Art of living · November 26, 2022

A White Weekend in Arolla

Silence, snow, the bare bones of winter. In Arolla, white becomes a substance, a theme dear to the writer-traveller Sylvain Tesson, welcomed at the Kurhaus around his book “Blanc”.

By Patricia · 5 min read

Snow-covered peak above Arolla in the cold light of winter

There are weekends when the mountain is reduced to a single colour. Snow has covered everything, the sky has turned milky, and the silence becomes almost tangible. In Arolla, at 2,000 metres, the stripped-back winter offers that rare experience: a world given back to white.

White as a substance

It is precisely this theme that the writer-traveller Sylvain Tesson has explored — a geographer by training and the author of some forty books, including “The Art of Patience” (La Panthère des neiges). In “Blanc”, he recounts a ski traverse of the Alps, from Menton to Trieste, carried out over four winters with the mountain guide Daniel du Lac. Of this immersion in the snow he writes: “I thought I was venturing into beauty; I was dissolving into a substance.”

I thought I was venturing into beauty; I was dissolving into a substance.
Sylvain Tesson, “Blanc”

An encounter at the Kurhaus

The Grand Hôtel & Kurhaus had the pleasure of welcoming the author for an evening, around a talk, a book signing and a dinner. The setting, perched in the Val d’Hérens, a witness to the golden age of alpinism, naturally extended the story: here too, the high mountains have to be earned, and winter imposes its silence.

Living your own white weekend

There is no need to cross the Alps to taste this experience. A pair of snowshoes beneath the stone pines, a day of ski touring, or simply an armchair by the window and a book are enough. In Arolla, white is not a backdrop: it is an invitation to slow down, to look, to let oneself dissolve, for a moment, into the landscape.