Anyone know the location of decent green slopes that are suitable for snowboarding? Have friends coming over and need a decent nursery area for practice. I normally board in Arosa but the Pratschli area is for skiiers as it has long flats and up-hill bits, not suitable at all.

Thanks for any advice.

Green Slopes?
Surely you're looking for BLUE slopes instead?

www.flumserberg.ch is a good place to go for beginners.

When i skiied in France (20 yrs ago now) there were green, blue, red and black slopes. Green being the nursery slopes that are a few hundred meters long with a drag or chair lift. I'm not sure if this is a universal thing.

Not in Switzerland ... there's Blue, Red and Black.

In Switzerland generally, the skiing tends to be a little more challenging and they don't go out of their way to make lots of slopes for absolute beginners... The best selection of easy slopes I saw was as Psyk also recommends, in Flumserberg.

totally agree... Flumser is a good place. I am off there next weekend for some more lessons. Well priced location also.

Flumserberg has the distinct advantage by being the closest.

If you don't mind driving a bit further then you could check out...

Flims, Laax, Falera

or even Valbella in the Lenzerheide area - I know that it a few Blue pistes.
It's very popular with families teaching little kiddies how to ski.
In my weaker moments (right after a fall!) seeing those little devils wizz past - felt very frustrating - on the other hand when gliding down fall free - it felt more like if those little 1foot-nothing-chuts can do it surely I can do it better :-)!

Noticed the comments about Flumserberg being good for beginners. Any tips on getting English-speaking instructors, or would that require personal (as opposed to group) lessons?

English speeking instuctors is not a problem. But with this years lack of snow there are a lot of instuctors out of work so they would probably take your arm of if you asked for lessons in English.

DC

Thanks for the tip, DC. As a rough guide, what would private lessons cost for a skiing neophyte?

you can have a look at this link for prices:-
http://www.flumserberg.ch/sssf/en/sk...te-tuition.htm

worth knowing that the private lesson if for upto 3 people.
So you pay the same if you go alone or take 2 others with you.

Have fun

I've done English-speaking lessons there in a threesome (ooer ).
Also in the lower regions on Titlis there are some excellent learner runs.

Lob, which areas would you recommend to learn at Titliis? I have family coming over at easter and we've got a chalet booked on the other side to Titlis (Brunni) in Engelberg but I have been told that early April there wont be much snow on the Brunni side so have been a little worried as to where my neice and nephew can learn on the Titlis side and also lack of snow lower down in early April.

Incidently I was at Flumserberg yesterday and I don't think the nursery slopes there are that great, you have a choice of either really tiny kinder slopes (which were too small) or a few drag lifts at tannenboden which I found just a bit too much for my limited skills.

Nicky, if I remember right there is very easy stuff at Untertrübesee with one of those conveyorbelts and also the dodgy paddle draglifts. Also the runs coming down to there are fairly uncomplicated.

Get a private tutor; makes a great difference. I went from self-taught dweeb to Frans Klammer in 3 hours

Cheers for that info Lob. Just hope there will be enough snow in April

I'm also a beginner Snowboarder, my favourite place to go improve my skills is Melchsee-Frutt. There's a good long wide blue slope at the top, that's got plenty of room to practice your turns. There's one dip where you might get caught out, but you soon learn to cope with it. It's also cheaper than the larger resorts, and not too busy either