Yesterday was a free day until 4:00 p.m. so I took the opportunity to check out the mountain that our hotel is named for. The trip up required two gondola lifts. Good job I'm not afraid of heights. Don't think I've ever been this high up in the air! Each gondola holds about 10 people and a lot of them are geared up for skiing and snowboarding. Some of us just gape out the windows in disbelief at what we are seeing and where we are hanging!

The giant gears that keep us safe and moving are enormous and actually quite colourful. After the gondolas we boarded a vertical train for the final ascent. At the final stop we were 4,000 metres up.

Mount Allalin watches over the little town of Saas-Fee and provides all-year skiing and snowboarding for the well-off. It is sparklingly beautiful. I sat on in a deck chair with my little painting journal and did my best to due justice to the view that surrounded me.