An enchanting autumn weekend in Saas-Fee

On Fri­day, I take the train from Basel to Brun­nen where I meet my girl­friend Bel. We then head off to Saas-Fee togeth­er. The weath­er is any­thing but good. Our view on the jour­ney through the moun­tains is obscured by thick fog and low-hang­ing clouds. But we’re not too both­ered as we’re both look­ing for­ward to the next two days so much.

We arrive in Saas-Fee at sev­en o’clock in the evening. The weath­er has bright­ened up a lit­tle and we’re excit­ed about stay­ing at the hos­tel. We’re greet­ed by a steep and a not-so-steep ramp lead­ing into the wellnessHostel4000. Glid­ing down them is lots of fun. Trav­el­ling up is not quite as easy, espe­cial­ly with a heavy bag on your shoul­ders. The effort real­ly gets my mus­cles work­ing.

Day 2: A tour of discovery tour at Aqua Allalin

I’m look­ing for­ward to the break­fast buf­fet. The weath­er looks fog­gy and grey, so today seems the per­fect day to enjoy the hostel’s spa facil­i­ties. The relax­ation area and fit­ness room are locat­ed on the low­er floor of the youth hos­tel. The well­ness area is beau­ti­ful and spa­cious, fea­tur­ing lots of dark stone. It has an invig­o­rat­ing ice show­er, a reju­ve­nat­ing hot water show­er called a ‘Feuer­dusche’, a cas­cad­ing rain show­er called a ‘Regen­dusche’, a whirlpool, a steam bath, a gen­tler sauna called a ‘bio sauna’, a Finnish sauna and a large hot stone.

The friend­ly Span­ish life­guard guides me around and shows me all the dif­fer­ent facil­i­ties. I ask him whether there is a spe­cial wheel­chair for wet areas, but he answers no. Nev­er­the­less, I go into the bio sauna briefly, because it doesn’t get so hot in there, which is bet­ter for the tyres on my wheel­chair. There is also a swim­ming lift for the swim­ming pool, which I use when I go swim­ming. The water is won­der­ful­ly clear and enjoy­ably refresh­ing.

Feel­ing relaxed and warmed, we leave the well­ness area and return to our room. We then set off for an evening walk. The vil­lage cen­tre is small and hilly, which makes the trip a bit stren­u­ous. But we are reward­ed with beau­ti­ful views.

Day 3: Breathtaking views

At sev­en on the dot, I wake up with­out an alarm clock, give my girl­friend a kiss, jump into the wheel­chair, look out of the win­dow and get my cam­era. It’s the blue hour, just before sun­rise. The light is sub­tle and bal­anced. The val­ley is still in the shade and the Feeg Glac­i­er is glow­ing, sur­round­ed by blue.

The trip was worth­while for these moments alone. A few moments lat­er, the first rays of sun­shine reach the peaks of the Täschhorn and the Dom. At 4,545 metres above sea lev­el, the Dom is the high­est moun­tain in the whole of Switzer­land. This was a fact I did­n’t know before. The Dufour­spitze is indeed high­er, but the moun­tain strad­dles the bor­der between Switzer­land and Italy. I must say, the view is real­ly impres­sive.

I have the feel­ing that in Saas-Fee every­thing starts a lit­tle ear­li­er and ends a lit­tle ear­li­er than I am used to. This means it’s worth get­ting up ear­ly. The break­fast buf­fet ends at 9.30 a.m. and check-out is at 10 a.m. The cable cars close at 3.30 p.m. or 4 p.m. It is strik­ing how much every­thing is geared towards snow sports. Nes­tled deep with­in the moun­tains, Saas-Fee is a sports par­adise with breath­tak­ing views.

After check­ing out, we take part in the main sport­ing activ­i­ty of the day: car­ry­ing our lug­gage back to the car! We’re quite exhaust­ed when we reach the car. We load up our lug­gage and head back down to the Alpin Express. This is an excel­lent wheel­chair-acces­si­ble cable car that is large enough to accom­mo­date an elec­tric wheel­chair. We head off towards the revolv­ing restau­rant on the Mit­te­lalallin sum­mit.

To change to the Metro Alpin (the under­ground metro), wheel­chair users must report to the tick­et office down­stairs so that some­one can come and assist. Three men then help me on the train. The exit at the top still has a step but it isn’t too bad.

Once at the top, we are tak­en straight to the lift and enter the revolv­ing restau­rant.  We slow­ly cir­cle around for an hour and enjoy the panoram­ic views. There is also a ter­race under­neath the restau­rant. It’s acces­si­ble by lift and here you can enjoy the fresh air at an alti­tude of 3,500 metres and watch the snow sports enthu­si­asts enjoy­ing the slopes.

There is a wheel­chair-acces­si­ble toi­let on the ter­race lev­el. To exit this lev­el, I need the assis­tance of the train or restau­rant staff who can oper­ate the lift. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, I can’t find any­one from there who can help.

So my girl­friend goes on a search – and finds what she’s look­ing for. We reach the metro and start the descent from the glac­i­er. At the metro’s exit at the bot­tom, my girl­friend skil­ful­ly helps me nav­i­gate the slop­ing con­crete step. After arriv­ing in the val­ley, we take anoth­er stroll through the beau­ti­ful vil­lage and enjoy a cof­fee in the sun­shine. Then it’s time for the long but scenic jour­ney home with a stopover at Lake Grim­sel.

I arrive in Basel at mid­night, exhaust­ed and inspired. I check how my plants are doing and then it’s off to my famil­iar bed. The pow­er of the moun­tains has done me good. I would vis­it Saas-Fee again, but I would take my hand bike with me for sup­port.

Hey, my name is Simon Hitzinger, but most peo­ple call me Hitzi. I am 30 years old and like to focus on the beau­ti­ful things in life. Pho­tog­ra­phy helps me, so I guess that’s why I’m a pho­tog­ra­ph­er. After my acci­dent in 2011, I learned that focus mat­ters a lot. Sud­den­ly, I couldn’t feel my body from my chest down. Do I focus on the light or the parts in shad­ow? I love being out and about and dis­cov­er­ing new things with my cam­era.

Holidays for all

Togeth­er with “Stiftung Denk an mich”, we made it pos­si­ble for Jason and his fam­i­ly to take a break in Laax.