Alpine Winter Sports

A beautiful sunny Mayday brought the close to the regular winter sports season in Switzerland. Diovalezza in the Engadin and the glaciers at Engelberg-Titlis, Glacier 3000 and Zermatt still provide some limited pistes, but to all extents and purposes the season is over. Summer skiing and snowboarding has attractions, but you need to get up early, accept a long commute and recognize that the available slopes are limited.
After two fabulous seasons, 2010/11 started promisingly. In December there were huge dumps of snow everywhere and many smaller resorts opened early to take advantage. The season did not live up to the early promise, however, and by mid-January many resorts found themselves anxiously awaiting more snow. By mid-February many smaller resorts had given up for the season and by mid-March many of the family resorts like Braunwald and Kandersteg had no piste to speak of. By the end of March only the major resorts remained open. Stoos and Gstaad, of the areas without lifts above 2000m, still had reasonable piste areas open, but some lovely little resorts with higher runs, such as Bruson, Evolène, Tschiertschen, Rougemont, Val Müstair and Grüsch-Danusa closed in March.
Many resorts had probably hoped to be open to take advantage of the late Easter holiday, but Rosswald, Villars, Sedrun, Savognin, Nax, Splügen, Brigels, Toggenburg, Obersaxen, Stoos, San Bernadino, Vals, Airolo, Pizol, Elm, Fideris, Anzère, Vercorin and Bürchen didn’t manage to last beyond the first weekend in April.
Les Portes du Soleil, Meiringen, Gstaad – apart from Glacier 3000 – Goms, Leukerbad, Belalp, Scuol, Crans, Malbun, Hoch-Ybrig, Champex-Lac, Bivio, Leysin and Arolla all surrendered before Easter, and there was minimal skiing available at Lungern, Flumserberg, Sörenberg, Lenzerheide and Disentis. Davos-Klosters, Adelboden, Val D’Anniviers, Flims and the Jungfrau all had disappointing Easter skiing and closed straight afterwards. Although they also closed immediately after Easter, Arosa, Melchsee-Frutt, Avers and Lauchernalp had most of their pistes open over the Easter weekend. Andermatt and Grächen also had most runs open, and also stayed open in the week after Easter.
The beautiful sunny weather and seasonally high temperatures through April not only stretched the skills of the resort operators, it also meant that much of the available pistes were variously icy and slushy, particularly on the lower runs. To their credit, Saas-Fee, Zermatt, Mürren, St Moritz and other Engadin resorts, Samnaun, Arosa, Verbier and other 4 Vallées resorts, Avers, and Chandolin in Val D’Anniviers all managed to keep at least one valley run open.
Through April Samnaun together with Ischgl kept open nearly all the available runs, providing over 150km throughout the Easter fortnight.  Saas-Fee also had over 90km open over Easter, and Zermatt had a reasonable amount open above Furgg into May.

What is the best ski and snowboard destination in the world? A tough question. If the snow or weather are poor, even the best resorts will struggle to provide as good an experience as a smaller resort with clear skies and powder snow. Fighting with herds of other skiers to get on the lifts, or get served in the restaurants or have some room on busy slopes can put anyone off any resort. Ski-in/ski-out convenience, off-piste activities, rustic charm, apres piste… all these count for some people as more important than mile after mile of pristine piste.

However it is fair to say that there are some resorts that have everything that can make for a fabulous winter sports holiday. The following 30 winter sports destinations have the largest amount of piste of anywhere in the world, and no less than 10 of them are in Switzerland. France also has 10, Austria 8, Italy 3 and Canada and the USA 1 each.

Each ski region listed has over 200km piste and you can be pretty certain that every one has funparks, toboggan runs, off-piste, freeride opportunities, Nordic circuits, plenty of bars and a host of other amenities. Which are the very best, though? here are my choice of ten.

I rate some of the Austrian resorts less highly for on-piste than off-piste. They do get good snow, but are often lower than the French and Swiss resorts. Also many of the areas are not linked and in effect comprise a geographically close collection of relatively small resorts. However St Anton in the Arlberg is definitely one of the premier ski destinations in the world, and Ischgl almost makes the cut. I remember when you could ski a circuit round St Anton and St Christoph to Lech and Zurs, but now they are a short bus or taxi ride away.

France has the best linked ski areas in the world, with the Trois Vallees and L’Espace Killy definitely in my top 10 winter sports destinations in the world. Avoriaz in the huge Portes du Soleil that links it with Switzerland would also just make the cut. Not as extensive a ski area, but just outside my top 10 would be Chamonix.

Whistler and Vail are the pick of the North American resorts, although there are many other excellent and slightly smaller destinations.

Italy has many wonderful medium-sized resorts, but Cervinia is the only one I would include in the very best resorts, largely as part of the wonderful Matterhorn ski area it shares with Zermatt. Cortina gets an honourable mention.

And rounding out the top 10, would be St Moritz, Verbier and Davos–Klosters from Switzerland. I would probably rate the Jungfrau as being as good if not better than Les Portes du Soleil, and honourable mentions go to Saas-Fee and Val D’Annivers (which, with 220km of piste spread over the valley probably should be in the top 30). But top of the list… Zermatt!

Anyway, by size of piste, here are the top 30:

Country	Name	Resorts	Piste Km	# Lifts	Lifts/Hr	Bottom m	Top m
Switzerland & France	Les Portes du Soleil	Champèry, Les Crosets, Torgon (CH), Avoriaz, Morzines, Les Gets (F)	650	200	256000	1000	2460
France	Trois Vallées	Courchavel, Meribel, les Menuires, Val Thorens	600	198	260000	1300	3300
France & Italy	Voie Lactée/Via Lattea	Montgenèvre, Clavière,Cesana, Sansicario, Sestrière, Sauze d´Oulx	575	138	100000	1860	2823
France	Megève	Megève, Combloux, Saint-Gervais, La Giettaz, St Nicolas de Véroce, Les Contamines Montjoie	490	206	52000	850	2350
Austria	Bregenzerwald	Bezau, Alberschwende, Egg, Andelsbuch etc	450	174	131528	600	2050
Austria	Zillertal	Mayrhofen, Finkenberger, Tux, Hintertux, Zell, Gerlos, Konigsleiten	433	115	107820	630	3250
Italy	Aosta Valley	Espace San Bernardo, Monte Rosa, Alagna, Pila	429	108	123000	1200	3260
France	Les Arcs-La Plagne	Les Arcs, La Plagne	425	131	207044	1250	3250
Switzerland	Engadin	St.Moritz, La Punt, Maloja, Pontresina, Samedan, S-chanf, Sils, Silvaplana, Zuoz	350	54	67480	1730	3303
Austria	Salzburg	Flachau, Wagrain, St. Johann-Alpendorf, Radstadt, Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Kleinarl, Eben, Filzmoos	350	187	140000	650	2200
Switzerland & Italy	Matterhorn Ski Paradise	Zermatt (CH), Breuil-Cervinia, Valtournenche (I)	350	52	86751	1524	3883
Switzerland	4 Vallées	Verbier, Nendaz, Veysonnaz	331	88	79710	1400	3330
Switzerland	Adelboden-Lenk	Adelboden, Frutigen, Lenk	311	98	52420	1100	2400
France	Les Sybelles	Le Corbier, St-Jean-d´Arves, La Toussuire, Les Bottières, St-Sorlin-d´Arves, St-Colomban-des-Villards	310	73	30000	1550	2620
France	L´Espace Killy	Val d´Isère, Tignes	300	87	155925	1550	3456
Austria	Innsbruck	Nordpark, Patscherkofel, Axamer Lizum, Kühtai, Muttereralm, Rangger Köpfl, Glungezer, Schlick 2000, Stubaier Gletscher	285	79	68000	856	3210
Austria	Arlberg	St. Anton, St. Christoph, Stuben, Zürs, Lech, Klösterle/Sonnenkopf	280	85	123600	1304	2811
France	Le Grand Massif	Sixt, Samoens, Flaine, Morillon, des Carroz	265	73	85603	700	2500
Switzerland	Davos-Klosters	Davos, Klosters	260	48	64421	810	2844
France	Serre Chevalier	Briançon, Chantemerle, Villeneuve, Le Monêtier-les-Bains	250	62	77000	1200	2800
Switzerland	Gstaad Mountain Rides	Rougemont, Saanen, Gstaad, Saanenmöser, Schönried, St. Stephan, Wasserngrat, Wispile, Zweisimmen, Château-d’Oex, Eggli, La Videmanette, La Braye, Rinderberg,  Rellerli, Glacier 3000	250	62	57600	1000	3000
Austria	Wilder Kaiser/Brixental	Söll, Kirchberg, Ellmau, Brixen, etc	250	89	140000	650	1965
France	L´Alpe d´Huez	Massif des Grandes Rousses	237	82	101000	1120	3330
Canada	Whistler Blackcomb	Whistler, Blackcomb	228	39	65907	653	2284
France	Les Deux Alpes	Les Deux Alpes	220	46	71767	1600	3566
Switzerland	Flims Laax Falera	Flims, Laax, Falera	220	27	40410	1100	3018
Austria	Montafon	Golm, Kristberg, Scruns, Gargellen, Gaschurn	219	61	90320	650	2300
USA	Vail	Vail	215	32	57802	2450	3527
Switzerland & Austria	Silvretta Arena	Samnaun (CH) Ischgl (A)	215	45	78900	1700	2900
Switzerland	Jungfrau	Wengen, Mürren, Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen	213	34	44150	940	2971