Make sure you can get off at Goschenen, and then take the mountain cog train, the Lurke Oberald Bah, up to Andermatt (15 minutes). A full-price return train ticket Zurich-Andermatt costs about SFr75. For brochure and further information, contact Alpine Adventures Mountain Reality, Post Box CH-6490, Andermatt, Switzerland (0041 41 872 0900; fax: 0041 41 872 0950).There are still deep snow skiing weeks available in Andermatt, from 15 and 23 March, price SFr1,410 (excluding flights), and from Ski Touring in Bivio from 22 March for seven nights, price SFr1,085.E-mail: bergschule.uri mail.tic.ch.. If I can get in 12 hours’ skiing, thought Cathy Packe, pounds 160 is a small price to pay for a day trip to Switzerland.

But time is of the essence, and this trip was no Swiss watch … My ski flight last Sunday was rather different from the usual charters. For a start, it was a scheduled Swissair flight, so only a few passengers were destined for a day trip to the resort of Engelberg. I identified two fellow travellers; each had a boot bag, and no other luggage. I ruled out another couple, as the woman was carrying that non-skiing accessory, a handbag, but when we got to Zurich they were waiting to get on the transfer bus.
The plane had arrived 10 minutes early. As it turned out, this was the only thing that went according to plan; the rest of the day proceeded in a manner perhaps more typical of the Italians than the Swiss.We had received few instructions, but had been told to look out for someone from the Central Swiss Tourist Board in the arrivals hall There was no one to be seen The information desk couldn’t help.

Eventually, a bus driver was found; he was non-English-speaking, and unable to explain why we were not setting off straightaway. It emerged that we had to wait for another group from the Manchester flight. They, too, arrived early, and by 9.45am 15 of us were waiting expectantly in an over-large bus, ready to go The driver had other plans He thought someone was missing, and decided we should wait. Finally, at 10am, after one of the passengers had taken control and checked the driver’s list of names, we set off for Engelberg.Those of us who had been told we would be in the resort by 10.30am were disappointed. The journey took an hour an a half, through some dreary Zurich suburbs, around the edge of Lucerne, and into the mountains. Eventually the bus started to climb upwards round a series of hairpin bends, and we had our first sight of a snow-covered mountainside.

Where in the Lakes do you take a couple of children who are sure they’re not going to take to fell walking? Adults will go up a stony slope for two or three hours, crouch behind a cairn peeling oranges with cold fingers, and then come back down again on sore feet – and persuade themselves that they’ve had an awe-inspiring tussle with the elements

But kids are realists Children don’t even get to that windswept cairn. They stop after half an hour and say they’re tired now, and they propose to eat the oranges right away and then go back down. They aren’t really tired at all; they could keep going all day if they could see any good reason to do so. Opening times are 30 minutes later on Sundays, and change between October and March for all these sights Five sights inclusive ticket: adults pounds 10 children pounds 5, OAPs pounds 9, family pounds 26.60.. Blencathra is the first hill on the right as you come in along the A66.