This was my so far largest (around 1.800m total elevation gain) and most solitary ski tour. There had been strong warm southern winds (Foehn) the days before, such that the snow had been melting a lot at lower elevations, and the snow had become more or less hard. This was not so nice for walking up (I was very glad to have crampons for my skis for better grip on the snow crust) and skiing down, but on the other hand kept the avalance risk low.
After arrival by train in Buchs SG (448 m) in the evening before, I started walking up to the hut at Buchser Malbun (1.369 m). Since the footpaths through the woods were more or less icy, I decided walking along the winding road. There I was very lucky to get a lift by the hut owner in her car, saving me about two hours of boring (and strenous, with all my equipment in my large backpack) walk in the dark. Going down the next late afternoon, I was lucky again, taking advantage of the ski bus operating that week on a daily basis - due to the local "sports holidays", about 150 children were at Malbun for ski training during the day.
Since I had almost a whole day at my disposal, I started early and did two summits. I would have preferred to traverse right below the ridge between them to save intermediate loss of elevation, but it turned out to be too difficult because of steep rocky belts and so I went down to Obersäss at about 1700 m. The last about 100 meters of ascent to both summits were to steep to take the skis, so I walked. With the ski boots on the brittle rocks of the exposed Fulfirst summit, this was actually a bit scary.
| Berghaus Malbun and surroundings |  Simi (Berner Sennhund) |  I was the only overnight guest. |  Buchs |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ascent to Alvier |  |  Alvier, Chrummenstein |  |  |
 The valley of the river Rhine |  |  |  Chili Alvier? | |
| Alvier summit |  |  |  |  |
 Walensee in the fog, Churfirsten to the right |  |  |  | |
| Along below the ridge |  Säntis (2502 m) |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  | |
 |  |  |  | |
 |  Alvier |  |  | |
| Fulfirst |  Rosswis |  |  |  summit |
 |  Gamsberg |  exposed ridge |  My Free Trek Venture skiboards (aka snow blades) by Rossignol, as short as 88 cm! | |
| Downhill skiing |  Glannachopf |  Glannlichopf |  |  Malbun, Buchs in the haze |