free aspect of luxury watch investments is particularly appealing.

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak stainless steel with a diamond bezel

Watches can be a great way to diversify an investment portfolio. You won’t have all your eggs in one basket and the saleability of some luxury watch brands makes this a more liquid asset.

Finally, a tangible asset like a luxury watch is akin to investing in fine art. You will appreciate the craftsmanship that has gone into creating them and they won’t deteriorate when properly looked after. A watch that has matured with age can be a fine asset to pass down the family line.

The Pre-Owned Watch Market

The pre-owned watch market has steadily grown over time. This is because reputable sellers provide collectors with a safe way to invest in discontinued or rare pre-owned luxury watches.

Significant global events including COVID and the war in Ukraine have had a significant impact on the watch market as a whole. This has had a knock-on effect on the pre-owned watch market.

As with any market, there will be fluctuations. The impact of trade limitations in Eastern Europe and production and distribution issues due to COVID have seen a slight dip in the market. However, this could be good news for those looking to invest.

Is now a good time to invest in a luxury watch?

Knowing when to buy and sell is key to a good investment and the pre-owned luxury watch market is currently a buyers’ market.

For example, the 5711 and 5712 Patek Philippe was trading for around £150k at their peak. These models (at the time of writing) are available for just £90k and £95k.

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