Flims Laax Falera

Flims is the Swiss snowboarders favourite resort with the outstanding Crap Sogn Gion park and fabulous off-piste terrain, although some of the runs between the otherwise well-linked resorts are a little flat – keep your speed up! Skiers will also wonder why this resort isn’t better known internationally, and you rarely have to worry about crowds here except for the village run to Flims at the end of the day. All the more reason to wrap up with a drink at the Crap Bar in Laax Murschetg!

Ski Area Flims Laax Falera
Resorts Flims, Laax, Falera, Vorab
Ski Region Graubünden
Piste (km) 220
Top run (m) 3000
Bottom (m) 1000
Max Drop 2000
Snow’n’Rail Y
Black (km) 86
Red (km) 71
Blue (km) 63
Lifts (#/hr) 40410
My Rating 5
Alpine 4
SnowPark 4
Nordic 4
Hiking 3
Family 4
Apres Ski 4
Free Ride Y
Snow making Y
Fun park Y
Snow park
Half pipes Y
Spa

In Brief

Share Button

Silvretta

The Silvretta Arena comprises a large area between quiet, duty-free Samnaun in Switzerland and party-twn Ischgl in Austria. There is some excellent skiing and snowboarding, but these are not slopes best suited either to learners or experts. The modern, efficient lifts, excellent park, high, well-groomed slopes and Ischgl’s apres ski give it an almost legendary status amongst those with a work hard, play hard ethic, contrasting with the more traditional, family atmosphere of Samnaun.

Ski Area Silvretta
Resorts Samnaun (A: Ischgl)
Ski Region Graubünden
Piste (km) 235
Top run (m) 2872
Bottom (m) 1700
Max Drop 1172
Snow’n’Rail Y
Black (km) 45
Red (km) 132
Blue (km) 38
Lifts (#/hr) 80000
My Rating 5
Alpine 5
SnowPark 3
Nordic 2
Hiking 2
Family 5
Apres Ski 3
Free Ride Y
Snow making Y
Fun park Y
Snow park Y
Half pipes Y
Spa

In Brief

Picture this!
Silvretta Arena

Samnaun shares the huge Silvretta Arena with Ischgl, the racier of the two resorts. There is a lot to commend the area – the resorts are pretty, the marked pistes cover a huge area, the lift system is good and mostly new, all but the resort runs are over 2000m , snow cover until the end of April is pretty much guaranteed (even for the resort runs)… all round an impressive set-up. The downsides? Not many – the lifts are not cheap (but you should have no reason to expect this extensive, modern system to be inexpensive), the resorts are hard to get to (particularly by public transport or from Switzerland)… that’s about it.

Ischgl is the better of the two resorts to use as a base. The lifts are central, the slopes on the Ischgl side are mainly North-facing, the valley runs stays open late in the season, the village is very compact and the apres-ski scene is one of the best in the Alps. Samnaun is well-regarded, however, and has the advantage of being duty-free. In many ways Ischgl reminds me of Flims/Laax. Nice long cruisy runs, great for boarders, good park.

I don’t think the Silvretta area offers as much for advanced skiers and boarders as Verbier or Zermatt, but it has plenty of off-piste and some good black runs. Beginners might find it hard to really make the most of their passes, but there is a good range of blue runs connecting many of the lifts and I would still recommend the resorts to a mixed ability party because there really is enough of the right type of slope for everybody.

Red Run #1 takes you right into Ischgl
If you’re driving, remember that passes you may need to take are often closed in the winter (Fluellapass and Silvretta-Hochalpenstraße) and you either need respectively to take a brief car-train journey or take a longer route if you are coming from the West. Convenient parking is free in Ischgl. Sadly public transport is not practical unless you are somewhere nearby.

Some controversy surrounds the Silvretta Arena. Ischgl, once a small sleepy village is now a global tourist destination with outlets for Rolex and Hugo Boss, a jet-set nightlife, concerts attracting major stars such as Elton John or the Killers, and the huge winter sports area it shares with Samnaun. The development of the Alps for tourism is resisted, not least amongst Alpine societies, and the plans to extend the Silvretta Arena up the 2812m Piz Val Gronda have attracted so much controversy that years after the development was first mooted, the scheme still stands on hold. With the relentlessly increasing popularity of winter sports holidays and the increasing unpredictability of snow conditions in lower resorts, the controversy about limits to development of the Alps won’t go away.

Share Button

Davos-Klosters

Really very extensive slopes and bags of off-piste options – probably stands alongside the Engadin as somewhere you could spend a season. Davos is a busy town, Klosters is cuter, and both are easy to get to by road or rail.

Ski Area Davos-Klosters
Resorts Davos, Jakobshorn, Klosters, Madrisa, Parsenn, Pischa, Rinerhorn
Ski Region Graubünden
Piste (km) 318
Top run (m) 2844
Bottom (m) 1194
Max Drop 1650
Snow’n’Rail Y
Black (km) 64
Red (km) 134
Blue (km) 62
Lifts (#/hr) 64421
My Rating 5
Alpine 5
SnowPark 4
Nordic 5
Hiking 4
Family 3
Apres Ski 5
Free Ride Y
Snow making Y
Fun park Y
Snow park Y
Half pipes Y
Spa

In Brief

Share Button

Engadin including St Moritz

St Moritz is the oldest and most famous winter sports resort in the world and has twice hosted the Winter Olympics. Whilst it is undoubtedly and justifiably renowned for the jet set clientele it attracts, this is both a tribute to its appeal and is also misleading, in that the Engadin valley is not just for the affluent few. There is plenty of affordable accommodation in the region and some of the most awesome skiing and snowboarding alongside a host of other diversions. Every winter sports enthusiast should visit this corner of Switzerland at some time in their life!

Ski Area Engadin
Resorts Celerina, Corvatsch, Corviglia, Piz Nair, Marguns, Diavolezza, Lagalb, St.Moritz, La Punt, Maloja, Pontresina, Samedan, S-chanf, Sils, Silvaplana, Zuoz
Ski Region Graubünden
Piste (km) 350
Top run (m) 3303
Bottom (m) 1750
Max Drop 1553
Snow’n’Rail Y
Black (km) 35
Red (km) 245
Blue (km) 70
Lifts (#/hr) 67480
My Rating 5
Alpine 5
SnowPark 5
Nordic 5
Hiking 5
Family 4
Apres Ski 5
Free Ride Y
Snow making Y
Fun park Y
Snow park Y
Half pipes Y
Spa

In Brief

The Engadin (Inn Garden) is named after the river Inn, which originates in this area and is known in Romansh as “En”. The snows of Piz Bernina (4,049m), just east of St Moritz and the highest peak in the Eastern Alps, melt into the river which then flows on through Austria and Germany before joining the Danube. St Moritz was one of many swiss resorts that benefited from the popularity of the Alps as a summer tourist destination but in 1864, the St. Moritz hotelier, Johannes Badrutt, laid a wager with four British guests that if they returned that winter and did not find it to their liking, he would pay for their travel costs. With over 300 days of sunshine a year in the valley, and a quarter of the precipitation in February compared to August, Badrutt’s gamble paid off – and the Alpine winter sports industry was established.

The most up-to-date information on the Engadine is posted at Engadine

Share Button