In the summer of 2006, I took my wife on a whirlwind trip through Switzerland. I wanted to show her some of my favourite places in the “motherland”, but also wanted to have a summer experience in some of the places where I had been skiing. Because it was such a fast-paced trip, we didn’t have a chance to meet very many friends/family while we were there.
Schloss Tarasp – near Scuol. We climbed to the top and went on a (German-language) tour.
We took full advantage of our “SwissPass”, which gave us free train, bus, and boat transportation throughout Switzerland. It also gave us free admission to most museums. It ended up being a remarkable bargain…something you can’t often say in high-priced Switzerland. If only it included food too!
Near our hotel in Sent, Switzerland.
The only problem with the trip was the weather. It rained a lot, and even when it didn’t rain, we rarely saw the sun. We made the most of it, trying to focus on indoor activities when the weather was truly diabolical. And that is why there are no photos of Glarus, where we started our trip. The photo at the very top of this post is from our very overcast trip through the Bernina Pass – you can see the glacier at the higher altitudes.
Hiking from Scuol to Tarasp, Switzerland
I had been skiing in Scuol in March 2004 and March 2006. My favourite skiing experience there was a piste that led from the top of the Motta Naluns area to the nearby village of Sent. It was called the Traumpiste (“Dream Piste”), and for good reason…it is 10 km long! The piste is so long that you need to take a bus to get back to Scuol. Sent was captivating in winter, so I just had to see it in the summer. We stayed in a quaint and ancient pension called Pensiun Plaz, which had arched ceilings and was obviously built at a time when people were a lot shorter.
The grounds at Vulpera, near Scuol
We were lucky enough to be in Sent for the Swiss National Day (August 1). We joined the festivities in the town square, where we feasted on sausages and local beverages. Sent is a Rumantsch-speaking community, so we didn’t necessarily know what exactly was happening, but it still felt good to be part of the event.
A statue of Freddie Mercury has become a tourist attraction on the Montreux waterfront.
From Sent (in the extreme southeast corner of Switzerland), we reversed course and spent a long day travelling to Fribourg, in the western (and French-speaking) part of the country. The rationale is unclear, but that’s where we ended up. Fortunately, it gave us easy access to the charming city of Lausanne…which remains my wife’s favourite Swiss city.
Me demonstrating the Olympic high jump record (as of 2006)
Lausanne is the home of many international organizations, including the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It is also home to the Olympic Museum. At the front entrance, there is a high jump bar to demonstrate the current Olympic high jump record. In the photo above, keep in mind that I’m 6’4″ (1.93 m) tall and can just barely reach the bar.
I won’t try to objectively rank the best ski areas in Europe… there are far too many for that! But why not try to rank the ones I know?
The question: in which resort would I most want to spend an entire week of skiing, without regard to cost? Everything else can be considered: the skiing, the town, the atmosphere, and the food are all fair game. I tried not to assign too much weight to the particular place I stayed: if I did, one otherwise fine Italian area wouldn’t have been on the list…as our hotel was located next to what seemed to be a sewage plant. Let’s start the countdown to #1!
The insane “Swiss Wall” starts at the French border, in the Portes du Soleil ski region. As you can see, some parts have a 90% gradient!
10. Morzine (Portes du Soleil), France. Full marks for the extent of this region: it’s the second biggest in the world, with 13 different resorts and 208 ski lifts! Some of the resorts are in Switzerland, and it is fun to ski back and forth between countries. I wasn’t as keen on the sheer numbers of skiers, and some of the resorts (Avoriaz in particular) are purpose-built with little or no character. The Swiss resorts are smaller and more inviting, but the skiing on the Swiss side is also relatively limited. But there’s always the Swiss Wall…
Believe it or not: this is on-piste in the afternoon above Borgata (Sestriere)
9. Sestriere (Via Lattea), Italy. Italian for “Milky Way”, the Via Lattea includes 5 Italian resorts and one French resort (and 70 lifts). But getting to the French resort is not easy, especially when conditions are less than ideal. Still, we found some spectacular pistes…that made us forget about the sewage plant beside our hotel. Fortunately, most hotels are located away from that plant. Sestriere is another purpose-built resort, but it is old enough to still be interesting (a cylindrical hotel, anyone?).
Lots of choices, high above Lenk and Adelboden (Switzerland)
8. Lenk, Switzerland. Linked to the resort of Adelboden, this is a sentimental choice. It’s my Heimatort (place of origin) in Switzerland, and I can ski with family members here. While not as extensive as the other places on my list, it still feels very Swiss and I didn’t find crowds to be a problem. It’s also a quick train ride away from St. Stephan, which is part of the separate Gstaad ski area (and home to more skiing relatives). I had one of my best powder days ever here.
Madonna di Campiglio
7. Madonna di Campiglio,Italy. Not as extensive as the Via Lattea area, but scores higher on things like atmosphere and food quality. Like Lenk, it caters more to a domestic crowd. Perhaps for that reason, I really felt like I was on vacation when I was skiing here. I don’t think I heard any English during the entire week. We also spent an entire morning at an outdoor cafe!
Stuben at night
6. Stuben (St. Anton/Arlberg), Austria. The Arlberg ski region is another vast area, including 7 different resorts (perhaps more by now!). I enjoyed tiny and remote Stuben, which retained some Tyrolean character, but still gave access to the larger areas such as St. Anton, Lech and Zurs. You really have to pick your base carefully: St. Anton, for example, is just too rowdy and “in your face” for me.
Our ski group passing through the rocks at Pomedes (Cortina d’Ampezzo)
5. Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Similar to Madonna di Campiglio, this is a major resort with a domestic focus. But I found the setting even more spectacular: skiing even closer to (and through!) the stunning Dolomites, and the legendary “Hidden Valley” actually lives up to the mystique of its name. With 12 distinct resorts in the Dolomiti SuperSki area, the options are endless even though there aren’t too many pistes in Cortina itself.
I’m enjoying the empty slopes at Piz Lagalb!
4. Celerina (St. Moritz), Switzerland. While St. Moritz is too posh for my taste, staying in nearby Celerina was the perfect way to experience this collection of five distinct resorts. Corvatsch had the best overall skiing, but the remote glacier areas of Diavolezza and Lagalb are unforgettable skiing experiences that few people bother to experience. The long-ish bus ride to Diavolezza and Lagalb is worth it: one day, there were only 10 other skiers on the slopes!
The jagged Dolomite peaks
3. Selva (Val Gardena), Italy. At the opposite end of the Dolomiti SuperSki area from Cortina d’Ampezzo, the town is perhaps not as elegant. But the combination of vast skiing options, unsurpassed food, and interesting culture made it one of my very best ski weeks ever (see the most recent post on this blog for proof!). This is the one resort that I keep wanting to revisit, and I would even like to return to the very same hotel. I never thought a hotel meal plan could be so amazing.
Me on the lower slopes of the mighty Eiger
2. Wengen, Switzerland. I have skied here (and the linked resort of Grindelwald) so often that I consider it my “home” ski area. So while it is partly a sentimental choice, I challenge anyone to find a more dramatic experience than skiing in front of (or on!) the legendary north face of the Eiger. I especially love the steep pistes (such as Black Rock or Oh God) just below the Eigergletscher, but there are challenges elsewhere too. One cannot forget the Schilthorn: despite being most famous for a James Bond movie, it’s a demanding and impossibly scenic mountain.
At the top of Klein Matterhorn, just before a wee bout of altitude sickness kicked in!
1. Zermatt, Switzerland. It’s huge, in every sense of the word. The resort spills over into Italy. You can ski a 20 km-long piste!! It even includes the Matterhorn (see photo at the top of this post)!!! But the best summary of Zermatt is a simple one: it is a resort that is unquestionably meant for skiers. If you are a serious skier and can only ski once in the Alps, you need to seriously consider Zermatt. Not every run is 20 km long, but many of them do seem to go on forever. There is an exceptional variety of terrain, with the Swiss side in particular having some very challenging on-piste skiing. Now, if only cost weren’t really an issue…
