so true! awesome resort! just head the highway towards chur (a3) its done in 1.20-1.40.

fadail, churwalden or val sporz are the spots to hit the lifts.
its a perfect resort, i loved it, plenty of offpiste parts, skis n boards welcome/friendly.

Agree that for Piste skiing Lenzerheide is great but imho for powder it's not so good. This is actually one of the driest spots in the Swiss alps and very dependent on snow cannons - it's often too far south to catch the snow when it comes in from the North West or North but also too far north when it comes in from the south (the Alps are pretty much at their thickest here and Lenzerheide is right in the middle).

Agree with the earlier poster who suggested that beginners go to a smaller closer resort to start - at Lenzerheide you're paying for stuff you'll never use. Learn a bit first and then try it.

btw you can save a few CHF if you are a member of Migros and use their winter aktion vouchers - day pass is then only CHF 51

Hi All,

I will be Locarno over Xmas and New Year.

I have skied before to a good standard but have not been for 10 years, so I have old rusty bones I'm afraid.

Any suggestions on the best places to go for a refresher.

I see Lenzerheide has been mentioned which appears to be approx. 2 hour drive. Also somewhere close to Bellinzona (Stazioni Montani Ticinesi), but have read 2 reports. The 1st says "Snow depth 75cm, but the runs are not open, the 2nd says they are with last snow fall 16/12/07.

ALso found this website in my search: www.onthesnow.com/CH

Airolo. Get on the train in Locarno and get off in Airolo. Make sure there's a bus to take you from the train station to the ski resort. (Across the Autobahn)

Bosco Gurin also has a smaller ski resort but I've never been there skiing myself.

Flumserberg 28/12/07

Busy as hell, not surprising I guess seeing as its a holiday, but had to queue to get on the lifts and even to start off on some of the pistes...getting food took a long time and a lot of patient waiting.
I wouldn't have wanted to be a beginner there that's for sure.
The snow was brilliant though, and not icy at all. Pistes looked to be in great condition but most of the easy to reach off-piste stuff had been well ridden over.

Question about Hoch-Ybrig. I was just studying their map, and wondering how to get to the Spirstock lift as there do not seem to be any direct connections?? Do you have to go up with some other lift (left or right) and walk all the way along the lake, to the Spirstock one, or what? It seems a bit far...

Would be good if you could ski down from Sternen...

http://ski.intermaps.ch/hoch-ybrig/flash/index.swf

Don't worry you can ski/board right to it from both other lifts. It is lower then the Sternen lift and at about the same level as the other one. The map is a little deceptive.

Flims: 26/12/07 & 1/01/08

Busy but not to long to wait for the Gondolas though the chair lifts looked like a long wait.

New Years day was busy as you might expect.

The Pistes were good not icy, no thin patches.

Bosgo Gurin: 28/12/07, 29/12/07 & 30/12/07

A small centre, but good. short ques for the chair lift and occasional ques for T bar.

A few thin patches here and there but nothing to worry about.

The snow machines were working on the 28/12 but resort could do with a snow fall.

Thanks for the advice, I may try flums instead for our absolute beginner lessons. Does anyone have any experience of how busy Flums is at the moment in these beginner areas?

I'm thinking of booking a private lesson for my wife and I, which is why Lenzerheide was appealing as the private lesson prices were good and if it's not so busy we may get the chance to learn how to use lifts etc, but if Flums is better and easy enough to try the learner areas then may try that instead.

Any advice on the busy-ness, and easiness to learn at both areas gratefully received.

Also - can you hire equipment easily enough at both areas? We have clothes, but would need boots, skis, poles, bindings etc. I was going to hire stuff for the season from somewhere in town, but the amount of times we'll go this season probably means its cheaper to hire by the day.

Also (sorry to go on) - I did consider if going to Lenzerheide staying over near there on Fri/Sat to give two days of skiing without the travel, anyone know if this is possible or if there are places well placed to stay?

Sorry for all the questions!

The beginner slopes ar Flumserberg are never packed. It's the sunny side at prodalp tht gets busy on blue sky days. The learner pistes at Flums are very good. Perfect if you live in Zurich.

You can hire everything you need there including clothes. Lessons are easy to arrange as well. Visit www.flumserberg.ch - the site is also in English.

Riders Palace, Laax

Great design hotel with three styles of room... dorm room, normal room, and suite. Crowd is definitely young... im 34 and start to feel old there. I often take a dorm room and meet new people, frequently ending up boarding with them for the day.

Laax itself a great snowboarding resort, when the powders about, huge snowfields, when not, still plenty of piste to cover. Not as big as Davos or Zermatt but plenty to do. Gets windy up the very top, quite often. Laax town itself is very very quiet, just one or two restaurants. Flims around the corner has a bit more going on, but neither are anything like the resort style you find in Zermatt for example.

Nevertheless, I go there every year several times and wouldnt miss it!

Krlock3

Slightly off-topic, but related:
When driving to any of Switzerland's great ski spots, any way to check road conditions in English? (I've found one or two sites in German only)
Keys in hand but looking to avoid sliding off a mountain road,
Washbrol

Most of the resorts have it on their site. You only need a few words of German to be able to figure out what is going on, and some of them give the information in English too.

You are looking for "Strassenzustand" means road conditions.

"Fahrbar" = Drivable
"Schneebedekt" = Snow Covered.
"Teilweise Schneebedekt" = Snow Covered in Places.
"Frei" = Open
"Gesperrt" = Road Closed

It is a must to have winter tyres on your car if you drive to the resorts, and VERY HIGHLY advisable to have snow chains in the boot of the car, and know how to put them on!

Also this link gives information on the pass situations throughout Switzerland.

Hope this helps.

Elm - 20th Jan 2008

http://www.myswitzerland.com/wispo_i.../452_KARTE.jpg

Good snow, and the piste was very well looked after. Snow all the way down to the carpark, although it was a little thin in places.
The first thing I appreciated after having been to Flumserberg recently is that it took only about 10 mins to get to the top, as opposed to the 30min slog at Flums and the spitze is nearly as high.
We went on a Sunday when the weather was amazing and just after a recent snowfall, I expected the place to be rammed, as Flumserberg normally seems to be, I was therefore pretty happy to find it comparitively empty. No queues for the lifts, and the slopes were wide and it was easy to get down without having to swerve around the normal groups standing around on the slopes, or beginners snaking across and hogging the piste.
Its not as big as Flums, or probably even Hoch-Ybrig but there were 3 very decent wide and long runs from the top that I enjoyed. Its a lot more challenging than Flums as well, wider but a lot steeper in places. There is also a second chair lift, with some good looking runs, but being too lazy I never made it over to that side.
As a place for beginners I wouldn't recommend it, at least on the slopes I was on. It was pretty steep in places and even the blue run was steeper than the reds at Flums. The runs are also quite long and once you are up its a long way and a lot of falling to get down.

Over all I thought it was a great alternative to Flums and Hoch-ybrig, if for nothing else other than it was so quiet.
The downside, and probably why it wasn't busy is because its not easy to get to. By train you would need to go to Glarus and then catch a bus, no idea on the time it would take but I reckon at least 2 hours...which would mean flims, Davos etc are better to go to. However with a car from zurich it took us 1:20 to get there which is about the same time as Flums. Scenary was jaw dropping too.

Anyone have any views on Verbier and Gstaad.

I'm going 1st or 2nd week of Feb for 4 or 5 days. can't get an hotel in Verbier, but have found a possible in Gstaad.

The other option is to Hotel in Montreux then drive out each day to where takes my fancy.

If there is anyone who might care to join me, I would welcome the company and will confirm the dates I will be there.
I've just got back into skiing after a long break so my level at the moment is blue / red slopes though hope that will improve while I'm there.

Stuart

Literally just in the door from a weekend in Gstaad!

The pistes around the town of Gstaad itself were not great to be honest. If you are a skier they may be ok but from a boarding point of view they sucked!!! Always stuck on one edge or another.

We went to Saanenmöser today, its the same ski area but you have to drive about 20mins to get there from Gstaad. This area was MUCH better. The snow was less icy, the pistes were wider, and you could ride down the pistes without feeling that you were just riding connecting tracks between one piste and another. I would definatly go to Saanenmöser again if we were going back to the region.

We stayed one night in the Post hotel in Gstaad, we thought it was really nice, old style wooden and very cosy rooms. The restaurant served good food and the breakfast was good.

If you are looking for accommodation with a difference then you could try the Iglu Dorf in Gstaad. We spent our second night here and it was pretty cool. You sleep in sleeping bags rated down to -50C so it is quite comfortable to sleep. They provide you with a nice apero when you arrive and a pasta or fondue for dinner. It is a touch on the expensive side but pretty good to do for a once off.

verbier...i have been to in 2006. it was amazing.
it is such a massive and large resort, havent seen any similar so far.
maybe zermatt comes close. 4 vallees has for everbody something, blue, red n black mixed, large offpiste areas, champagne powder guaranteed.
for snowboarders its nice too, because there are not many traverse parts, only downhill. verbier=highly recommended!!

I'm planning to visit Flumserberg tomorrow, but today's report shows only 5/16 lifts in operation. I cant work out from the website if this is planned maintenance or due to today's weather. Any one who can confirm things will be back to normal tomorrow?

Jungfrau region 19-20 Feb

Got back from a weekend in Wengen.

Spent the first day on the Kleine Sheidegg side, There hadn't been any snow for a while, so it was hard packed by the piste bashers, not icy though. Most of the slopes don't get any Sun till the afternoon, but once it had warmed up a bit, it was perfect for me (Boarder). Snow all the way down to the bottom. It's piste most of the way down, but then there's some long, almost flat ,roads back to the gondolas/trains, at the moment, roads are my pet hate. My skier friends particulary like the slopes around the t-bar lift on the left side.

Second day we spent at Grindelwald, which gets the sun all day. Great for an intermediate boarder like me, most of the slopes aren't too steep, and very wide, and thanks to the sun, the snow was fairly soft. I had a great day.

all pistes of interests, main pistes are open now, the rest is maintained and i do think theyll open tomorrow/soon...so no worries...