I’m in Zermatt for a week’s skiing. To avoid having my laptop confiscated by my wife(!), time spent writing posts, and viewing blogs will be limited, so posts this week will of necessity be brief (but not today’s!). And I apologize for the fact that there will be limited time to comment on all your posts, although I will try to post ‘thanks’ on Twitter as per usual.

Day 3 on the ski slopes and the line from the song: ‘what a difference a day makes’ should be amended to ‘what a difference an hour makes’ because that is how quickly the weather turns around in the mountains.

We woke to more light snow overnight, fog banks girdled the valley sides and the cloud base was low. After 2 days of poor light and low cloud, I decided I would take a morning off – skiing is a very physical sport but in low visibility and flat light the mental challenge is also tough. Skiing by feel rather than sight requires acute concentration and commitment, together with the requirement to read the angle and bumps in the slope through your feet, while remaining supple rather than tensing up. All rather counter-intuitive. So we spent the morning in the resort and had an early lunch.

Three on the edge - click to enlarge

Things looked like they were showing signs of improvement so I headed up to the Rothorn area for the afternoon, and slowly the sun was burning it’s way through the cloud and ghostly outlines of some of the familiar peaks were poking through.

Matterhorn in view - click to enlarge

Finally up at the top (10,000ft) I found myself above the clouds for a brief period and some of the spectacular scenery was finally ethereally revealed.

The Rothorn top station. Weisshorn - click to enlarge

Every benefit comes at a price and today that was some pretty extreme cold up high. But it was worth it.

Clouds fill the valleys, beyond - The Breithorn ridge - click to enlarge

The compact hasn’t really done justice to some of these shots, but the lack of contrast and softness didn’t make for easy processing.

Skiing off the Rothorn - click to enlarge

It’s gently snowing again this evening but the forecast for tomorrow is for blue sky –all fingers crossed.

The final image after the 5,000ft descent from Rothorn.

Matterhorn asfter sundown - click to enlarge

The sun has just disappeared behind the ghostly Matterhorn. This mountain never ceases to amaze me!

Follow the links below to the other posts from this week’s ski trip to Zermatt:

• Sunday: Flat Light
• Monday: On the Chair
• Wednesday: The Faces of a Mountain
• Thursday: Piste Skiing
• Friday: A cold Weather Sport