Swiss Black Powder
With high expectations
It is snowing buckets, but he still pauses intermittently to point out, on our left, the sculptures of the planet Neptune and, just around the bend, Uranus, that lie along the space-themed trail, and towards the sparkling assortment of Switzerland's famous "four thousanders" (mountains higher than 4000m) that loom around us.
It may feel like we're setting off for outer space, but I am in fact about to travel back in time. My destination is the Hotel Weisshorn, a high-Alpine belle-epoque beauty dating from about 1891. With 30 pine-clad bedrooms, granite stairways and antique furnishings that recreate the style of the Victorian era, it's a destination in itself.
For snow lovers, it's also ideally perched above the spectacular and seriously underpopulated slopes of the Val d'Anniviers ski area two hours east of Geneva. As well as having 227km of marked pistes, this is a place for amazing off-piste powder skiing, accessible right from the door of the hotel.
The journey to this hard-to-reach hotel is also a real adventure - the perfect antidote to the usual package-holiday coach transfer. There's no road access, so many guests arrive by randonnee (walking up with skins on their skis); others make the 90-minute journey in good boots or in snowshoes, trudging along a groomed path called Chemin des Planetes (hence the astrological sculptures).
Given the late hour and the heavy snow, I hitch a ride on the back of a snowmobile laden with guests' rucksacks, ski bags and a woman with a baby.
Frozen, I stagger from the Ski-Doo into the warm entry hall and step straight back in time. When it was built, the Hotel Weisshorn favoured le style anglais. Guests dressed for dinner and gentlemen smoked only in the fumoir. More than 100 years on, the original decor remains but heating and modern showers have been added, and sartorial expectations have come down a peg (jeans and Gore-Tex prevail, with red felt slippers provided by our hosts).
In the traditionally furnished salon sits the original piano, which was carried up the mountain on the backs of six men over several days. Beside it is a wood-burning water heater cum shower (no longer in use). There is Wi-Fi now, yet the telegraph machine still hangs on the wall and wide corridors are dotted with porcelain water pitchers and black-and-white portraits.
After a four-course dinner - including foie gras mousse, veal chops and excellent Valais wine in the casual wood-lined dining room among a few Swiss families and small groups - I retire to my simple bedroom. The next morning, blinding sunshine cascades through the windows, revealing dozens of peaks, including the Dent d'Herens, the glacier of Les Diablerets and the Dent Blanche, which tops out at 4358m.
Swiss Black Powder - News
As well as having 227km of marked pistes, this is a place for amazing off-piste powder skiing, accessible right from the door of the hotel. The journey to this hard-to-reach hotel is also a real adventure - the perfect antidote to the usual
The recipe for the torta includes a marinade for the pork, how to roast the pork and assembly of the torta. In a spice grinder, grind achiote seeds, oregano, adding black pepper, cinnamon and cumin. Run the grinder until mixture is a fine powder.
With the admin taken care of, Erika, the kindly Swiss death assistant, passed the poison cup to the 71-year-old motor-neurone disease sufferer. He drank it down and, minutes later, there was a terrible, hoarse rasping sound.
Black Forest gâteau, when made properly and laden with cherries and Kirschwasser, can be sublime but the best exception of all is the Roulé Marquise, a chocolate Swiss roll filled with cream and raspberries. I can remember telling one chef about it and
Occupying eight rooms, the work is an intimate encounter with Black's work in what could hardly be a more appropriate setting. The opening room is crowded with forms at once delicate and self-assured, all of it dusted with powder paint of shades of
Whitetail Woods: American made, Swiss made or German made, A few ...
Now when my shooting does start up again which can't be soon enough if you ask me I will be trying out some different powder. Not to long ago I had aquired a tradional caplock muzzleloader called a Springfield Hawken and who I got it from was shooting Swiss powder out of it with very good success, so when I received the rifle I received the powder two. This granulation of Swiss Black Powder is great for use in a wide variety of black powder cartridge rifles, muzzleloaders and 45 caliber and larger pistol calibers. Founded in 1853, Aubonne SA manufactures the finest black powder known in the world. Swiss Black Powder is the preferred powder of both National and International competitors because of its quality and lot-to-lot consistencies. There is a reason their motto is "Supreme Black Powder". Now the Swiss powder came with the Springfield Hawken but the Schuetzen I made a trade for. It seems my friend from Colorado is have a hard time getting BH209 when I can get just by visiting the closest Cabela's so, I said sure I'll trade. I would like to see the difference between Swiss, German & American made blackpowder. Just as so I can I plan to do just that.
In case you're interested, I found this line in Wiki's treatise on "Gunpowder." "To reduce the likelihood of accidental ignition by static electricity, the granules of modern black powder are typically coated with graphite, which prevents the build-up of electrostatic charge." I'm guessing their concern is more during the manufacturing and shipping processes.
Swiss Black Powder - Bookshelf
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It is strongly recommended that when using the Swiss Black Powder, that you cut your normal load in half before working up an ideal load for your firearm. ...
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