Allison

Ok, me again. We're still looking for a place to ski in January, with a place to have a civil ceremony in town..which we're finding not as easy! We want a place that boosts a lot of snow in January (we went to Kitzbuhel last year and there wasn't that much snow)..Any help would greatly be appreciated! Thanks

Ed

Have never heard of Grinderwald or Wengen in Austria. <BR> <BR>Do you, perhaps, mean Wengen or Grindelwald in Switzerland? <BR> <BR>Yes, we've been. Reliable skiing. <BR> <BR>But Swiss bureauacracy ought to make your head spin. I don't think you'll find it easy to get married there on a short visit. And Wengen wouldn't be a site for a civil marriage anyway, as the village is part of the Lauterbrunnen Gemeinde, just down the hill. <BR> <BR>twenj

Allison

Oops! I did mean Switzerland! Sorry. Is Switzerland is as complicated to get married in as Austria?

Al Godon

Grinderwald. I like that one. <BR>Most misspellings are not funny; that one hits me as being a tickler. <BR>We ground our way to Grinderwald or some such thing. <BR> <BR>I am curious. Allison, I am curious about something. If the Austrian Alps don't have much snow, why would you expect the Swiss Alps to have more?? <BR>

Ed

Al, I can't answer for Allison, but in fact her question is a good one. There are significant differences in snow conditions between mountain ranges that are pretty close. <BR> <BR>The Jungfrau region in general has much more reliable natural snow than most Western European ski areas. Within that relatively small area Mürren typically has better snow condtions than the rest of the region in years of poor snow. There's quite a difference in the amount of moisture dropped in the Valais (e.g. Zermatt and Saas-Fee) area as opposed to in the Jungfrau region, in favor of the Jungfrau area. (Which means it's a bit wetter there in summer than in Zermatt.) Remarkable when you consider that, as the crow flies, the Jungfrau and the Matterhorn are only 40-50 miles apart, if that. <BR> <BR>

Allison

Hey! While skiing in Kitzbuhel on mild snow, we had friends who skied in the same TYROL region who had a lot of snow, during the SAME peroid...you never know!

al Godon

Not being as ski person, I don't follow snow reports. I guess that snow depth is like rain fall. Some areas get it and some don't. <BR>Judging from the amount of snow on that awesome ridge towering over Saas Fee, that range must really pack it in during the winter. <BR>

Ed

Al, I don't have winter precip numbers for Switzerland or Austria. As a point of comparison, though, Ouray, in Southwest Clorado, gets a measly 140 inches of snow on average each winter. It's on the east side of a line of peaks. Telluride, 8 miles away (as the crow flies) to the west gets, as I recall, either 240 inches or 280 inches. Both are no where near the top of the peaks (roughly 8 and 9 thousand feet) so you can imagine what the crests at 13-15,000 feet must get. <BR> <BR>

Bob Brown

The figures for Ouray are not to be sneezed at; 140 inches equals 12 feet if my arithemtic is intact. It does lie in the precipation shadow cast by the peaks around Telluride. There is the double wall of the Yankee Boy basin to cause enough of an updraft for the clouds to condense what ever moisture they are carrying. Sneffels and Potosi are on the north side of the basin and they are formidable peaks. That wall of rock a little north and east of Telluride (and slightly south of Sneffels) is also a formidable barrier. <BR>Mountains do at times make their own weather. <BR>The same pattern is readily visible in Yellowstone. The southwest corner gets most of the moisture, when there is some, while the northeast corner toward Cooke City is considerably drier. <BR> <BR>

chris

Hi, I live near Luzern and know another ex-pat that recently got married here to another non-Swiss person. I don't know the particulars but this person did say that they had a lot of paper work to fill in and that they had to get married in a civil ceremony in the Rathaus (townhall). As I understand it, all weddings must take place in the townhall. I think your best bet is to simply contact the Kanton and tourist office you wish to get married in (Bern for Grindelwald or Wengen).