Wengen

A Swiss alpine village located in the Bernese Oberland of central Switzerland, it is on the Jungfraubahn railway to many ski routes. We went to Wengen on 2 separate days, one on a sunny day and one during a snowstorm. As Bradley is an expert skier, he wanted to ski down from Eigergletscher (The highest skiing point in Jungfrau Ski Region), so he decided to visit Wengen on 2 separate days leaving one day to enjoy the scenery and one day to race down the mountain. Don’t ask me why I went along with it, this is just what happens when you are stupidly in love and let the boyfriend in charge of planning.

Our first time there, the weather was so beautiful and we had so much fun running around taking pictures and having snow fights. Our second time there was during a snowstorm and it was perhaps the worst day of my life, and don’t forget I went through chemo. The day started off raining/ snowing at the train station at Lauterbrunnen but it was not bad, at first.

Then as we started heading up the mountain, the snowstorm started getting worst and worst. When we reached Eigergletscher, everyone on the train came skiing down from the station like pros leaving only losers like me who can’t ski behind. I had rented a sledge and I thought it would be easy to go sledging down the mountain but I was dead wrong. Despite what I read online, sledging can be very dangerous in the Jungfrau region especially when it’s heavily snowing as they can be difficult to control. In fact, I had troubles controlling the sledge as it keeps going off the sledging route and onto the skiing route so I decided to walk it down the mountain. Then the rope slipped out of my hands and the sledge went off sledging by itself so Bradley had to chase after it leaving me along on the mountain.

By alone, I meant I was literally alone because apparently the weather got so bad that people stopped coming up to the mountains, but I didn’t know this information till later. I stood there waiting for Bradley for over 10 minutes covered in snow but then I remembered we had previously discussed that we would meet up at the next rest stop. I thought I could walk there but the route was slippery and I slipped badly onto a pile of snow possibly covering a giant rock. I fell on my butt and the pain came shooting up my spine, I could not get up for what seemed like forever. This was honestly the most terrifying moment of my life. I was there by myself, no one was coming up, and no one was passing me by so I had literally no help. I remember thinking if I start crying and don’t start moving, I would freeze to death. And I did not survive cancer just to die on a skiing trip when I don’t even ski.

So I finally got up and crawled back up the mountain to the train station. Thankfully I did, because the waiting room was warm and my clothes were soaking wet. I took off all of my clothes and laid them out on the tables when a staff came in. He was shocked to see me since they had stopped people from coming up for the rest of the day due to the weather so he assumed everyone was down the mountain already. This was when I lost it and started to cry because I realized — I really could’ve been stranded.

So my takeaways from this trip are: don’t let boyfriend plan trips, don’t go on a skiing trip if you can’t ski, rent better sledge preferably one with a steering wheel, buy a satellite phone, check the weather and then check it again (which we did) and if in the moment the weather doesn’t seem right – turn around and run for your life.

Luckily Bradley came back to the station to look for me. After my clothes had dried, I took the train down the mountain while he skied. And I spent the rest of the month in pain from the fall.