J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by ir12daveor

Many of the smaller resorts in Switzeland usually have a pull lift at the bottom of the mountain which allows beginners to get up without their skis/board ever leaving the ground. I'm not so sure about down in the French side, but certainly within a couple of hours of Zurich airport I can think of a lot of areas like this.

As someone who is terrified of heights too, I can sympathise with your boyfriend. The first time I set on a chair lift I nearly crapped myself. The good news is that you get used to it. The first few times are very scary if you don't have a head for heights, but after a couple of runs he will relax into it.

My best advice from personal experience is to find a resort where he can learn using pull/drag lifts. Once he can do it and has a little bit of a desire to get better then the fear of Seat lifts can be tackled. I had it the other way around, I was put on a quite high seat lift on my first day, with no instructions how to use it, I didn;t know there was a bar to rest my board on, and I felt like I was getting pulled off the lift by my board the whole way up. The experience did nothing to make me want to learn how to snowboard. That was nearly 10 years ago and now I spend at least three days a week in the mountains winter and summer.

Judging by the kids I see in the fun parks, a bit of whacky backy just makes you that little bit more hard core! )

Seriously though, I regularly see the behaviour of people going to the bar early in the day, sitting there all day eating and drinking, then skiing down and driving home :!: . In the cases where I see it its not tourists that are doing it either but locals... or at least people living in close enough proximity to the resort to day trip it.

Has someone removed the picture, or am I being particularly dumb?

Tony_H wrote:Flims/Laax?

Its further from Zurich, more expensive and in my opinion highly overrated.

I would normally never recommend Flumerberg due to how crowded it gets, but on a weekday off-season it will not be crowded and in terms of ease of access from Zurich then it can't be beaten.

On a weekend, going a little further to Pizol might be more worth while.

Going to Flims/Laax is usually more about the "I've been there" factor. Its not really any different from other similar sized resorts in the area, and in my opinion many of the smaller resorts close by offer just as good skiing or snowboarding without the crowds. (Thats just my opinion though).

If you are going to ski on a week day then Flumserberg should be fairly good for you.

http://www.flumserberg.ch/winter/en/home/default.htm

It is a medium sized resort very easily accessible from Zurich city centre. The train drops you off directly across the road from the Gondola which goes up to the resort. This resort is best avoided on weekends though as it gets very crowded due to its proximity and easy access from Zurich.

There is also a Swiss public transport ticket called Snow'n'Rail. This allows you to buy a train ticket and ski pass together at the train station you depart from for a reduced cost. You then hand in a voucher at the ski resort and they give you your ski pass. It makes sense for one day trips by public transport to do this.

http://railaway.rail.ch/english/snow-n-rail/

Snow'n'Rail info for Flumserberg here:
http://railaway.rail.ch/english/snow-n-rail/glarus-eastern-switzerland/flumserberg/

The resorts will be open, but there is a possibility that not all the runs down to the valley will be open. It really depends on how the season pans out though. I've seen years where March/April were the best months, and I've seen seasons where the pistes were white ribbons going down through grassy fields at that time.

RoseR wrote:Sorry folks I am not panicking my resort has been open since October and will be until June. :lol:

Who's panicing? There are resorts over here open all year round. We can get a fix in July/August if we want. There are plenty other things to do in the Alps at that time of year though. :D At the moment there are quite a few resorts open, but that doesn't mean that they couldn't do with a bit more snow.

The snow cover at the moment is quite small even in the resorts with a glacier that have very extended seasons.

Looks like the higher resorts in most of Switzerland will start to get some snow. The weather is still looking like being quite mild into next week though so the snow line will probably stay up at about 1500m or so.

I think some places in Central Switzerland like Andermatt and maybe down into Wallis will get some good dumps but up here on the eastern side I don't think we'll get too much. :( Hopefully we start to get some good dumps in Graubünden soon, I'm looking to start my season. :D