Walk This Way by Clive Tully
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“Walk with your legs a bit further apart!” Not the kind of request I get every day, it must be said, but then it's not every day I try to walk through soft snow with what appear to be carbon fibre tea trays attached to my feet. And given the fact that snow-shoes make your feet both wider and longer, the gait required to plod along safely without tripping over yourself isn't exactly elegant.
I've come up the cable car from the Swiss resort of Kandersteg in the Bernese Oberland, to Sunnbüel, and whilst most of its occupants have made a beeline for the ski runs, I'm out to prove there's a lot you can do in all this snow without ever snapping your feet into ski bindings.
Once you get used to them, the snow-shoes are great fun - sort of four wheel drive for feet - and with a ski pole in each hand for stability, you can tackle even soft fresh snow without floundering about up to your waist.
The traditional snow-shoes have a sort of tennis racquet look about them, but there are modern variations, some with aluminium tube frames. Mine look like something out of Star Trek.
My guide is the proprietor of the Hotel Victoria in Kandersteg, and I should stress I'm not receiving special treatment. Casimir Platzer - Casi to both family and guests - likes to get out in the mountains, and at least once a week he'll arrange a walk or snow-shoeing trip.
“The guests don't even have to pay for anything other than the cost of the chairlift or cable car,” he explains. “I enjoy sharing the mountains with them.” Not a bad way to get out of the office for the day...
At Oeschinen I grab hold of a toboggan for the first time in about 35 years. And whilst the traditional wooden Davos sledges are still much in evidence, I find myself going hi-tech again, opting for a lightweight plastic model.
“Watch out”, warns Casi. “You'll go faster with that one.” He's right. As we set off down the hill following a forest track, my sledge skims along at an alarming rate. Steering and stopping come down to use of your feet, and whilst my initial heavy-booted attempts have me turning the sledge over, I quickly learn that the art of steering comes in lighter dabs of feet into the snow. Even so, the stuff manages to force its way up my legs, but despite the resulting wet trousers, my return to tobogganing is exhilarating, and great fun.
One thing you can be certain of in Switzerland is eating well. My first indication that I'm going to need to let out my belt a couple of notches comes at the hotel's raclette and fondue evening. Raclette is like cheese on toast without the toast. A slab of cheese is put under the grill, and the melted top layer is then scraped onto the plate. That and a couple of potatoes ought to have been enough for me, but then comes the star attraction of the evening, the fondue.
“You have to remember the rules,” I'm told. “If a lady drops her bread into the cheese, she has to kiss the gentleman sitting next to her. If it's a man, he has to buy a bottle of wine.”
Wine, I discover, is fundamental to the whole meal. Apparently water reacts with all that gloopy cheese inside you. True or not, it's certainly a great excuse to stick to the old vino. Nevertheless I do need to maintain my concentration - I have men sitting on either side of me!
If you relish the thought of an ice time, you can try curling at the local rink. The idea is to slide your hefty polished stone the length of the ice, getting as close to the centre of a coloured circle called the house at the other end. As with most novices, I put too much effort into sliding the stones, overshooting wildly. A stone travelling more slowly can be made to go further with the assistance of your team mates, sweeping vigorously just in front of its path, warming the ice and making it more slippy.
One of the nicest and simplest ski-free activities is simply to go for a walk, as I discover when I take a gentle amble from Sunnbüel to the Schwarenbach mountain hut. It's one of the oldest in Switzerland, and has an impressive list of former guests, including Lenin, Picasso, Mark Twain and Conan Doyle - who set his famous punch-up between Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty at Reichenbach in the valley below Kandersteg.
Most memorable is the walk itself, seeing the many moods of the mountains. The light changes constantly, the peaks one minute wreathed in mist, the next bathed in full-on sunshine. “No two days up here are the same,” says Casi wistfully. “That's why I like to keep on coming back.”