Day 5

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Day 5: Mt. Titlis
Today was the day I had been looking forward to the most. Mt Titlis! Traveling to the top of the mountain was quite an ordeal, which required us to take three different lifts, one of which being a rotating gondola that provided us an amazing view of the mountain. Upon arriving at the top of the mountain I was a bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of Indian tourists, and by the stench. The ski resort was on the very top of the mountain at an elevation of 10,000 feet. There was an outdoor seating area to eat lunch, which we were unable to use thanks to the gale force winds we were experiencing at the time. There was also a snow covered hill we could climb on which provided an amazing view of the mountains. When we were done, we could either walk, slide, or in some people’s case, role head-over-heals down the hill. I opted to walk. Other features of the ski resort included a gift shop, restaurant, a glacier cave and even a place where you could get your picture taken wearing traditional Swiss clothing. When we thought the storm had passed by, we took a lift to a different location where we were able to go snow tubing. The best part of this was actually standing in line for the snow lift when a large family rudely pushed by us to cut in line. While waiting for the chair to come, they kept shuffling around and, upon sitting down on the chair, they were too focused on the scenery to notice that their small child had fallen off the chair and was now dangling over the edge like some stunt double in a James Bond movie. We screamed bloody murder and the chairlift operator just sort of rolled his eyes and shut the lift down, as if he’d seen this too many times before. After giving the family a thorough tongue-lashing, the lift resumed. The storm began to get worse, so we regrouped and began moving back down the mountain, back to Engelberg. I feel as though global warming is a threat the resort but not in the obvious way others may believe. Yes they do depend on snow and cold weather; however, there is no way the warming will ever get to the point where there is no snow on Mt Titlis. I feel as though their biggest threats are the social and economic issue that will arise as other parts of the world begin to feel the effects. Global warming has the potential to cause problems that could jeopardize tourism, not only to the mountain, but also the entire world.

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