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The awesome an Eiger mountain ad struck impressive pose ven as snow poured over its massive shoulders in a misty veil. We sat at a cafe in the lee of the Eiger, in the village of Grindelwald in Switzerland, surrounded by a magnificent and unsullied frieze of mountains.

A waitress in dark glasses and boots, exuding as much charm as a secret service agent at a cocktail party, served us coffee. As we gazed at the peaks bathed in afternoon gold and the unforgiving rivers of ice everywhere, we realized that skiers resembling colorful Martians in their blindingly radiant ski suits surrounded us. We were the only non-skiers, sans hi tech skis straddling our shoulders, and heavy boots. Swaddled in our woollies, we were as out of place in the open-air cafe as old ladies at a college campus!

Skiing is not so much a diversion as a consummate way of life, we discovered during a brief winter sojourn in Grindel- wald recently. Here, school schedules, business lunches, and doctor’s visiting hours are altered according to the snows. And as virtual armies of colorfully clad holidayers began their assault on the mountains, we joined the exodus to the neighboring peaks, enjoying the dip and sway of the gondola lift as it swished and grazed past snarling crags; and swung into and off the mountain trains as they tooted self-importantly up the punishing slopes.

Once an alpine farming village, Grindelwald has metamorphosed into a mountain tourist destination, known both for its winter and summer charms. “However, we do more business in summer than in winter, Muller, director of the Grand Hotel Regina. (The Regina is the only five-star haven in the village. The turn-of-the-century retreat, with its 200-year-old antique docks and prints, high ceilings, cosy comers and warm fireplaces, is a typical alpine retreat.) This, despite the fact that Grindelwald and the surrounding Jungfrau region is the second largest skiing area in Switzerland.

Aside from skiing, one can walk, hike, skate, ride, go fishing, play golf, tennis or just relax if one is not a skier, said Muller. We embarked on excursions to the Jungfraujoch (3,454m, the highest railway station in Europe); the Schilthorn, where a James Bond movie On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was shot and to the Mannlichen where we felt that we were cradled in the embrace of the needle-like spires of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau. One can take Europe’s longest gondola lift from Grindelwald or a cable car from Wengen, another little resort beloved of the British tourist, up to Mannlichen.

Ultimately, however, in winter, Grindelwald is a skier’s paradise in terms of the quality and quantity of slopes and the fact that you can ski for a week and not retrace your tracks, according to one ardent skier. “What’s more, 43 mountain railways and ski lifts operate up to a maximum altitude of 2,971m,” said Urs Kessler, marketing director of Jungfrau Railways. The over 200 km runs assure superb skiing. We often saw skiers stop mid trail to admire the snowy vistas, scything over a mountain and sometimes dawdling in order to take in the drop-dead views. There’s cross country skiing, night skiing, night ski jumping, curling, skating on a natural rink, etc.

Which is why, when Joe Luggen, director of tourism, Grindelwald Tourist Center, persuaded us to take a ski lesson, we jumped at the idea. Later, my husband dissuaded me from indulging in this “dangerous sport” because of my brittle bones. We, however, proceeded to the ski school, a 10-minute bus ride away, for his first lesson. He rented gear for SFr 28 (Rs 812) and was soon mingling with helmeted, ski-suitclad toddlers resembling bright alpine flowers. While the little ones examined their tiny skis and each other’s dark glasses with the air of world cup competitors, the instructor put her new recruit through the paces. The tenor of the school was casually sporty and no one looked askance at the 50-year-old with a bald pate, balancing precariously on his skis.

The mountain air at the ski school was crisp and cool. But the sun blazed above and at high altitudes that can be dangerous as it reflects off the bright ski slopes. Before we knew it, and by the time he had completed his first ski lesson, we were both a deep tomato-red. A day’s ski lesson (apart from earning you a tan) could set you back by SFr 64 (Rs 1,856), three days by SFr 159 (Rs 4,611) and five days by SFr 540 (Rs 15,660).

Way back in time the Alps were the province of peasant farmers and shepherds who fashioned rough and ready skis as a form of transportation down the slopes. It was in 1881 that the first skier came here, according to Luggen, but before that the Jungfrau region was frequented by painters, writers and British aristocrats. As skiing became a more sophisticated sport, money was made from the hitherto profitless snow. By 1948, Grindelwald was a full-fledged tourist resort for both summer and winter. The winter community’s connective tissue became a shared love of skiing and soon chair lifts began to stitch paths to every summit.

Today, there are tough sheer drops that test the mind and muscle of the most courageous sporting bloods; runs that are savagely tilted or sheathed in deep demanding snow as well as gentle ones for the not so experienced. Neither blue blood nor fat wallets are necessary here like at Gstaad or St Moritz where one’s appearance has to be as scrupulously tended as the setting is determinedly picturesque. All that’s necessary is an abiding passion for skiing or if not that, for walking and nature.

“We did have the King of Spain and other celebrities staying with us, “ Muller had told us. “But our celebrities prefer to remain incognito.” While Indian traffic has been picking up, in the 60s, the Regina was the favorite watering hole of the Birlas in summer, said Muller
As tourism grew, so did the num-ber of hotels. In 1906, there were 30 hotels. Today there are 51 hotels anda number of apartments, In fact a multitude of quaintchalets and chalet-style apartments stairstep their way up the mountainsides at Grindelwald and along the village’s main street. There areno hotel towers and neon here, merely oodles of charm and bustle because this is a village that has chosen not to grow. The atmosphere is casual rather than fur-wrapped as at the more swish resorts. No one dresses up. Men wear sweaters and sports jackets and ladies, tweed skirts and suede pants in the evening.

The convivial bars area buzz with exhausted but animated skiers in the evenings indulging in a little to a doctor who sadly told her that a pres ski fun. In the hotels, he had been frozen to death. the ravenous range up and Such horror stories apart, it was down the tables eyeing the a fabulous evening when beginners buffets that seem to vie with and experts showed off their minor the mountains in terms of bruises and aching bones like war- their height and spread. Fires leap and crackle in roaring fireplaces, while outside, the big white powder bowls glimmer in the moonlight, vast arenas untracked for days.

Grindelwald is in the Bernese Oberland, an area of 4,600 km which comprises nine valleys and the lovely lakes of Thun and Brienz. There’s plenty to do here in summer as well.

The climax of a sojourn in Grindelwald could possibly be a trip to the mega mountain world of the Jungfraujoch, the highlight of any visit to the Jungfrau region as well as to the Schilthorn. At the latter, we retraced the footsteps of celluloid hero James Bond, up to the world’s first mountaintop revolving restaurant to savor the spectacular 360’ view drenched in solitude and snow. To the left was a precipice, to the right, a snowfield and the end-less spectacle of skiers in the distance, resembling alpine butterflies, speeding down thrilling down hill runs, and flitting across sheer mountain faces. Natural splendor, exhila dinner, were going to toboggan down the slopes. As we sipped and dipped and twirled our bread speared on a fork in the steaming bubbling viscous fondue, tans were compared, ski problems discussed and ski problems discussed and ski stories swapped.