GstaadLife

Here are the cable car closing dates for the 2010/11 winter season in Gstaad-Saanenland:

Glacier 3000 Pillon, May 8
Glacier 3000 Reusch, already closed March 20 except for weekends in April
Rinderberg, April 3
Saanerslochgrat/Hornberg, April 25
Horneggli, April 25
Rellerli, closed back on February 27 (was it actually open this was season?)
Wispile Gondelbahn, already closed on March 6 
Eggli-Videmanette, March 27

closed La Braye
closed Skilift Lauenen
closed Skilift Gsteig
closed Lengebrand / Parwengesattel
closed Wispile Rütti and Zückerli
closed Wasserngrat

We hope you enjoyed your season and if empty slopes are your thing, now is the time!

 
In the night from Saturday to Sunday March 27 at 02h00 the clocks will go forward one hour. Summer time ends again on Sunday October 30.

The winter season 2011 is over, skiing is just not much fun any more on the slushy slopes but your beloved little ones still need to get their energy out of their bodies somehow. Here is the solution for this weekend. The school sport center between Saanen and Gstaad is open this Sunday from 10h00 to 13h00 for kids up to 10 years old. They bring out every bit of sports equipment you can think of and the children can use everything for free. Parents are responsible for their little ones so you cannot just dump them there - but lots of fun is guaranteed and they will sleep soundly that night. 
 
 

Friday March 25 was Roger Seifritz's last day as director of the Gstaad-Saanenland tourist office. We wish him all the very best for his future and thank him for his great work over the last 13 years.

Above: Roger Seifritz earlier this week at the controls of an Ecolight Ikarus C42 surveying the region whose promotion as a tourism destination he was responsible for since 1998. 

by Taki Theodoracopulos

GSTAAD—I’ve got the end-of-season blues. I know I say this every year, but this has been a particularly fun winter, with friends throwing goodbye parties, dinners, and lunches since the beginning of March. My liver has done a Gaddafi and taken a brutal revenge on my body. The right ankle is doing a Saif as I write. If I stand on it—or, worse, try to walk—it feels what it’s going to feel like when the ghastly Gaddafis get through with their opponents. I’ve had this lower leg problem for a year. About a month ago I couldn’t stand it any longer and had an X-ray taken. The cartilage has done a Bin Laden and disappeared. Hence the pain as bone touched bone. I also have crystals—not the good kind, but those that form from congenital gout—and they are embedded where the cartilage once was. It was a very easy diagnosis to make. “If you want less pain stop eating rich foods and stop drinking anything except water,” said the good Dr. Mueller. That was unacceptable, as my personality improves with drink, and at my advantaged age personality is all I have left.

Just one careful German owner. Never even lived in. Taki's gonna love this ...

Last Thursday March 18 a fire broke out in the kitchen of the Bernerhof in Gstaad. Thanks to the quick reactions of staff and the fire brigade the flames were quickly doused and the danger averted. The main restaurant and its sun-drenched terrace is currently serving a light menu while the kitchen is brought back online, and it's business-as-usual in the Blun-Chi Chinese restaurant as well as the Basta Italian restaurant.

From mid-May on the Grand Hotel Bellevue will have yet another new director. Beat Fleischmann is leaving after just 20 months, having overseen what the official line from the hotel, dutifully reported in our sister publication the Anzeiger von Saanen, describes as the establishment of the property as a seasonal hotel. Right... Anyhow, the new general manager will be Philip Erne. He has held a number of top hotelier positions especially in Asia and is even hoping to bring a little Asian flair to the hotel (his wife, who will be supporting him at the hotel, is from the Philippines). Now the Asian thing we like, as any of you world-travelers out there will be the first to agree with us that both Asian arlines and hotels could teach our five-star world a trick or two. We wish him all the best of luck; and if he could unseason the spa again many people would be very grateful...

From Monday March 14 thru Friday April 15 the main water pipes are going to be cleaned in Schönried, Halten, Unterbort, Saanen and Oey. This can cause water pressure changes, a temporary chloride smell, and shitty-looking water. The commune of Saanen assures us that the chlorine levels are in no way dangerous and that in case of brownish water you should just let it run until it gets clear again.

The Rotary-Club of Gstaad-Saanenland has presented this year's edition of the Paul Harris Fellowship to Markus S Bach, conductor, music school director and promotor of an active cultural life in Saanenland. Above picture from left: Bill Lovell, Markus S Bach and Ernst Niederhauser.