Engelberg - Titlis

(part of my guide to skiing the alps)

Worried about global armageddon and looking for a safe refuge? You could do worse than Engelberg. Situated at the south end of a narrow, winding valley, Engelberg is closely guarded by 3000-4000' rock walls that rise abruptly from the valley floor. In the summer, you can hike into the valley from the east over the Surenen Pass, an old mule-traders' route. No matter what season, it's a beautiful place.

The town is about two hours from Zürich via train, changing trains in Luzern; driving is considerably faster, but the après ski traffic jams can be a major hassle. The town itself is attractive and easily navigated, with the base area ~10 minutes away from the center by foot. We stayed at the Hotel Spannort, a family-run establishment with great rooms and fantastic food. The most lively après ski was found at the Yucatan Bar near the train station.

The ski area in Engelberg, known as Titlis, is somewhat handicapped by the sheer verticalness of the terrain. The 2500 vertical feet between the base station and Trübsee aren't really navigable. A crowded, rather flat marked run winds far away from the cliffs to reach the base, but it's not much fun to ski (trail number 5 and 6, see the trailmap). One good descent may exist in this area: from the top of Laubersgrat it appears that one can make a spectacular 3900' descent around the edge of the cliffs down a wide sloping field called Laub.

Unfortunately, a complete lack of snow both on and off-piste made it difficult for us to ski anything interesting on the mountain. The marked runs at Engelberg are quite narrow, making this mountain a poor choice on crowded days. The summit at Klein Titlis offers spectacular views and hiking access to an insanely steep knife ridge, which we didn't dare attempt without better snow and a guide. The only marked descent from Klein Titlis funnels into Rotegg, a narrow section of rocky, glacial ice covered with more fallen bodies than able skiers.

Apparently the off-piste skiing at Engelberg is phenomenal, and was recently discovered by American film crews like TGR and Warren Miller. Perhaps we'll have time to try a return voyage later in the season.

Flims - Laax

(part of my guide to skiing the alps)

Flims and Laax are neighboring ski towns in the western part of the Graubünden region, about two hours from Zürich via public transport. Frequent trains to Chur connect directly to waiting PostAuto buses. Traffic can get snarled on weekends, which makes the lack of a train unfortunate, but it's well worth the hassle: Laax is hands-down our favorite place to ski in eastern Switzerland on a powder day.


Both Flims and Laax are relatively small towns, with only a few restaurants, bars, and clubs. If you're lucky enough to meet a local, you might discover that they speak Romansh, one of Switzerland's four official languages. Fewer than 70,000 people can understand it, but it's well-loved by the Swiss as part of their national identity.

The après ski scene is fun, of course, but we didn't find much serious nightlife apart from a mashup hostel/hotel/bar/club called the Riders' Palace in Laax. It's clearly marketed at the huge crowds of snowboarders for whom Flims-Laax is a major destination: their rooms feature bunk beds, Sony PlayStations, and video projectors. No joke.

More important, of course, is the mountain itself. While the snowboard kiddies dork around playing video games, you'll be hopping deep powder turns all around the mountain. 6300' vertical feet, 11 gondolas and trams, and the usual sense of vastness that one finds skiing in the Alps.

On our first visit, the two most attractive lifts were closed all weekend, but we found plenty of waist-deep powder all around the lower mountain, even under the central Crap Sogn Gion six-pack chairlift (trailmap). Stay far to the skiers' left of the chairlift as you enter the trees for some of our favorite turns and jumps (see photo). On limited-visibility days, forests like these are your best bet, but the avalanche risk remains: be prepared.

On our next visit, we had a great run down Cassons, 5200' above the town of Flims. Gorgeous cliffs tower over a continuously steep 2700' wide face, which looked as if it would remain untracked for days. Lines can be long, but it's probably worth the wait on a powder day.


The best pure snow quality, however, was to be found near a marked off-piste descent, number 74 on the map. Coming down from Nagens, you end up skiers' right of the major cliff band; keep high and far to the right for fluffy happiness. Alternatively, take the Grauberg tram up and ski down piste number 10 past Segneshütte. Head towards the tram tower on the right side of the piste, and you can drop down the left side of the aforementioned cliff band. Stay in the trees below the bowl if you like, or cut right anytime to rejoin number 74.

Finally, if there's fresh snow, you should head up to the Vorab glacier for two classic descents. First, drop over the saddle towards Alp Ruschein along piste 35, but quickly traverse skiers' right into a huge, mellow bowl. After picking a fresh line down, keep skiers' right of the piste and zip through rolling hills to the bottom. 4,100' beautiful vertical feet, but be warned that the lift back up to Crap Masegn is painfully slow.


Even more exciting is the Vorab Pign, a small peak below the Vorab Glacier. Follow piste 35 to the saddle again, but hike up the ridge for 10 minutes to catch both the spectacular views and the fresh turns down ski route 77. For the lazy, skip the hike by skiing a few meters below the saddle and then traversing high and left below Vorab Pign: the wind and rocks make it seem a bit treacherous, but the snow quality made it an easy crossing for us. Continuing around to the ridge allows you to drop in a bit below where route 77 is marked on the map, and the snow was even better here.

One final recommendation: if you have time, definitely try eating at La Vacca, a campy-looking steakhouse up on the mountain at Plaun. It's hard to miss: a giant Native American teepee replete with cowhide benches and cowboy waiters. The food is remarkably excellent, as is the atmosphere surreal.

Flumserberg

(part of my guide to skiing the alps)

A small mountain just 45 minutes from Zürich, Flumserberg is not a major ski destination. However, its location makes it a nice choice for day trips and learning backcountry skills. It has ~10 legitimate ski lifts spanning 2700 vertical feet, but none of the marked runs are particularly memorable. Check out the Flash-based trailmap for an overview.

As with most resorts in the Alps, the off-piste opportunities at Flumserberg are more impressive than they first appear: much terrain exists between runs and in the nearby hills. Of course, despite having the appearance of a mellow beginner's resort, serious avalanche dangers persist if you stray from the marked runs: a slide last weekend injured three and killed one (news report in German).

From Alp Panüöl, you can walk/skin/skate 30 minutes away from the resort to Alp Fursch, whose friendly staff can tell you a bit about the nearby backcountry (and provide accommodation with full board).

The hill tends to get really crowded on weekends: two of my colleagues once found a rather long ticket line at the base station in Unterterzen. Observing the pace of the line for a few minutes, they calculated that it would take over two hours to reach the front. They turned around and drove home.

Apart from skiing, the mountain is beautifully situated on a lake called the Walensee, behind which steeply rise the beautiful Churfirsten mountains (see photos).

Arlberg (St. Anton / Lech)

(part of my guide to skiing the alps)

The Arlberg region of western Austria is a vast interconnected maze of 86 lifts and trams, including 174 miles (280 km) of marked runs. The region is divided by a steep ridge, which effectively partitions it into two separate areas. On the south side lies St. Anton, which is conveniently on a major train route, 2:20 east of Zürich. Lech is the central hub of the north side, and has no Bahnhof; take a bus from the train station in Langen am Arlberg, one stop west of St. Anton.

St. Anton

St. Anton is a mixture of quaint Austrian charm and drunk British tourists. Many buildings and hotels seem classically Tirolean, perched on narrow, hilly roads in the Oberdorf part of town. Taxis are more useful and prevalent here than in places like Davos. Bars like the Funky Chicken mostly cater to the obnoxious fratboy crowd, but the town abounds with great après ski: don't be surprised to see a few hundred pairs of skis and boards outside the Mooserwirt at 3pm.

Take two trams up from the town (1304m) to the summit of Vallugagrat (2650m) for a phenomenal 4400' descent through Schindler Kar or Mattunjoch. These aren't just a pair of ordinary runs: they surround an enormous, consistently steep face with enough room for a hundred pairs of fresh tracks. If the upper lifts are closed, you can still reach the lower part of Mattunjoch from the nearby Kapall lift.

When high winds and avy danger kept the upper mountain closed, we found great powder under the top of the Arlenmähder lift and all the way down the Valfagehr, both of which are closer to the town of St. Christoph but easily reached from St. Anton.

In such a vast area as Arlberg, the weather varies considerably from peak to peak. A good refuge from the crowds and weather is the small Rendl area opposite the main St. Anton slopes. By "small", I mean more than 4000 vertical feet of wide open bowls and rock gardens. We spent a sunny afternoon making laps on the Riffel lift (actually two back-to-back lifts) while most of Arlberg was shrouded in fog (see photo). Watch out for massive rocks: the powder looks soft, but an errant jump resulted in Kyle planting his ass on a hidden rock, causing an impressive hematoma.

Lech

On the other side of the divide, Lech seems quiet by comparison, perhaps catering to an older crowd. Decent après ski, but the streets were completely dead after dark. We had a fun evening at Schneggarei, a cool raw wood and cement Skihütte with decent modern food and a younger twentysomething crowd. We were convinced the town lacked anything in the way of cute ski bunnies until we saw a fantastic ski instructors' calendar put together by the local ski school, which we immediately purchased (because the proceeds benefit local avalanche rescues, of course...)

Snow was suspiciously lacking during the February weekend when we hit Lech, which forced us to stay entirely on-piste. However, like St. Anton, the vast terrain seems like it would support plenty of fresh tracks after a big storm. The four towns of Lech, Oberlech, Zürs, and Zug are well-connected by various ski lifts, so the region advertises a route called Der Weiße Ring ("the white ring") that links the towns. Their Flash website (despite the retarded soundtrack) has a good animation describing the various components of the route: click on "Die Strecke" to watch it. At a minimum, a loop around the ring involves 16,000' vertical feet and 12 miles of ski lifts, but you'll want to stop and explore the various slopes along the way, including a fun descent from Muggengrat down the Zürser Täli to Zürs.

None of the marked runs in Lech are advanced, so unless you're hitting the powder, it's all mellow groomers. Which, on a bluebird sunny day, is just fine... you can't have powder all the time. Whipping giant slalom turns around "der weiße Ring" was plenty of fun, at least until Alex literally broke his binding in half. Don't forget to stop for a Radler (lager beer mixed with Sprite) at the lively Bergrestaurant Palmenalpe (see photo below), located at the summit of the Zugerberg lift.

Davos / Klosters

(part of my guide to skiing the alps)

Davos is a modern, relatively large Swiss ski town in the Graubünden region. It's easily reachable by train from Zürich in about two hours, changing trains once in Landquart. Lots of modern hotels and shops, plenty of buses to get around. Klosters is the other notable town in this ski area, but it's less of a destination than Davos: you'll probably just pass through it on your way to the slopes.

Five separate mountains are included in this region, some of which are accessible from Davos and some from Klosters. From Davos, you can reach Parsenn and Jakobshorn, both of which have great powder and runs: try them both. Parsenn is the biggest mountain in the area, accessible from both Davos and Klosters. Some runs at Parsenn actually drop you in the remote towns of Saas and Küblis, from which you can take regular trains back to Davos.

In January, our most memorable descent ran through steep cattle fields and farmhouses above the village of Saas. From the base of the Schifer gondola at Parsenn, we started taking piste 56 toward Küblis (trail map), dropping off the main run after about 5 minutes. A 1500' descent ensued through untracked waist-deep powder, as we jumped over old fences and passed by farmhouses, not quite sure where we were headed. At the bottom, we were trapped by a small river, which we crossed easily enough in a shallow rocky section; it would probably have been too swollen in the late season. A short hike along the river led us on a path to the train station at Saas, about 15 miles down the valley from Davos.

On another weekend in early March, we suffered through lashing storms. In North America, it's easy to find refuge from fog and wind by skiing the trees; the Alps seldom offer such luxuries, with most terrain above the treeline. We found a few interesting turns in the trees below Schwarzalp, cutting the switchbacks around piste 49 in the Parsenn area. Not surprisingly, we ended up a few kilometers from the nearest ski lift: easy to do in such vast ski areas.

The next day at Jakobshorn was a bit clearer. We revisited a few great runs in the trees between the Fuxägufer and Jakobshornbahn lifts (trailmap), catching a few hikers by surprise as we sped across their path in a powdery blur. All pure bliss, except one unfortunate run which led to a drainage blocked every fifty meters by rock walls. Good luck avoiding it: I believe it's the minor shaded valley that begins directly below the letters "lp" in the word "Ischalp" on the map.

Even more entertaining was a run below the Clavadeler Alp restaurant. We tried to loosely follow piste 10, enjoying the nearby trees, but stuck to the fall line as the piste swung sharply to the right. The turns were glorious, but we ended up at a road some 5 or 10 kilometers outside of town. Yet another brief hike led us to the bus stop at Clavadel, where we waited no more than 10 minutes for an easy ride back to Davos.

Check out Pistehors for detailed notes on off-piste routes the Davos - Klosters area.

Skiing the Alps

Jeremy's Guide to Skiing the Alps

I spent the 2005-2006 ski season travelling around the Alps, collecting photos and notes about a few of the major ski areas. If you're planning a ski holiday and hoping to find sick powder and deep turns, read on...

• Overview
  
  • Highlights
    
  • Annoyances
    
• Eastern Alps
  
  • Flims - Laax
    
  • St. Anton - Lech (Arlberg)
    
  • Davos - Klosters
    
  • Engelberg - Titlis
    
  • Flumserberg
    
• Western Alps
  
  • The Haute Route (Chamonix - Zermatt in 6 days)
    
  • Chamonix
    
  • Verbier (4 Vallées)
    

Highlights

Size

Alpine ski areas can be enormous, with more lifts, runs, and skiable acres than you could hit in a week. A single "ski area" might actually be comprised of a dozen interconnected mountains and towns, with 100 lifts, a few hundred miles of marked runs, and tens of thousands of skiable acres. It would be as if all Tahoe-area resorts were connected by cable cars and trams, so you could ski from Heavenly around Emerald Bay up to Homewood, cruising through Squaw on your way to Truckee for dinner.

Oh, and you want vertical? Try 7,250 feet at Zermatt.

Accessibility

Ever tried skiing at Lake Tahoe on a weekend? You might end up spending 10 hours driving in a storm from San Francisco to Truckee (180 miles), or an hour crawling along the Alpine Meadows access road (~3 miles).

Welcome to the world of efficient public transportation. From Zürich, you can reach St. Anton or Davos by train in just over two hours, no stress. The train station is a short 10 minute walk from the slopes. By comparison, US resorts like Jackson Hole, Durango Mountain, and Squaw Valley are many miles away from the nearest real towns: at their bases lie smarmy, expensive "villages" full of timeshare condominiums. Many classic Alpine ski towns were inhabited ~100 years before skiing became a global industry.

Powder

Finding fresh tracks at 4pm in a US resort can be a rare feat, except perhaps in huge unmarked areas like the Hobacks at Jackson Hole.

Most European skiers, however, prefer to ski groomed runs, which makes "powder days" more like "powder weeks". Hasn't snowed for 3 days? Not a problem: without too much effort, you can find a long untracked descent.

To be fair, it's far riskier to ski "off-piste" here than in the US, because only the marked runs are patrolled and controlled for avalanches. There's no concept of "in-bounds" or "out-of-bounds" in the Alps: anything that's not a marked run is effectively backcountry, with the consequent risks and lack of rescue services. Be prepared.

Annoyances

Chaotic Lift Lines

Nobody likes waiting to ride a lift. On the positive side, lift tickets are checked automatically in the Alps, with high-tech turnstiles that detect a pass anywhere on your body and automatically open as you push through. Very cool.

What's missing in the Alps is distinctly low-tech: a maze of ropes and poles to manage the crowds. This brilliant invention ensures that all of the lines slowly and calmly merge together. The Euros, however, prefer an uncontrolled mob of pushing and stomping on skis: apparently it's a sign of weakness to let another skier merge in front of you.

Crowds

Many US ski areas refuse to sell more than a certain number of lift tickets each day, as otherwise the slopes would be too crowded. Not so in the Alps: during peak holiday periods, you'll be literally rubbing elbows with a hundred fellow skiers and snowboarders as you pole through flat sections of groomers.