Ok.
I thought it would be a good idea to set up a thread where people can write about the resorts they have been to this season and their impressions.
Try to make it as friendly as possible, and as good a guide for other people as you can. Also lets try to keep the banter down and use the thread for reviews and questions.
As a guideline things that should be included are,

Whether you went boarding or sking
Favourite run
Least favourite (if there was one)
Journey time from X
If the lifts were busy or slow etc.
If you are going to say the snow was good, please put a date.
A piste plan or at least a link to it, so that people have some idea about which runs you are talking about.

Hoch-Ybrig

18/11/07 2nd day of season.
Easy to reach from Zürich by car, took us 1 hour. Not sure how easy it would be to get their by public transport, I guess you would need to get a train to Einsiedeln and then a bus, maybe someone else can confirm that.
Piste Plan is here.
http://ski.intermaps.ch/hoch-ybrig/flash/index.swf

I am a boarder so the absence of crappy button lifts and T-bars makes the place a good choice.
I would not recommend the red run coming down the right of the Spirstock, a lot of uphill and narrow winding roadway, I spent as much time walking as I did riding,
Other than that all the runs from the other 2 chair lifts were brilliant, not amazingly long, you can get down them all in under 5min, but fun, and not too crowded.
There was hardly any ice on them, and they had a nice mixture of ups and downs to give a bit of a challenge. Fairly straight runs, and at the end of the day as the off-piste snow had been ridden pretty hard all the runs blended into 1 meaning you could pick you own route down avoiding the clumps of people on the way.
The chair lifts were busy but they went at a helluva pace and this meant that the waits weren’t that bad. I guess/hope that as the season goes on the crowds will thin out as people go further into the Alps.
Hoch-Ybrig seemed to be a locals place, I guess as its quite small tour parties aren’t likely to go there. This meant the most people on and off the pistes were of a good standard, and I didn’t see any beginner ski schools snaking across and blocking the pistes.
I didn’t go off piste at all, still trying to get my boarder legs back, but it looked decent enough without being too challenging or dangerous. There was a lot of nice fresh snow and even at the end of Sunday I still saw a lot of untouched places between pistes on the runs coming down from Spirstock.
Its not a place to go to for more than a day. There really being only about 5 runs to do, but as a quick and easy place to reach from Zürich it was brilliant for a slow easy Sunday out.



Not sure I would recommend it for beginners, there weren't that many blue runs up on the mountain. There are some nursery slopes at the bottom before you go up in the Gondola but if you are in a mixed group that would basically mean not seeing each other all day.
Ski rental is at the top of the Gondola.

Hoch-Brig: a bot more...

Your day ticket links to Oberiberg and that can add a bit more to the scope of the place though the longer flatter runs that side are more suited to skiers than boarders. You can also park on that side and ski over to Hoch-Ybrig and ski back to your car at Oberiberg in the evening.

Hoch-Ybrig is much favoured by boarders due to the undulating terrain and there are plenty of jumps official and unofficial. Public transport access is not too bad. Train to Wädenswil change to Einsedln and then post auto (yellow bus) to Weglosen.

Hoch-Ybrig is only accessible by a large 120 person cabin from the concrete and free car park. Coming down can be a bottle neck, as can going up at 9:30am on a sunny Saturday or Sunday in February. You can ski back down to the car park. This is a black run and can be very tiring after a day's skiing. Depending on conditions this can be a challenge at times...

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21/11/07 - Flumserberg
The train leaves at 12 minutes past the hour from zurich Hptbhf, and you have to change trains in Zieglebrücke
about a 5 min wait between trains. (You could also get on the train at Pfäffikon SZ or Thalwil)
All in all it takes just over an hour to get to Unterterzen and I would guess that is a lot quicker than going by car.
The gondola up the mountain starts directly opposite the train station. I didn't see any lockers for shoes or other gear
but I am sure they must be there somewhere.

The runs from the very top at Maschgenkamm
http://www.flumserberg.ch/NR/rdonlyr...teenglisch.pdf
were decent runs, but a little narrow in places and with the odd up hill, also be careful which way you go. We got stuck at the bottom with
the only way back up being a T-bar, 1 fall and ruptured testicles later and I finally made the top of the lift.
Red run 21 was tough for me on a board...too much walking.
What really made the resort better than Hoch-ybrig for me were the runs coming down from Prodkamm. Much wider and with some good off piste stuff in between.
Biggest chair lift I have ever seen as well to take you back up..brilliant.
You can also go straight back on 8 and 20 to the lift to go back down..although it was a bit sticky with the melting snow at the bottom.
Also saw a lot of nursery slopes up on the mountain, with the escalator lifts to get novices back up to the top, looked good. A good place to take lessons I would say.
There were a few places to get ski hire too

The snow was looking a little patchy, and down around Tannenboden there wasn't much to be seen, most of the pistes were in good condition but
every so often especially lower down grass and rocks were starting to poke through..unless there is some snow this week I wouldn't recommend going there.

Overall I would say because there are more runs and there was a lot more variety in the runs its a better resort than Hoch-ybrig. However I can see Flumserberg getting a lot more crowded and it does take longer to get too.

Flumserberg - a bit more...

At the weekends the S-Bahn S2 will run on to Unterterzen at the weekend with 4 trains in the morning and 4 back in the evening. Check www.sbb.ch for details.

Flumserberg have invested heavily in new lifts over the years. A recent replacement being the cabin up from Unter- and Oberterzen. This makes train arrivals much easier avoiding a previous horrible bottle neck.

Some tips: at the weekends when conditions are good, the car parks are soon full: get there by 08:30.

There is some nice skiing off the back of both the Maschgenkamm and the Leist. Not ideal for snowboarders as there is a lot of skating. But beautiful and quiet runs even when Flumserberg busy. Do not attempt unless you are a competent skier and you can see other have gone. Later in the season these two descents are marked with poles.

For the adventurous when there is enough snow, the 6km descent to Oberterzen is possible. This is un-pisted and can be hard work, especially if you have parked at Oberterzen and it is the end of the day. Likewise for competent skiers only. Parking at Oberterzen saves about 15-20 minutes each way getting up and down to the car parks at Tannenheim...

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Mt. Titlis is just south of Luzern and takes 2-2.5 hours from Zürich by train plus another 30-45 min to the top by cable car, where the last leg was with the "Rotair" which is the world's first rotating cablecar.

With the "Snow-n-Rail" deal it was about 80 CHF for Halbtax card holders and about 50 CHF for GA holders.

The view at the top of the mountain was incredible and is recommended even if not going for boarding/skiing.

http://www.titlis.ch/karte.php and also a more detailed map is here: http://titlis.ch/index.php?id=194 (click on a Winter 2007/2008 leaflet.)

We went boarding, and only ended up going to about 1/3 of the whole area. As of Nov. 25, only about half of the whole resort was open but we didn't notice. We were only in the areas between Titlis-Stand-Trübsee. The first half of the morning was spent being stranded because of not knowing how to stay on a T-bar lift (we ended up going to the only area with a T-bar lift on the top of the mountain called "Gletscherlift"). It was my first time ever seeing anything like that in my life and fell numerous times and even was dragged upside-down for a meter or two by the T-bar. A few hours later, I hiked my way up and got to another side that had a chair lift (called "Ice Flyer")!


My favorite runs were from Stand to Trübsee. There was a lot of fresh powder (some of which was untouched), not too many flat areas, many steep drops, a lot of crevice type areas that seemed like natural half-pipes, and no rocks or trees, just pure white snow which was blinding at times.

My least favorite, as you know already, was at the top from Klein Titlis down to the bottom of the Gletscherlift (T-bar lift). It also seemed like this part of the resort had the most amount of people.

There were no waits at an of the lifts, all were super fast and efficient. I would have liked to try the area up to Jochstock, but we didn't have time. At around 4:30, the lifts started to close and the fog rolled in and everything was completely whited out. It was scary but also fun at the same time. Going back, there is a short walk from the resort entrance back to the train station, which can be too much after a long day of boarding or skiing. The train ride back to Luzern takes the longest, but overall is a nice day trip if you get there early and make the most of it. At this time, there weren't many people boarding or skiing but there were also many tourists!

myswitzerland has a very useful snow conditions report under http://snow.myswitzerland.com/wintersportberichte. You'll even find piste maps for pretty well everywhere.

Not a resort, but if you want to know snow conditions & open lifts, have a look on 20 Minuten online

Filters by region ... which is nice.

I was also at Engelberg on Sunday. We stayed mostly on the left side (between Stand and Truebsee) and the conditions weren't exactly perfect, the snow was pretty thin and very icy in places. Also went for a last run at Jochpass and the slope was just awful in my opinion, though my skier friends were OK with it. Normally, at the end of the day, we'd take the run down to the bottom, but judging by the condition of the slopes at our altitude, we decided to give it a miss this time.

Saying that, the Glacier was pretty good, as mentioned above, but was incredibly cold with a nasty wind.

Engelberg is quite a tough one for boarders, but can be fun, most of the runs are red, and can be pretty narrow, it's also one of the more expensive in the area. Saying that, I still go quite regularly as it's a good challenge.

Where the fresh snow is..

http://www.slf.ch/swiss-snow/hn3dc.html

Went again this Saturday (8th December), snow was great, just had a fresh dump over the past couple of days leaving powder everywhere, only a bit of ice on the steepest slopes. All the runs were open too. More snow coming this week!

As an aside, anyone know why the Snow'n'Rail option isn't available from the touchscreen ticket machines?

The offer is running now, and you can buy it from the ticket office, but I can't find it on the machines this year. I don't usualy have time to queue up in the morning...

The police actually put up a road block in Flums to stop people driving up when the car parks are full - unless you live here and have a pass
But there is parking and a shuttle bus from Flums town - I'm pretty sure it's free though.

We were thinking of taking some beginner lessons in Lenzerheide when we arrive (absolute beginner lessons mind) - has anyone been there this season?

Have they got many beginner/nursery slopes?

I was there (Lenzerheide) last weekend.

The snow conditions were quite good. The resort itself has a few beginner slopes along with a very good network of blues further up on the mountain. There is a ski/snowboard school and rental center right by the Fadail lift which is where I usually park when I go up there.

Personally I find Lenzerheide one of the best resorts in CH. The day pass is expensive enough compared to some of the smaller areas (57CHF high season as far as I remember), but you get a huge area for your money. The resort never seems crowded, and I have rarely had to cue for lifts there. By contrast any time I have been to Flumserberg I have spent more time queuing then riding! There is a good choice of restaurants spread around the mountain in Lenzerheide and the prices for all that I have used so far have been reasonable.

My personal advice is if you are a beginner stay away from the Rothorn side. There are some great blue pistes in the Statzerhorn area once you have gained enough confidence to leave the smaller pull lift pistes at the bottom of the mountain.

Hope this helps a little.

It certainly does help. We're going to start off with a private lesson, and see where we go from there. Once we've done that (which I presume will also use the pull lift pistes at the bottom) we'll have a look at some of the blue pistes.

So it's 57CHF for a day pass there? Are there any other expenses to consider? Presumably the pass includes all lifts etc?

I think it sounds better to learn there given the space people say they have, than go to the more crowded Flums. Ideally I want to make my mistakes where there are very few people around to see them/become the victim of them!

If you are aiming to have lessons and are a beginner then there is no need to pay for a lift pass as you wont be using any of the lifts - I'm still learning and I try and go to smaller places where I don't have to pay for all the lifts when I just need to use the kiddy slopes - for example in the past I have gone to flumserberg and not paid for a lift pass as we just used the learner area which is free - I would imagine the learning/kinder areas at most places are free unless you need to take a gondola up to the actual learning areas

The 57CHF is the figure I have in my memory from last season, on saturday they did not have everything open so the day pass was 47CHF. If you are going to be there for multiple days then you can get a better rate on a multiday pass. They also do a thing called a points card... You load up the card with some points and each time you go through it takes the points off your card. The lower lifts are lower points so if you are spending a day on just the bottom pull lift that might work out a little cheaper. As far as I remember there is a cheap day ticket for the lower pull lifts too.The ski school in Fadail can sell you your ski ticket so you can meet your instructor first and then buy whatever is best suited to what he has in mind.

You will be surprised how quickly you will move up the mountain. The friend I had with me last weekend was only skiing something like three times before and after about 30 minutes on the lower slope we were away up the mountain. We worked our way over to the Statzerhorn lift which suited his ability very well. The lower pull lifts will by no means be empty slopes (particularly around Christmas) but they will certainly be much better then many of the more popular resorts.

If you have anymore questions just ask.

Hey Eire

How did you get to Lenzerheide? I was looking on the snowandrail.ch website and it says you can take a train from zurich to chur and then a post bus for 30 mins to Canols Rothornbahn.......I couldn't see this anywhere on the ski piste map though.

Got to say the slopes around the Statzerhorn look absolutely brilliant!!

I drive to Lenzerheide. But you are correct you can get a Post Auto from Chur to the talstation for the Rothorn Gondela. The Rothorn Gondela station is on the Rothorn side of the pistemap about half way along the length of Heidsee. You can buy your ticket there and then take the local bus to any of the other entry points to the mountain. I recommend Parpan or Fadail. Alternatively if you want to get on the mountain quicker... I am pretty sure it is possible to get off the bus in Churwalden buy your ticket there and then take the lift up towards Statzerhorn directly from Churwalden. This should save you about 15 to 30 minutes depending on ques and waiting time for the sports bus at the Rothornbahn.

It is possible to ski/board from anywhere on one side of the valley to the other. but my personal recommendation (particularly if you snowboard) is the are between the Statzerhorn and Scalottas lifts. There are plenty of varied pistes here for all levels, the traverses are well enough constructed that you don't always have to be on one edge as a snowboarder and there is a reasonably possibility for nipping off between the pistes in search of some powder.