This year we once again headed to the Engadine region, to ski the Albula Pass tour from St. Moritz to Davos. We were joined by the following crew:

From left to right: Bill Pearson, Scott Wood, Jeff and Nancy Ray, Fred Larke, Geoff Alexander, and Mark, studying something!

Our first day was a lift served "shake down" day out of Diavolezza. The weather was very dark and gloomy, so I'm afraid none of our pictures from that day made the cut! On day 2, we left the St. Moritz ski area from its summit on Piz Nair, and made our way off piste and into the back country en route to the Jenatsch hut. The snow was good from the start! Our reward for the stormy day previous. Heading down our first short descent to the Suvretta Pass.

Piz Nair recedes into the background as we skin up or first climb to the Fuorcla Suvretta.

Ripping our skins to ski down into the headwaters of Val Bever.

The snow is pretty good here! Some old tracks buried under the new recent snow, but other than that we have a clear canvas to paint on.

Yahoo!

And more yahoo.

We sort of made a mess of that. Actually pretty good stacking if we do say so ourselves.

Our home for the evening; the Jenatsch hut, seen here in the growing evening shadows as we returned after an early evening lap up a nearby viewpoint.

The evening viewpoint in question. Catching the last rays of afternoon sunshine.

The following day started out rather in and out of mists, but the visibility was good, the winds not too strong, and the snow conditions outstanding for our tricky section traversing high on steep slopes above Val Bever.

Rounding the corner on the steep traverse, we enter a high hanging valley and can relax a bit into a more gradual climb.

High in our valley, we can see across to Piz Bever and Suvretta.

The sun grows stronger as we climb.

Finally, we get to go down again! The snow is pretty good on this north facing slope.

Some fun in a narrow gully brings us to the gentler slopes of the Alp Mulix.

Heading down to treeline.

At the end of our road, the cute little town of Bergün. This is taken the following morning as we head out again in a light snowfall.

Bye bye, Bergün! (Bravuogn in the local Romansch dialect).

Chairlifts and a drag lift get us high up on the Alp Darlux, saving us a good 1000m of climbing.

The weather looked more promising as we began our skin up the ridge of the Tschimas da Tisch.

In and out of views... Once again the photos stop as we were completely socked in by the time we reached our summit and headed down steep and tricky terrain. Too busy squinting into the fog and following GPS tracks to get any photos of the blurry fog.

But we eventually got out from under, and begain our last skin up of the day, to the Kesch hut.

Arriving at the Kesch hut after a very long and challenging day.

Scott helps out with the dishes after dinner and makes some Swiss friends.

The next morning, we headed up to see what we could do in yet another snowstorm. Scott is ready for anything, if rather frightening looking!

Back at the hut in time for lunch, a mighty mountain of Rösti, which we valiantly put away in no time. Jeff cleaning up the crumbs...

And as if that weren't enough, there is also apple cake!

Leaving the Kesch hut behind, we finally get a sunny day for our journey to the Grialetsch hut. We climbed over the shoulder of a peak to gain some good north facing slopes to begin our day.

The Porchabella glacier drops away.

Another party leaving the hut for other destinations.

The snow is enticingly light as we gain elevation.

At last, we begin our descent. The snow is as light and fluffy as we could hope for!

The rocks are pretty well covered with the real light stuff!

Pausing to take it all in and congratulate ourselves on our good luck.

It's a long way down, and fun the whole way.

But what goes down must come up again... we hit the valley bottom and have another big climb ahead of us.

Heading up into the Vallorgia drainage, the sun is gaining power.

Our big valley behind; the Kesch hut is out of sight behind the left foreground peaks.

Ever higher; ever hotter.

Our epic descent of earlier in the morning basically fills the left side of the background of this photo. Memories of powder already fading in the heat of our climb.

But wait! The fun's not over! We still have a good descent into the Grialetsch hut, and the snow is beautiful here too!

Wowee Zowee!

A great way to end another long day.

Our home for this, our last night on the trail, is the Grialetsch hut.

An older, more "traditional" Swiss hut, it retains its rustic charm.

The next morning is once again clear and sunny as we begin our last day's journey north to Davos.

Skinning up to a pass north of the hut.

And more skinning...

Up a somewhat narrow gully to a sharp col.

Ready for some more powder snow? I think so...

Oh boy!

It just keeps going...

And going...

But then at last it's time to head up again. We come around a ridge high on the Schwarzkopf.

From here it's one more descent to the Flüela Pass.

Great snow still!

Down and down...

Speaks for itself I think!

We wish it didn't need to end!

But at last we reach the snow covered road at teh Flüela Pass hospiz.

And after skiing down said road for a few kilometers, we found a great lunch and a taxi ride to Davos!

In Davos, it's time to pack our bags and head for home. It was a great party though, with enough good memories to last until the next time!