The good news is that, despite a very warm March, there is significantly more piste open this year than was open last year, although a later Easter has stretched the season for some resorts. The number of open resorts and pistes is still behind the figures for the two seasons prior to last year, but not by much. All my 4 and 5 star resorts have at least one valley run still open, apart from the Portes du Soleil, the Aletsch Arena and Zinal. These resorts do, however, have lots of terrain open, and - in the case of Zinal and the Aletsch - a lot of it above 2000m, around where the freezing level has been hovering just recently.

All the low-lying resorts are now closed. Of the resorts I rate 3 star and above only Anzère and Rougemont have closed completely.  Some resorts with their highest runs below 2000m have managed to keep an impressive amount of piste open, but from my last couple of outings this week, I would surmise these runs are invariably icy in the morning, heavy in the afternoon and decidedly patchy in places.

So, where to go? Verbier is good, Corviglia and Corvatsch in the Engadine should still be good. Flims, Saas-Fee, Samnaun, Val D’Anniviers, Arolla, Zermatt and Mürren should all  be pretty good. I imagine Grindelwald, Wengen, Davos, Klosters, Disentis, Grächen and Glacier 3000 will be good in patches. Andermatt, Engelberg, Belalp and Lauchernalp should be good if you stay high, and you can. Surprisingly Portes du Soleil,  Leysin, Malbun, Scuol,  Lenzerheide, Flumserberg, Obersaxen, Arosa,  Sedrun, Melchsee-Frutt and Adelboden/Lenk reckon to have the vast majority of their runs open still but I can’t imagine conditions are easy. Even Villars and Les Diablerets seem to have a respectable 65km of piste open. Crans, Diavollezza, Bivio, Sörenberg (on the Brienzer Rothorn I imagine) all have significant open terrain and some good altitude.  A lot of other smaller resorts will be open over Easter, although my suspicion is that we will see a huge fall-off of open resorts come April 10th.

Open with significant terrain of 70km or more until the end of April last year were Zermatt, Samnaun/Ischgl and Saas-Fee. Engelberg,  St Moritz, Silvaplana, Grächen, Andermatt and Verbier also kept at least 25km open. Come May, and there was just some limited glacier skiing and very high ski touring.

Then it’s time to get the skis serviced.

Some old friends from the Hellfins Scuba Diving Club have been on a week’s ski holiday in St Anton, so I thought I would pop across to see them. Surprisingly it is quicker to get to St Anton by car from Basel than it is to get to some resorts in Switzerland. The road trip is a doddle, roughly 3 hours and  around 2 hours from Zurich. Key things to remember driving from Switzerland to St Anton are:

• It isn’t obvious where to cross the border. You drive on the motorway towards St Gallen and after St Gallen follow the signs to Chur until you reach exit 3, signposted Widnau,  Diepoldsau and Heerbrugg. You drive through Diepoldsau until you hit the border where you can pick up the motorway towards Innsbruck.
• On the return journey it is easier. The Austrians do acknowledge that people might want to cross the border, so you will see signs for Switzerland and St Gallen. The junction to exit the Austrian motorway is 23, just after a motorway service station.
• Whatever you do avoid crossing the border around Bregenz. It will add a lot of time to your journey.
• You need a permit to drive on the Austrian motorways. You can pick one up at the motorway service station after St Gallen at St Margarethen or wait until you hit the first motorway service station in Austria. I’m sure any other service station in Diepoldsau will sell them too, but I’ve not tried. The stickers cost around 8 euro for the minimum duration of 10 days.
• You need to go through the 14km Arlberg tunnel and drive sharply off it as you exit the tunnel to get to St Anton. You can drive over the Arlberg pass, if it is open, and save yourself the 8.50 euro fee for the tunnel. Scenic but adds time.
• In Austria you are required by law to have winter tyres in wintery conditions. I don’t have winter tyres, but the road conditions for my trip didn’t warrant them. Probably a different story if you go over the Arlberg pass or the weather is bad, although I’ve nenver invested in a set. If the road conditions warrant it, I just don’t drive.
• When you arrive in St Anton you are given a choice of car parks to stay in. None of them are free. I chose the Rendl car park, situated where the old Rendl lifts used to operate and just a few minutes walk to the Rendl, Gampen and Galzig lifts.

As a keen user of public transport you may ask why I didn’t take a train. Granted St Anton has a railway station and indeed it is a very good way to get there – I’ve done it before, from the UK. However from Switzerland the service does not start early enough to get to the resort for a one day ski trip.

For some reason the railway connections between Switzerland and Austria are crap, which is strange because they are so good to other neighbouring countries. You can’t blame the Alps because the Swiss have been tunneling through them like demented moles for years. Bizarrely, the Rhaetian Railways have a line that passes through the 19km Vereina tunnel all the way to Scuol, in the Inn Valley where you would have thought it would be the easiest thing in the world to extend the railway towards Innsbruck, but no, the line stops just a few kilometres shy of the border. My own theory is that the Austrians didn’t want the Voralbergers to get too cosy to the Swiss and avoided making it easy to pass between the Voralberg and Switzerland. Around the time of significant expansion of rail and road networks the 80% of the people of Voralberg did actually vote to become part of Switzerland, but were prevented from doing so. They still speak an Alemmanic dialect more like Swiss German than Austrian German. The Arlberg ski resorts are not all in the Voralberg, Lech and Zurs are, but St Anton is in the Tyrol.

Anyway, I digress. if you do want to take the railway from Switzerland to St Anton, there is a direct service from Zurich which takes from about 2 hours 20 minutes. The train runs 5 times a day, and there are other times you can travel, but you need to change trains. The earliest train is at 8.40am, and the earliest train for which you do not need to change is 10.40am. Certainly makes St Anton do-able for a long weekend if you can find somewhere to stay.

And why would you you choose to go to St Anton, you may ask. The answer is that it is quite simply the best ski resort in the world. Not as extensive as the large French circuits but bags of variety and plenty of off-piste. The nearby resorts of Lech and Zurs used to be connected to the St Anton pistes, but in recent years that run can only be done off-piste. Not sure why, it was one fabulous circuit when it was in place, but neighbouring resorts are still easy enough to get to by bus or taxi. Where St Anton really scores over the French resorts, however, is the nightlife. Not as wild as it used to be, and not as crazy as Mayrhofen or Ischgl, but still pretty good. A few beers at the end of the day in Taps, the Krazy Kanguruh and/or the Mooserwirt (which reputedly sells more beer than any other bar in Austria)  followed by a crawl around  Base Camp, Underground on the Piste, the Piccadilly and the Kandahar makes for a great night out.

Of the Swiss resorts, probably only Grindelwald, Verbier and Zermatt can match St Anton for range of slopes, scenic setting and decent apres ski. Zermatt shades St Anton for fine eating,  and nothing compares with the splendid views of the Matterhorn that dominate Zermatt, but it is more expensive and not as good for beginners. For me the main advantage of Verbier is it is French-speaking, and is probably the best of all the resorts for hard core off-piste. Grindelwald has a quieter (but reasonable) night-life and apres ski scene and fewer challenging off-piste runs, but is blessed with the awesome North Face of the Eiger dominating the town and its slopes.

Finally, on the subject of driving to ski resorts in Austria, Lech is about the same journey time as St Anton – you exit before the Arlberg Tunnel. Ischgl is probably easier to get to than Samnaun, the Swiss resort it shares the Silvretta Arena with, and takes about another half an hour to get to after you pass St Anton (turn right at Pians – it is clearly signposted).

I visited Gstaad Mountain Rides this last weekend, and the conditions were fabulous on-piste. Off-piste was crusty, but these are slopes that are generally between 1000m and 2000m, so it is probably not reasonable to expect too much of them in mid-March. However, in general, there was good snow cover and some fabulous runs on the pistes. The only areas to show significant wear and tear were the steeper black runs, of which there are few in this area, and the valley runs to Gstaad and St Stephan. Remarkably, under-threat Rellerli still seems to be in good nick, and the runs down to Saanen off Eggli were near-perfect.

I have to declare a love affair with Gstaad and its pistes. There are nine unconnected areas in six sectors which make up the Mountain Rides lift pass area, and the public transport that joins everything up is infrequent. However the trains and buses are reliable so if you carry a timetable with you, you need never find yourself hanging around. In addition, there are really only three significant areas – although the others are worth a detour if you have the opportunity – and two of those are in the same designated sector. Added to that, all public transport is free if you have a lift pass.

The senery is stunning, and the area has a fairly high standard in mountain restaurant cuisine. There are no lift queues to speak of, even at busy times, and the lifts are generally modern or scheduled to be updated.

But what really makes this area so enjoyable for me is the mile after mile of wide, easy pistes. There are no flat spots to speak of, and largely avoidable surface lifts. This really is an intermediate paradise, particularly for boarders.

It is also easy to get to from Berne or Basel. Zweisimmen is the gateway to the region, and far more easy to get to by train than car. Most riders would be happy to spend a day on the large area accessible from the gondola station next to the station at Zweisimmen, but trains connect to Lenk and the Adelboden pistes, and the pistes across at Saanen and Rougemont so it is feasible to take in atl east a couple of areas in one day.

Iv’e posted pictures on the relevant resort pages at http://www.swisswintersports.co.uk and at my flickr site here. Check them out.

Baselworld is the world’s largest and most prestigious watch fair. It’s almost 2000 exhibitors  receives over 100,00 visitors on the nearly 2 million square feet of exhibition space. This year it follows sharply on the back of Basler Fasnacht, the largest of the Swiss carnivals, and as always it co-incides with the ski season. I’m a great fan of Swiss watches and love all the glamour and excitement of this fabulous celebration of the art of watchmaking. After a busy few days working the halls, however I’m sure many of the exhibitors and visitors feel they deserve some downtime, and where better to do it that than in  the Swiss Alps?

For skiers and snowboarders the choice is wide, Klewenalp, Melchsee-Frutt and Engelberg are the nearest resorts to get to by public transport or car. Grindelwald, Wengen and Mürren are not much further away and give you iconic views of the Eiger – although Sörenberg, from the top of the Brienzer Stockhorn also gives you a fabulous view of the Jungfrau massif from across Lake Brienz. Of these Engelberg and Grindelwald have the liveliest nightlife, whilst the others make more suitable destinations for a day trip. If you are going to spend a couple of days in the mountains the resorts of the Valais must also surely beckon – Zermatt and Verbier in particular, both of which have a nightlife to match the skiing and snowboarding. We have had a very warm spell recently, but the conditions have improved and all these resorts have good snow reports.

If tobogganing, winter walks, snowshoe-ing or cross-country is your thing, there is plenty of choice, but Gstaad is probably the nearest best option.

You can drive, of course, but many of these locations are car-free and all are served by public transport. The excellent Snow’n'Rail scheme operated by Swiss Railways provides a significant discount for 1 or 2 day breaks on both the rail ticket and the lift pass. For more details of your transport options visit this page.

The good news for booking somewhere to stay that it is much easier to find a place in the mountains for the night than it is in Basel, at least during Baselworld. The strong Swiss Franc has led to many hoteliers having overnight, last-minute vacancies this season. I easily found somewhere in Verbier only last week.

And where do people who live in Basel go? Well, all of the above and a number of other smaller or less well-known resorts. We also have a small resort across the border in Germany at Feldberg, although it is quite low. I think I might try Gstaad this weekend – Zweisimmen is easy to get to and the gondola station for the largest terrain in the area is right next to the station.

Scuol is a spa town and developed as a winter sports destination after the first ski lift was installed in 1956. The railway arrived in 1913 and terminates at Scuol Tarasp station. Conveniently the station is right next to the gondola bottom station with the centre of Scuol and the main Bogn Engiadina spa about 10 minutes walk away or two stops on the bus. Most of the hotels are in the main part of the town, but Scuol Youth Hostel is right next to the station and the gondola, so it was a no-brainer to choose it to stay for a family break.

The hostel is modern and friendly, not quite as well appointed as the one in St Moritz but pretty good nonetheless. For apres ski there are a couple of bars near the bottom station, but they didn’t seem very lively and there was more activity up on the slopes at the Palma below Schlivera. There didn’t seem to be a lot of nightlife going on in Scuol either, but there are some pleasant restaurants, a couple of glitzy hotels with bars, and the spa, which is open late so ideal for a post-ski soak. This is a resort suited to quiet weekend breaks, family holidays or for groups who are happy to entertain themselves.

The beginners area is at the top of the gondola stop at Motta Naluns, although the Ski School offices are at the bottom station. Ski classes run from Monday to Friday so you need to book private lessons at weekends. The ski school staff seemed friendly and relaxed.

The run back down to Scuol from Motta Naluns is a pleasant and very varied red run below the tree line, although there were signs posted when we were there describing it as for experts only. Threading across the run are lots of bits of off-piste. Above Motta Naluns there are lots of lovely scenic runs for intermediates, and in the bowl below Mot da Ri a couple of black runs and varied off-piste. There are valley runs down to the villages of Sent and Ftan as well as Scuol, but there are no lifts back up from Sent so you need to take a bus back to Scuol, and the lifts back from Ftan requires you to take a surface lift part of the way (albeit not a difficult one). However they are both good runs, the one to Sent in particular.

There is a snow park just above Motta Naluns with a good range of boxes and kickers spread around four lines. All the lifts are modern and efficient and you can get around most of the resort without having to use surface lifts. The mountain restaurants all seemed fine without being exceptional. All in all, Scuol has a number of very pleasant, varied slopes for skiers and snowboarders of all standards – certainly enough for a day or two – and gets into my list of favourite medium-sized resorts.

http://www.swisswintersports.co.uk/scuol.php

St Moritz is more than a ski and snowboard mecca, however. Cross-country skiing is at least as well catered for, with beautiful circuits all around the valley. Snowshoe walks, winter walks, toboggan runs, skating, curling and a range of other diversions ensure nobody is bored in st Moritz. Sadly there seems to be no public spa in the resort, although there clearly was one and it looks like one is planned, but the Kempinski has a spa open ot the public at a fee. Indeed many of the swanky hotels allow the hoi polloi to enjoy their facilities at rates that are not unduly extravagent.

Despite the stream of private jets flying into Samedan, the swanky hotels, the furs and the Michelin-starred restaurants, St Moritz caters well for those of more modest means. The railway line across the Albula pass is on the UNESCO World Heritage list, and it is indeed spectacular. Once in the Engadine public transport is good, although you suspect run by those of the Italian-speaking community rather than the Schweizerdeutsch – Italian-speakers are indeed much in evidence, and the traditional Romansh tongue is limited to some place names and remote communities. Prices in bars and restaurants are generally-speaking the same as anywhere else in Switzerland, but you clearly have more top-end options – including what some consider the best mountain restaurant in the Alps, La Marmite at the Corviglia top station.

I’ve stayed before in St Moritz in low-end hotels and the prices, service and character have been good. However this Christmas we decided to stay as a family in the St Moritz Youth Hostel. it is located in St Moritz Bad, right on the edge of the town, but it is on the end of the #9 bus line, which also serves Signalbahn, St Moritz railway station and the stop for the Corviglia mountain railway, Schulhaus. As a result getting there from Basel was a doddle: direct train from Basel to Chur with a family carriage that includes an in-train playground; walk across the platform for the connecting train to St Moritz, and then pick up a bus from the same carriage to be dropped at the door of the Youth Hostel. Even with two kids and gear for four people, it really was very painless. Similarly getting to the slopes was also very easy, with Signalbahn being the most convenient stop five minutes away. In addition there were a couple of convivial bars near the stop for apres ski despite St Moritz Bad being a generally quieter community than St Moritz Dorf. It is also easy enough to get off at Signalbahn to switch to bus #1 or #6 for a 10 minute trip to Surlej Corvatschbahn.

The Youth Hostel itself is fabulous. A modern building, spotlessly clean with genuinely friendly staff and a range of sleeping options. We chose a four-person dorm for the four of us, and had a shared WC and shower opposite. The hostel boasts a games room, a children’s play room, a TV room, a boot room, a ski room and a good communal area with a roaring log fire.  Drinks are available from reception or in the restaurant at a reasonable price. Both breakfast and dinner were simple but adequate fare, the lack of choice in the main dinner course compensated for by the excellent salad bar.

The kids were booked into the Ski School St Moritz at Salastrains. This purpose-built ski school facility is part of the oldest ski school in the world. It isn’t particularly convenient for non-skiers though. You can walk or ski down from the top of Signalbahn or walk up (or take a horse drawn carriage) from the mountain railway at Chantarella. The school is very good, however, and the kids loved it.

I would recommend St Moritz to anyone who hasn’t been there before, and I think the choices we made in terms of transport, accomodation and ski school were perfect. It really is a most beautiful spot with a unique microclimate, fabulous winter sports activities and spectacular scenery. And if you like people-watching, there is nowhere quite like it.

One last tip, the Swiss Railways Snow’n'Rail scheme, if you have a half-price card, effectively gives you six days of skiing with the rail travel thrown in for free.

The proposals address concerns that the Jungfrau is losing ground against other international destinations, with the long travel times, lack of integration between the facilities in Murren and Wengen and fact that Grindelwald is not a ski-in, ski-out resort cited as areas to be addressed.

Greater infrastructure integration, a new freeride area, a new rail stop in the Grindelwald valley and a  gondola to Kleine Scheidegg area are proposed. In addition a gondola across the Lauterbrunnen valley is mooted. There is also talk of other development including a bypass for Grindelwald to make it car free.

For sure, the Jungfrau is one of the most beautiful areas in the World and the rail network is quaint and pretty effective. However it is also clear that a gap is starting to emerge between leading winter sports resorts, with the ones making investments doing well and those not doing so, or having  limited facilities, falling behind. The Jungfrau suffers from not having the length of season of some of the other major resorts in Europe, but it has a unique place in the development of winter sports and fabulous variety. Getting the balance right will be a tough challenge, and the outcome is likely to be a compromise. I certainly think attempts to increase the challenge for more experienced skiers and snowboarders off First and Mannlichen would be good, making Grindelwald car-free would be excellent, and reducing the journey time from Bern is always going to be popular. However, people who know the area realize that the challenging runs are off the Schilthorn and that beginners and intermediates will find plenty to occupy them around Wengen, Kleine Scheidegg , Mannlichen and First (an unexpected gem for those who always head the other way). Personally I find it an easy day trip from Basel, and probably one of the best places to head to for weekenders from Northern Europe, probably more so than Chamonix.  I feel that there is room for improvement, but the resort is far better marketed in summer than winter, and a clearer winter marketing strategy (coupled with infrastructure improvements) will go further than extensive investment.

The Swiss tourist industry contributes around 5% to GDP,  and the 650 lift companies employ 11,000 people and turnover SFr 840m per annum.  There have to be some question marks over the long-term viability of some of the smaller, lower resorts unless they can discover their niche, although bigger resorts like Zermatt, St Moritz and the Engadine, Davos, Verbier, Crans-Montana and Gstaad seem to remain strong draws.

Having said that, Zermatt, Samnaun and Saas-Fee have had significant areas open from mid-November, but no resort runs. The 4 Vallées now claim to have one resort run open, and fresh snow is falling on the villages of Saas-Fee and Zermatt, so I would not be surpised to see valley runs open soon. With the storms set to break before the end of the week, it looks like the second weekend in December will finally provide some do-able slopes.

Something else to announce this week is the pre-launch of my new Swiss Winter Sports website at http://www.swisswintersports.co.uk, designed to augment and build on the work I have put into the blog over the last year or so. It is not yet the finished article, but it is intended to provide the most comprehensive guide to winter sports in Switzerland based on first hand experience. In other words, I am using the best available resources to update the site so that the information is as up-to-date as possible, but the text is based upon my own take of the resort. So far I’ve been working on the database, Javascript, PHP, CSS, HTML and an RSS  feed from MySwitzerland (still the best place for real-time resort information, and extensively cross-referenced on my site), so the look and feel, functionality and resort descriptions are still a little patchy, but over this season I hope to improve the data and visit at least 20 or 30 resorts to further improve the data quality.

It’s a tough challenge, but somebody has to do it.

Many countries, including France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy simply encourage the use of ski helmets without making it compulsory. However, as the general global awareness of health and safety has increased, some countries have made it compulsory for children to wear a helmet. Interestingly, despite a relatively laid back approach to helmet use (or perhaps because of it), the Swiss Council for the Prevention of Accidents has seen a sharp increase in the number of people wearing helmets in the last five years; 63% of adults and 97% of children now wear a helmet on the slopes (only 16% of adults wore a helmet five years ago).

With thousands of people every year suffering from head injuries on the Swiss Alps, the importance of head protection should not be underestimated, particularly when it comes to children. There are a wide range of kid’s ski helmets on the market, the trick being that they are something of a fashion item these days, so most children are more than happy to wear one. 

Thanks to Chris Parker for research for this blog article. If you would like to learn more about the importance of children’s ski helmets and get some ideas for where to buy them, please feel free to click through to Chris’s site at Ski Helmets For Kids.