Zermatt

PANDA_SWAGGA

PANDA_SWAGGA

Member
I made a thread in regionals too, but just want to get an America perspective of the mountain. Heading there in February and wondering what to really expect. I've skiied the Wasatches in Utah, Jackson Hole, Vail, Steamboat, but never been to the alps. +K for any good responses on what I should get stoked for!
 
My sister did a semester abroad there for the past few months and she loved it. She's not that advanced of a skier but she said that its really nice but the off piste stuff is really dangerous and you shouldn't do it without a guide at least in the area she was skiing. Apparently there are crevasses everywhere and blind cliffs. The park she said was nice and the jumps were really good
 
Lift lines in France have No order or Rules by the way, so if heaps of people push in front of you dont get mad at them, just elbow them in the face.
 
I did a season there last winter and had an amazing time. There is some truly fantastic skiing. However it is one of the more expensive resorts in the alps.

Firstly Zermatt is in Switzerland on the Italian border, not France. Though the apres-ski scene is just as lively!

Skiing wise:

- There are three main lifts out of town to 3 different areas (you can ski between them very easily). As the vertical descent is so large the lifts up can take a while (think 30 mins +) to get to the top.

- Be prepared that there are a lot of cable cars and gondolas so you will be taking your skis off fairly often. You'll get used to it but it is slightly annoying at first.

- The off piste is fantastic. As long as you aren't off piste on the glacier or dropping into their zoned off nature reserves then you will be fine. All the lift accessible stuff for the most part is pretty safe. If you really want to go do the serious (glacial) off piste then get a guide and harnesses etc, though having said that you won't easily end up there by accident.

- The swiss have yellow 'itinerary' runs which are un-groomed blacks. These are just a single line of yellow poles showing a safe line down the mountain. If there is powder then they are stunning snow fields otherwise they get skiied out to monster moguls. Zermatt is renowned for its moguls, especially on the stockhorn and triftji runs. The tree line is pretty low in the alps generally but dropping into the trees can be great fun, though watch out you don't ski under the nature reserve boundary ropes (insta pass pull if caught)

-The park while I was there was alright, nothing special. A handful of big kickers and a few small boxes and rails. The main issue was that there was no button lift if you wanted to lap the park, instead you had to loop a long chair.

Bar wise:

-The two good clubs were Broken and Schneewitchen. Both of which had good bars above them, Brown Cow and Papperla Pub respectively. They are reasonably priced for Zermatt. Don't expect to find a beer for less than 6 francs...

-The restaurants are amazing both on the mountain and in resort, though they are not cheap. I don't know if you will be eating on the mountain much but there is a Michelin starred restaurant called Chez Vrony. Worth doing once (if within budget). Though on the other end of the scale there is a MacDonald's with an open fire!

Any more specific questions I am more than happy to help.

Dave

 
I stopped by there this summer and absolutely loved it. I can't imagine how much more awesome it would be to ski it during the winter.

Incredibly jealous you're going. I miss it so much.

There's a little cafe along the rail line in town, go there, and buy some of their Matterhorn chocolate.

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Easily the best chocolate I've ever had.
 
negative. i got invited to compete in the swatch skiers cup. i asked them if it was some kind of mistake, but no, they verified it was me they were looking for.
 
Sounds like good fun, and seeing that you're from Alaska, I assume you know you're way around a cliffdrop.

If you happen to find yourself in eastern Switzerland, come hit up the Engadin Valley, amazing freeride, and parks are not too shabby either.
 
Yes boys, I'm out there for the rest of feb anonymously ski schooling but if anyone has days off let me know. cheers for the info.
 
I have to chime in here.

Zermatt has an adjacent resort Cervinia which you can access by first getting on the Schwarzsee gondola, riding it right to the top, then taking two t-bars to the plateau and then you can ski into Italy. (you have to buy an international pass to get on the Italian lifts.) After skiing down into Cervinia, you then take 4 lifts back up to Theodulpass peak and from there you can ski right back into Zermatt village without further lifting. But if you miss getting to Theodulpass by the end of the day (or Testa Grigia), take a credit card and stay the night in Cervinia or pay for a 5 hour taxi back to Zermatt.

There are two parks to check out. The Gravity park which you ride by getting on the Furggsattel chair (ski down to that chair right after getting off Schwarzee.. about 30 secs below) and then you can see the park at left on the way up. Great park but long rides up the chair to lap it.

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It loses sun later at the end of the day but plenty of slay material.

The other park is Indian park, 2 lifts down from Theodulpass. (see map) It's awesome. Plenty of sun, shorter lift and music...

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"The Cervinia terrain park is the highest snowpark in Europe located at almost 3,000 meters above sea level. The Indian Park is on the left hand side of the Fornet Chairlift just below the Theodulpass in the Fornet area." ~source

The thing you have to watch out for is not getting up to Theodulpass if they close the lift up to it due to high wind, so it's best to make this excursion on a sunny day and if on the Italian side, start heading home by 2:30pm.

- there's a free bus to get to the bottom of Schwarzee gondola from within Zermatt village but walking's easy

- there's around 5 ski schools in Zermatt, I skiied with someone from this one.
 
get ready to burn a ton of money haha, its super fucking expensive. zermatt has great off piste skiing, but if you want some real shit come to engelberg which is only about a 3 hour train ride (which is really beautiful) away. oh yeah, everyone and their mothers have an airbag system. for a reason. make sure if youre going off piste to rent an abs system and it is pretty common for avalanches to happen around there. especially with all this damn snow were getting.

hmu if ur tryna shred engelberg, ill be here till mid march! ill show you some dope spots. definitely a bucketlist kind of resort. we got a 2000m vertical decent of pure pow ;)
 


Engelberg or Andermatt are good calls, I prefer the latter one. Verbier is about 2hrs away, Italy's Aosta valley is even closer.

And this is the train you want to catch :)

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