Valais – Page 5 – Alpine Winter Sports

10/10/201212/10/2012

Eurostar links up with TGV Lyria to take skiers from London to Valais

Eurostar has launched a new weekly ski service to the Swiss Alps with tickets on sale from Thursday 11 October.

The new ski service will carry skiers and snowboarders from St Pancras International and Ashford International to the Valais region, giving access to resorts such as Verbier, Zermatt and Saas Fee from Saturday 22 December until Saturday 13 April 2013.

Passengers transfer in Lille from a Eurostar train to to a high-speed TGV, and can alight at Aigle, Martigny, Visp and Brig stations for onward transfers to their ski resorts. Eurostar and TGV Lyria will allow ski passengers to carry on-board an extra item of luggage in addition to the normal luggage allowance, such as a pair of skis or a snowboard, at no extra cost.

Nick Mercer, Commercial Director for Eurostar said “With the highest runs in Europe, spectacular scenery and reliable snow, Swiss skiing offers something for everyone. With the resorts located just a short distance from the train stations, passengers have a much more seamless journey than travelling by air.”

The trains leave London at 6.57am and Ashford at 7.28am on Saturdays, and arrive at Aigle at 3.47pm, Martigny at 4.13pm, Visp at 4.57pm and Brig at 5.08pm. This realistically makes all the resorts of Valais and Vaud accessible via this service, using the excellent Swiss transport network completing the journey. From Martigny, Verbier is less than an hour away by train whilst from Aigle, Champery in the Portes du Soleil, Villars, Leysin and Les Diablerets all less than an hour away. Saas-Fee is less than an hour and Zermatt is almost exactly an hour from Visp. Brig gives access to the outstanding Aletsch Arena, with the resorts at Riederalp and Bettmeralp only 45 minutes away. There are also a clutch of smaller, lesser known resorts in Valais easily accessible from the ski train.

The news of this service has not been so well received by the Tourist Agencies in the Bernese Oberland and Graubünden. Britain has more tourists visit Switzerland than any other overseas country apart from Germany, but the strong Swiss Franc has led to a decline in visitors. I suspect that some visitors who would otherwise go to other parts of Switzerland may be tempted to sample Valais or Vaud, and let the train take the strain, at the expense of the Bernese Oberland and Grabünden. However, despite the undoubted convenience of the Eurostar service, all of Switzerland is accessible by train (see here for details).

The return train also departs on Saturdays. Return fares start from £189. For more details visit www.eurostar.com or call 08432 186 186.

22/05/201222/05/2012

Zermatt’s Mountaineers’ Cemetery

One all-year round sport in the Swiss Alps is mountaineering in its various forms, including ski mountaineering with the most famous ski mountaineering race in the world, Patrouille des Glaciers, beginning in Zermant every April. Zermatt is also home to a Mountaineers’ Cemetery, a poignant reminder of how cruel the mountains can be to those who seek to tame them. It makes an absorbing outing in Zermatt to visit the cemetery in front of the parish church of St Mauritius on Kirchstrasse.

The graves are usually stark, simply listing the name of the victim and the year and mountain they died on. Some provide even less detail, some more. We learn that Donald Stephen Williams, a teenager from New York, “chose to climb” and died on the Breithorn pursuing his choice. 24 year old Freda Currant “passed into fuller life from the Matterhorn at dawn August 6th 1936”. The young newlyweds, Herbert & Anni Braum, have a headstone which neglects the young doctor’s wife in proclaiming, in German, the line from Hamlet “O what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!” alongside fulsome praise for his lost talent. The poignant positioning of the headstones of Irmgard Schiess & Victor de Beauclair suggests these too were lovers. There are also friends buried together here, a couple of pals from Cambridge, a trio from Oxford, and alongside the latter – found in the search for their bodies – the body of an unknown climber.

For more details go visit http://www.swisswintersports.co.uk/cemetery.php.

21/10/201121/10/2011

5 Reasons to Visit Verbier

The “On the Snow” website lists five compelling reasons to visit Verbier.

The cite the 400km of accessible and challenging off-piste, the restaurants, the “Verbier Ride” freeride competition on 21st January, and the 10km toboggan run.

I would add that it is a French-speaking resort, handy for folk like me who have better French than Schweizerdeutsch. And the 400 km of on-piste skiing do make it one of the largest groomed ski areas in the world, even if the connections between the component parts leave something to be desired. Verbier is also actually quite cute, although with all the ostentatious wealth and the raucousness on display, many people may choose to stay in family-friendly Nandez or one of the other less expensive satellite communities. The lower slopes can get patchy if the weather is warm or there has not been much snow, yet this is one of the resorts where you can pretty much guarantee good skiing and snowboarding throughout the season, and it is particularly good for early or late season breaks.

The new season was expected to have a number of upgrades take place, but apart from an increased number of snow cannons, the main improvement is the addition of the Mayentzet six-seat chair up to Les Ruinettes.

21/06/201121/06/2011

Ernergalen – the resort that won’t be

Those of you, like me, who eagerly awaited the re-opening of Ernergalen in Valais will be disappointed to read Swissinfo report that the plans have been put on hold indefinitely.

Following an advert in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung in 2007, which received widespread international publicity, Bruno Prior, a keen British skier and businessman, had brought the ailing resort for just one franc. His company, Summerleaze, committed to extend the 20km of pistes and four lifts between 1,200m to 2,300m near the village of Erlen to create a viable alternative to the larger resorts in Valais. The plans for Ernergalen included a new 800-bed hotel, additional lifts and links to nearby resorts in the area such as Bellwald, Aletsch and Belalp.

Sadly, these plans have been shelved, with the strong franc cited as the main reason behind the decision. It is a blow to Erlen, although the resort had always hovered on the edge of viability as a Winter sports destination, and Prior probably did as much as was possible to make it work. The investment pounds, however were worth less than two thirds of what they were worth when the project was first conceived.

It has also been a tough year for the Swiss tourist industry. The strong franc is a double edged sword, not only making Switzerland far more expensive than the Eurozone resorts for international visitors but also enticing the normally loyal Swiss to go abroad for their winter sports holidays. According to the Federal Statistics Office, the number of hotel stays in the 2010/11 winter season fell by about 1%, or 114,000 visitors, compared to the previous season, and the number of European winter visitors to Switzerland declined by 5.1%, some 373,000 people.

However, considering the strength of the franc and the indifferent late season, it is still a pretty good performance. Expensive as it has become, the skiing and snowboarding in Switzerland remains the best in the world. Canny skiers and snowboarders, however, may consider Avoriaz, Ischgl and Cervinia as more affordable destinations from which to enjoy the Swiss Alps.