hut – Page 3 – Alpine Winter Sports

14/04/201514/04/2015

Fatalities in Swiss Alps

Pointes de Tsavolire: Traversée Eison - Saint Martin Agence France-Presse report that two employees of CERN, the lab famous for its particle accelerator and for Berners-Lee’s invention of the worldwide web, died in an avalanche over the weekend.

A 49 year old Frenchman and his 33 year old Swiss colleague were swept away at the 3000m Pointes de Tsavolire in Valais. They were amnongst five members of CERN’s ski club who set off from Eison in Val d’Herens. The area they were skiing is shown in the picture above, which I took when I was skiing in the valley a couple of weeks ago.

The two men were members of CERN’s ski club and were among five skiers who set off cross country Sunday from the village of Eison for the Pointes de Tsavolire.

This is a popular and relatively easy itinerary, just the other side of the Bec de Boisson from Grimentz. It is possible to make the ascent on skins and make the run back in a day, and there is a hut at the top for those who want to make a longer trip of it, but it sounds like this party set off Sunday morning for just a day’s outing.

It just goes to show how dangerous the late snow from a couple of weeks ago has made late season touring. The dry avalanche risk is very low, but by lunchtime the risk of wet, full-depth avalanches across Valais has been rated considerable for some days. Wet avalanches occur where snow has frozen overnight but starts to get heavy and wet as the temperatures rise and the sun starts to hit it.

Apparently two members of the party were dug out by a fifth, but the other two remained buried until rescue workers arrived and dug them out of three metres of snow.

They were taken by helicopter to hospitals in Sion and Lausanne, where they later died.

08/04/201509/02/2019

Skiing out of Sion

I have always liked Sion, but one of its main attractions in the winter is how convenient it is for hitting the slopes – you can even see pistes from the city centre. The city is on the main line between Geneva and Milan and, reputedly, has the largest bus station in Switzerland in terms of destinations served (23 in total). From the bus station you can get direct services to Anzère, Veysonnaz and Nendaz (both in the Four Vallées), the resorts of Val d’Herens, including Arolla and even the lifts serving Vercorin (in the amazing Val D’Anniviers). By train, with just one change, you can get to Zermatt, Verbier, Crans-Montana and a bunch of other resorts. Incidentally, my tip for getting quickly to the best of the pistes is to go to Haut-Nendaz Télécabine and jump on the free shuttle bus to Siviez, where you are right at the heart of 412km of piste.

One other useful thing about Sion is that it has a youth hostel right next to the station, although unfortunately it does not open until late March. However, with so many high altitude resorts in the area it still works well for late season skiing. I recently stayed there and, as a result, got to refresh a lot of content at the Swiss Winter Sports web site. Even though it was April, I found some amazing lift-served powder in Les Marrécottes and a resort run in reasonable condition at Grächen.

There is surprisingly little variety of accommodation along the Rhône valley, with most of the beds in the ski resorts themselves. Sion does have a few hotels, though, and also a good variety of bars and restaurants in the old town.

Perhaps I will get one ski weekend in before the season finally closes, presumably in Valais. It has been a strange winter season. Much heralded as being the 150th anniversary of winter holidays, there was little snow before the New Year and lower resorts will have definitely suffered from lower visitor numbers.

05/08/201321/01/2023

Eurostar opens the ski season…

Well, I have been making the most of a Swiss summer – swimming in the Rhein and enjoying all the outdoor activities – but preparations are beginning for the new winter sports season, and not just at Swiss Winter Sports. Visit https://www.amny.com/sponsored/best-weight-loss-pills/.

Eurostar has also been busy preparing for the new season, and today announced that their popular ski services to the French and Swiss Alps is open for sale from 6.30am GMT on 6 August 2013.

Launched in 2012, Eurostar’s Swiss ski service transports skiers and snowboarders from St Pancras International and Ashford International to the heart of the Swiss Alps and the Valais region, with return fares starting from only £179. Read more about this Alpine ice hack.

This year, the route will run over five peak weeks during the 2013/2014 ski season including Christmas, New Year and February half term, and passengers can carry skis or snowboards all the way at no extra cost.

With an easy connection in Lille onto a high-speed TGV Lyria service, passengers arrive into Vallorbe, Aigle, Martigny, Visp and Brig stations, from where they can make easy connections to nearby ski resorts including Verbier, Zermatt and Saas Fee. Eurostar ticket holders benefit from exclusive, discounted onward travel to these resorts, simply by booking their ticket in advance through the Switzerland Travel Centre (STC) on 020 7420 4934.

A similar service also operates for the French Alpine resorts, with stops at Moûtiers, Aime-La-Plagne and Bourg St Maurice. A bus shuttle operates from the stations to resorts that include Les Arcs, Courchevel, Tignes, Val D’Isère and Meribel.

Tickets for the Swiss and French ski services are available from www.eurostar.com, by calling 08432 186 186, at Eurostar stations or from travel agents.

17/08/201030/08/2010

Where to Stay

Switzerland provides some of the best accommodation in the world, from the swankiest hotels through to outstanding hostels. Although there is everything you would expect of a country with over 150 years of Winter tourism experience, one uniquely Swiss option, thanks to the wonderful transport infrastructure and the countries compact size, is the opportunity to stay in a metropolis and “commute” to the slopes, visiting different resorts each day. Lausanne, Interlaken, Bern and Luzern all make good bases.

The Switzerland Tourism web site is, as always, a fount of useful information for the independent traveller. For general accommodation, information is available at My Switzerland. Switzerland Tourism also produce brochures which can be ordered at the web site or perused online for (Swiss Luxury Hotels), (Luxury Chalets), (Wellness Hotels), (Design & Lifestyle Hotels), (Typically Swiss Hotels), and (winter huts), amongst others.

For the budget traveller, the quality of Swiss hostels will come as a pleasant surprise. They are clean, efficient, inexpensive, convenient and offer a range of accommodation options from dormitories to en suite bedrooms from as little as around CHF30 per night. The two main networks are the (Swiss Youth Hostels) and (Swiss Backpackers). Not only are many of the youth hostels conveniently situated in ski resorts, there are several located close to the stations in bustling cities like Bern and Lausanne which make great centres to ski multiple locations. The youth hostel in the Cantonal capital of Valais, Sion, opens late in the season, but makes a great base for snowboarding and skiing in the canton.

Mostly inexpensive Bed and Breakfast (http://www.bnb.ch/) often offer rustic settings and fare, while igloos are a more unconventional option to get close to the mountains (http://www.iglu-dorf.com/).

The travel agents that operate package holidays to Switzerland are listed elsewhere, but the following provide accommodation only services:

There are many specialist chalet companies, such as:

Additionally there are a number of independent chalet owners who advertise everywhere from Craigslist to expatriate bulletin boards.

In 2008, the most popular locations for visitors in Switzerland to stay were:

Location	Beds
Zurich	11675
Geneva	10333
Zermatt	5881
Lucerne	5499
Basel	5208
Davos	5261
St. Moritz	4288
Lausanne	3753
Bern	3379
Interlaken	3030
Lugano	3036
Arosa	2838
Grindelwald	2923
Lauterbrunnen	2974

Source: Swiss Tourist Federation