After leaving Grächen we drove down the valley and then up the next one to Saas Grund where we had noticed in a brochure provided by the Swiss tourist board that two campsites where open. The first one was just a little dirty back garden with no electricity for the van provided. And the next one you had to run your cable through an open window to a hotel, and there was no running water or toilets. So we decided to drive up to our beloved Saas Fee to sniff the atmosphere. Again this is a car free resort so you have to park your vehicle in a huge multi story car park at the entrance of the village. By "accident" we passed the hotel we had stayed in before, Garni Feehof, surprisingly as it is on the main high street, and the manager was in the office. We took courage and asked if they had  "ein zimmer frei". So there and then we decided to stay for three days to check out the facilities in the winter as we had previously only been there during the "summer" season. When strolling back to the van to pick up our stuff we passed a shop that sold the pair of ice climbing boots Steve wanted as snowboard boots, same as his friends Damian and Joe. Well in the shop we started to fible around their stack of snow boards and found a bright green thing that was the right size for Malin. Good price as well, it seemed. The guy was very nice and helpful and some snowboard boots were tried on and tested out. So our walk to the car turned out extremely expensive as from this little shop we had just purchased a snow board and two pairs of boots. The following morning we hit the slopes nice and early, catching the first gondola around half past eight. The piste had all been bashed, not a soul in sight, cold, crisp and morning sun rising above the rugged mountains. PARADISE! Steve thought that the off piste looked so lovely that he had to try it only to find out that it was around two meter of lose powder and had to have help to get out of it. In the afternoon Malin's new snow board was ready and the rest of the day was spent on the nursery slope down in the village. Both of us absolute adore Saas Fee for its picturesque village but the main slopes are above 3000m, which tends to give you a headache if you are up there too long and most of the lifts are drag lifts, one of them being extremely long. But the snow conditions are always perfect. It is not a very big resort, so after three days we got an itch in our discovery foot and it was time to move on. Besides, we had spent more than enough in the sports shops, and the hotel, even though being one of the cheaper ones, was still quite expensive compared to having your own mobile lodging.