A little bit late but here is my report of our recent long weekend in
Laax.
Thursday:
Flights on time, baggage through quickly, car-hire sorted and on the road but…..
… heavy snow in
Zurich with very poor visibility :evil:.
We feared that this could be the journey from hell with the prospect of having to put on the chains in a blizzard. Thankfully, it stopped snowing about 20 minutes outside Zurich and the rest of the journey was a doddle :wink:.
About 11.30 when we arrived in resort. Dumped the bags and headed out for a well-deserved beer (is there any other kind) :lol:.
Friday:
Up early the next morning to sort out lift passes and ski hire (btw, Laax is unusual in that you can get discounted lift passes online). A bit grey, windy and cold but not too bad. All done and dusted and on 1st lift by 10am – gondola from
Flims up to Plaugn. Skied around the Nagens area in the morning off the Nagens gondola and Mutta Rodunda chair.
Nice selection of runs around this area. La Siala and the glacier were closed because of the winds but it was quiet and not really a problem. After lunch at the restaurant at Crap Sogn Gion (St John's Peak) – fine but nothing to write home about and not cheap, we skied the other side in the pm, including some really nice long runs like Run 54 from top of Alp Dado lift into 53 all the way down to
Falera – nearly 1,000m vertical. Also Red 42 off Alp Dado back down to Plaugn was lovely though visibility wasn't great when we did it which made for some interesting skiing – it has some serious rollers on it that tended to catch you by surprise in the poor light :shock:.
Saturday:
Blue skies and everything open but very, very cold especially high up. We started again in the Nagens area but then headed up the La Siala 3 man chair – one of the few older/slower chairs in the area. Did my favourite run of the week – the long Red 10 from the top of the chair down to the bottom of the Grauberg cablecar something like 1,200m vertical :mrgreen:. It's a truly lovely run on a fine day with fabulous views across the valley – but more anon.
After lunch we headed up to the top of the Vorab glacier. A long tedious T-bar to the top :evil:. Around the back of the mountain to take Black 35 down. A couple of steep pitches at the top and overall a lovely long run (again). We also took on one of the off-piste routes in the pm – Route 85 from Crap Masegn to Treis Palais. It didn't have a lot of powder on it but was a nice challenge with a couple of narrow gulley-type sections :roll:. The area has loads of these off-piste marked routes which are great for the better skier. We finished with Red 64 down to the valley and stopped for a beer at the bar at Larnags where there was a big crown enjoyed Austrian style après-ski with a live band on the terrace. An absolutely fabulous day's skiing :mrgreen:.
Sunday:
It was grey and cold again with mixed visibility. We skied around the area and mainly stayed low to enjoy the tree-lined skiing such as Red18 which is the home run down into Flims. It was in great condition and a lovely run with nice features. We did venture up high at one stage on the La Siala chair and took Red 10 down – this was my favourite run the day before. This time it was horrible :evil:. There was a gale blowing and visibility was rubbish. We had a few teenagers with us and we had to stop at the first available hut to get them hot chocolates to thaw out. Strange situation – my best run of the week was the same as my worst :shock:. Just goes to prove the importance of conditions. Finished with Black 65 down to Laax – a really nice run in good condition. Still - another great day skiing :mrgreen:.
Monday:
It was even greyer on Monday with snow promised and duly delivered. Visibility was very poor above the tree-line so we tried to stay low as much as possible doing the valley runs. Headed over to the extreme right of the resort and took the Foppa and Nauraus lifts up. We were literally the only people in this area but to be honest, it wasn't worth the effort – two slow lifts up and a fairly boring run down to Flims :x. We had lunch at Crap Sogn Gion again and when we came out, we could see nothing :oops:. Tried to find the way to Red 64 or Black 65 down to Laax but visibility was so poor we gave up on this and headed down to Plaugn on Red 66 and skied down to Flims on Red 18 instead. We had to finish early anyway as it was time to get changed and make out way to the airport for our return home :cry:.
Overall impressions:
A great ski area with loads for most skiers. I can imagine that with a fresh dump, it would be fabulous for off-pisters but even with "old" snow, the routes would keep pretty much anybody happy. Probably not that great for beginners. The pistes were well groomed and generally very interesting with lots of changes in pitch, changes in contour, etc. Very little straight down the hill sort of stuff that you can get in some resorts. Lift system was generally very good and very well connected – one or two bottlenecks on the Saturday when there seemed to be quite a few day trippers down from Zurich and elsewhere but otherwise no queues. Two brand new lifts – Treis Palais and Lavadinas have opened up a very nice new area to the extreme left of the resort.
Apres ski was pretty rubbish and expensive – about €7 for a pint of lager. Lunches were pretty expensive with a bowl of pasta usually about €12.50 and €4 for a drink – no tap water available. Coffees/hot chocolate usually about €4. Dinner was particularly expensive with pizzas coming in at about €18 and a bottles of wine starting at about €30 for pretty ordinary stuff. Probably best to go for half board or self-catering in this part of the world.
Overall, we had a cracking few days and skied the legs off ourselves :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:.
Would I go there again? Absolutely :wink:.
