As promised, another post on last weekend -- fantastic weather. And a word of caution: I am trying to get my mountain peaks named accurately, but it's a difficult task. I'll have to hire some help... -- and appreciate any feedback.
Approaching snowland -- the verges of the road up the Kander- and Engstligenvalley are snow covered, the peaks in the Niesen range pristine.
Higher and higher the road winds. It was dry that day. In deep winter, there's virtually no getting there without chains, even for 4x4s.
View from among some of the chalets at "Hoechst", 1,585 m asl.
A few minutes after this photo, the near-pristine slope was cut by my guide's tracks. He was not too well pleased when requested to break our steady rhythm, stop laying the track for me across knee-deep powder, to give me a chance to take the photo above – and a few more. Here's one with pristine snow in the foreground, the prepped slope for downhill skiers beyond, and the Elsighorn on the horizon. If you look closely you can just see a "weather vane" of snow being driven across the edge by an icy northerly. Good-weather sign, but ffffffreezing!
Above: windswept Wildstrubel and Wistätthorn (?). I was not quite twenty when I attempted a ski ascent of Wildstrubel -- scuppered by thick fog. More memorable than the steep ascent into massive snow drifts was the burning sensation on my face: I didn't have enough sun-screen with me! One of the most uncomfortable nights in my life followed during which my face came up flaming red and in blisters. At home I'd have put ice or yoghurt on, but in a mountain cabin in the early seventies? One gritted one's teeth. A few days later the skin came off my nose and cheeks and chin in thick scabs -- ugh! 
Top left: Elsighorn (I think), and the rooftop of a typical Swiss mountain chalet beyond the perfect snow.
We were not alone, though, as lots of tracks show. Beyond: some peaks in the southern part of the Niesen range, the tallest one (left) is, I think, the Tuermlihorn.
I love the play of light and shadow.
Higher and higher. That must be Adelboden and some of the higher Alpine peaks on the horizon (top left), possibly the Sanetschhorn.
... above: the northward continuation of the Niesen range, with the Hohniesen, probably, in the centre. I say probably because I can't tell exactly whether that peak is the actual beginning of the chain or whether it's one of the more southerly ones. If it was the beginning, it would be the Niesen; the Hohniesen is a few peaks further south.
I've got loads more photos but am running out of time here.Look for Take Three sometime tomorrow -- sunsets, afterglows, mountain birds, dawn...
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