Beginners review of Flumserberg - Sunday 3rd Feb

We were at Flumserberg yesterday (Sunday 3rd) and it was busy, but not as busy as we expected having heard experiences on here.

Getting There - Public Transport

There are loads of train options to get to Flumserberg on public transport. We were travelling from Oerlikon so went to Rapperswil, changed and went to Ziegelbrucke, changed again for Unterterzen. Each of the changes was literally off one train, onto the next one which was stood waiting. Swiss efficiency at its best.

From Unterterzen you get the gondola up to Tannenboden, which cost about 7CHF return with half tax card (Note: this was just for the gondola - not any lifts or anything). All in all from Oerlikon to Tannenboden is was less than 2 hours.

Rental

We reserved our equipment online from Swiss rent a sport, at the following link (in English):
www.swissrent.com/english/reservieren.html?haendler=18

However, we weren't arriving until the lesson we had booked, which started at 1pm. When we arrived we were told that equipment was only "reserved" until 10am, a fact which they do not make clear at all on their website! I had even e-mailed them beforehand explaining our arrival time and no mention was made of this. So, as you say above, equipment was extremely limited. My wife ended up having to rent skis that were 30cm too long for her (and were freestyle skis - despite this being her first time skiing) and boots which looked like childrens boots. I am also quite tall and simply could not get poles which were in any way long enough.

Not a very good experience. My advice, either get there before 10am, or go to the Intersport shop (Intersport Gassner) also at Tannenboden. To be honest I thought the service at Swissrentasport was poor at best, with no attempt to match the skis to the height of the person, and no help with poles etc - despite it being quiet at that time.

Lessons

As I mentioned, we were there to take a lesson. If you are a complete beginner book these well in advance to avoid disappointment. Even though we booked a private lesson, by the time I booked it (Tuesday last week) there were only afternoon slots available. I booked via the Flums website, on the link to the Swiss Ski School.

Our instructor, Peter, was friendly and patient (he bloody needed to be with us!) and well recommended. He spoke good English and explained things clearly, whilst not patronising. As one of our group of 3 had skiied a little before (mostly cross country) she was much better than the other two of us, and he divided his time and pushed her on much more to other techniques. He was also good with some kids who were clearly struggling to use the pony lift after being abandoned by one of the other instructors.

In the end due to our crap equipment (see above) the lesson was cut short to 2hours - but it was good and informative.

Flumserberg Itself

I thought the snow looked good, and certainly felt good whilst learning. The resort areas were busy (i.e. restaurants/bars) and there was some queuing if you wanted to take the gondola up to Maschgenkamm, but on the learner areas it wasn't too bad.

All in all, if you need a place for your first time skiing, it wasn't that bad. As i said, the learner areas weren't too busy, the lesson we had was good, and its easy enough to get to. Just make sure to reserve your equipment in advance and get there before 10am!