SinDee climbs the Uetliberg to collect winter colours

3 November 2026 · 09:05 · SinDee

Uetliberg – 3 November 2026, 9:05. On the top, beanie pulled down over my ears, sunglasses in my pocket because the sun is not coming today, my sketchbook on my knee and my breath making little clouds.

Why walk up

DeeNice wants a winter wall. Before I find a wall, I want the colours for it. You cannot mix winter in a warm room. You have to go and stand in it. So I took the first train up and walked the last part, slowly, through the wet forest. My boots are pink and now also brown.

The blue of fog

Below me the whole city is gone. The lake, the roofs, the towers, all under one soft blanket. People call fog grey. It is not grey. At the edges it is a pale blue, almost the colour of milk in a blue cup. Further down it turns violet where the trees push through. I wrote it down three ways: "milk blue", "pigeon blue", "Tuesday blue". The last one is not a real colour. I will make it one.

Frost on the leaves

On the path the beech leaves are brown, but every edge has a white line of frost, thin as a pencil. When I breathed on one, the white disappeared and the brown became almost red. That is the trick for the wall, I think: dark warm colours with a cold light only on the edges. Not snow everywhere. Just a little silver where the cold touches.

A memory from home

At Lake Baikal in November the ice is not yet strong, and the fog lies on the water like a sleeping animal. My grandmother said fog is the lake keeping its secrets. I liked that. Today the Uetliberg is keeping Zurich's secrets, and I am the only one up here who knows where the city is.

What I bring down

Six colour notes, two cold paws, one leaf with frost (already melted in my pocket) and a very clear idea: blues for the background, rust and warm brown in the middle, a line of silver light on top. Now I need the wall. I will start looking in the small streets this week.

Some colours you cannot buy. You have to climb up and remember them.

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