Tag: winter sports

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Bumper ski season forecast

(c) Accuweather
Accuweather gloomily reports that “Eastern Europe Braces for a Cold, Snowy Winter”, but for winter sports enthusiasts this sounds all too promising. Indeed AccuWeather Meteorologist Tyler Roys says “Ski conditions will be fantastic for the 2014-2015 ski season, especially when compared to last year”. There is already some good dumps occurring in the Alps and Accuweather predict that an active storm track and cold air will bring a lot of snow to the Pyrenees, Alps and the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula. Switzerland looks set for a bumper winter season.

If you want to check out the current snow conditions you could do worse than look at the web cams at Zermatt.

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Mürren upgrades its facilities

Murren piste map
Many Swiss resorts have been busy trying to up their appeal for winter tourists. Car-free Mürren is one of the most distinguished of the winter sports destinations, and the Inferno run down to Lauterbrunnen is the oldest ski race in the world. It generally gives a feel of timelessness, broken only by its brief and famous hosting of the filming of the James Bond movie, OHMSS (where it played as a stand-in for St Moritz).

However Mürren seems to have been busy this summer improving the facilities for skiers and snowboarders. There is a new snowpark at the Gimmeln ski lift, upgraded lifts for both Gimmeln and Allmendhubel and a new toboggan run from Schiltgrat Station via Gimmeln back to Mürren.

I am a great fan of early morning snow, to hit the pistes before the runs are fully open and the corduroy slopes are pristine. You can do this at Corviglia and a few other places, and now you can do it in Mürren. Mürren Snow Sports School, for Chf35.00, allows early birds to explore the resort every Wednesday from 7.30am. It’s on my list!

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Montreux for Skiing and Snowboarding Holidays

Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva is also in the heart of the Alps
Montreux is most famous for the Montreux Jazz festival, that takes place in the town every summer, or perhaps the fabulous climate or the beautiful walk from Vevey to Castle Chillon alongside Lake Geneva. For the winter sports enthusiasts, however, its location at the bottom of the Vaud Alps makes it a fabulous destination to use as a base for a holiday.

The town boasts a very good Christmas Market in December, when the best nearby slopes at Glacier 3000 have already been open for several weeks, but other resorts are also starting to open at this time nearby in the heart of Vaud and the Valais, including Verbier, Gstaad, Leysin, Les Diablerets and the resorts of Les Portes du Soleil – all roughly an hour away by rail or road. However all of the resorts of the Valais are reasonably accessible from Montreux. There is also a small ski resort just above Montreux at Caux and Rochers de Naye which can be reached by a funicular from Montreux, conveniently very close to the excellent youth hostel (which we use as our base for the Jazz Festival).

If you are planning to do a ski holiday in Switzerland and use rail to get about, Montreux is perfect. It is easy to get to by train or road from Geneva, itself served by an International Airport with a railway station actually inside the airport. Nearly all the great ski resorts in the region can be reached by train from Montreux, but also you can cut across to Lucerne and visit the resorts of the Bernese Oberland and Central Switzerland by taking the spectacular Golden Pass Line, a panorama train that operates between Montreux, Gstaad and the Bernese Oberland with onward connections to Lucerne.

More information on Montreux can be found at the Swiss Winter Sports web site.

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Arosa-Lenzerheide

Two of my favourite resorts are now linked together to create one of the most significant Alpine resorts – the largest in Graubünden, and one of the ten largest in Switzerland.
Arosa piste
In some ways it is a con, much like Davos–Klosters or any number of resorts which simply have a lift joining separate areas. But it is a convincing con. A double cablecar now stretches between the Hörnli summit in Arosa and Urdenfürggli above Parpan, gateway to the varied Lenzerheide circuit. Lenzerheide is a fabulous resort, reputedly a favourite of Margaret Thatcher, and had initially opposed the link to gay-friendly and family-friendly Arosa. There are many goods reasons why, but the simple fact of the matter is that the larger resorts are doing better at the expense of smaller resorts, and Arosa felt the pinch sometime before Lenzerheide. However the strong Franc probably pushed the Gemeinde of Lenzerheide to go for the link.

Interestingly enough the valley between the two resorts is very skiable and part of a famous off-piste itinerary. There may be environmental objections to making it part of the extended resort, but I reckon it is only a matter of time before lifts serve pistes under the new cable car.

I visited the area last weekend, and I was impressed. The snow conditions were fabulous and Spring snow conditions only really affected the lower and South-facing runs. It has not been a vintage season, and generally I have gone high to find good snow conditions, but I was impressed with the quality of the pistes for April – and the fabulous bowl below Hörnli still had some great off-piste, particularly on extreme skiers right.
Lenzerheide ski area
Both resorts offer a lot more than skiing and both have been favourites of people who simply like being in the mountains in winter. Neither has featured strongly on the ski package circuit, but with lifts up to 2865m, resorts above 1500m, great parks, fabulous scenery, a variety of activities, good apres-ski and a variety of North-facing runs, this is a ski and snowboard area everyone should put on their must-visit winter sports destinations.