 Poster: A snowHead
|
Resort: Davos Klosters
Country: Switzerland
Domain: 'none'
Author: hamiltonian
Date: 22.02.15-07.03.15
Our holiday: Accompanying my wife on her first SCGB leading gig.
Website : www.davos.ch/en.html
Basics : Transport: BA LCY-ZUR, train Zurich-Davos Platz
Flights were simple, paid an extra £20 to get Club Europe (business) on the way back - mainly to get the extra luggage
allowance. BA lounge in Zurich is nothing fancy, but easy to sink enough wine to cover the cost, and the snacks weren't bad.
Cold buffet meal on the way out, hot beef steak on the way back.
Lift system : The ski area is split into 6 areas in total: Parsenn (the main area), Jakobshorn (#2), Madrisa and Rinerhorn (both slightly more out of the way),
Pischa (open weekends only, and the 'freeride' area), and Schatzalp (almost a private mountain, as the lift station is in the centre of Davos, and
the passes for the other mountains don't work there)
Typically a big cable car as a first lift, and then a mix of chairs & gondolas (parsenn), or t-bars (everywhere else). there are a LOT of t-bars.
The terrain : basically, there are two sides to the valley, and you can ski on each, so you can find slopes facing whichever direction you want.
The snow : We had a good 2 weeks - first few days were sunny, then we had pretty much 7 days of snow, culminating in a couple of days of 10cm/hour dumps, and a
particularly memorable first thursday which was bluebird and with 2feet of fresh. We also had a howling gale with 50km/h winds that closed pretty much everything for a day.
Off-piste : Lots - see below
The resort : Davos is the big brash cousin to the expensively refined Klosters. St Anton it aint, don't come for the nightlife. Or cheap shopping. Davos has a good
range of sensible shops, for food and accessories, and I managed to get a decent pair of goggles for £65.
Food : On mountain food is 'good' - better than the average in France, and poss a bit better than Austria. Most on-mountain places cook from fresh, and in Parsenn the 'schwendi'
restaurants are particulalry atmospheric
Accommodation : Sunstar, Davos Platz. A lovely, friendly, if slightly dated, hotel, about 8 minutes up a small hill from Davos Platz.
Decent size rooms, usual facilities (flat tv, bath, safe), lovely 'wellness' centre with a prob 12x15m pool, exotic
hammam, a 'dampfbad' (steam room), and euro-style (i.e. naked co-ed) sauna.
Excellent food, large euro style breakfast, wide variety of cereals, hot and cold meats, eggs etc. Coffee was a bit dissapointing.
Dinner was excellent, 5 courses on the meal plan, including a salad buffet, no-one minded if you had desert as well as cheese. One night
would be 'swiss' night, i.e. really good proper raclette! or you could go a la carte
Costs: 6chf for a hot chocolate, 22 for a main dish, 4chf for a coffee. At 1.4 chf to the pound, you can burn money.
oh, and my 15 day liftpass was about 440gbp
Conclusion: Skiing
The ski area is split into 6 areas in total: Parsenn (the main area), Jakobshorn (#2), Madrisa and Rinerhorn (both slightly more out of the way),
Pischa (open weekends only, and the 'freeride' area), and Schatzalp (almost a private mountain, as the lift station is in the centre of Davos, and
the passes for the other mountains don't work there)
Most of the reason Davos is not too busy I think is because people are put off by having to get the bus, or train, between resorts.
In practice, this is not an issue - this is Switzerland, the transport _does_ run like clockwork.
it is perfectly possible to ski down to a little village like Serneus, on a lovely red run (that becomes an itinerary part way down), and pick up a bus
at exactly 12:29, that takes you up the valley to a bus stop, where you get onto another bus that is waiting for that connection, to go 10 minutes down the
road to get to Madrisa. You can then take 20 minutes of gondolas and t-bars, and 20 minutes of skiing, and make a lunch appointment at Erica's, off the black 10, for 13:30
The trains are similarly reliable - you can ski down from the Parsenn mountain on the black down to Wolfgang, get a lovely lunch at Kulm, possibly even see Prince Charles helping
himself to the salad bar, and then get the train back to Davos (or the bus).
Quick mountain summary
Parsenn - the biggie. access either from Davos Dorf, via the funicular, or from Klosters, via Gottschna. Lots of space to play, some easy offpiste either side of Meierhof, or
off the 'garden route' that is run 24, or underneath the big gondola that runs across the back.
Jakobshorn - the easy option if you're staying in Davos Platz, as we were - when there's fresh snow (which there was), there is lots of easy off piste - faves include
skiers right under Brama Jet (for the brave), or under the Clavadeler chair (if the weather isn't so nice, as this chair has a cover). there are also 2 sweet itineraries,
one down to Muhle, (a wide open, gentle snowfield gives way to an at times narrow and bumpy route thro' trees) and then either ski down the langlauf track or take the hourly bus (optional drink at the mill restaurant), or the other route down to Teufi (rather more
committed entry point, and slightly more challenging generally), hourly bus at the bottom but nice restuarant nearby too.
Rinerhorn - either a bus ride from Davos, or a short bus from Jakobshorn - only t-bars once your're up, but lots of easy between piste routes, and some much more interesting off piste if you've a guide.
Pischa - the so-called free-ride mountain - if the weather's right, it can be awesome, but it can be frustrating knowing it's had dumps of snow but is only open weekends.
usually pretty quiet, even at weekends
Madrisa - has some nice long, quiet, rolling reds on the right side of the map, and Erica's on black 10 is a great place for lunch, definitely worth booking. The itinererary
on the left side can be awesome - it was the day we were there, and incredibly, at 3pm, we were only the 2nd group down.
General thoughts. It's a really quiet place to ski. Even at weekends, we rarely had to wait more than a couple of minutes, and mostly we just walked onto any mountain lift.
When the weather comes in, it can be brutally exposed, and some routes (e.g. meierhof) always seem windy. However, on a sunny day, it's lovely.
The catch. its switzerland, so the exchange rate is against you. Typical prices: 6chf for a hot chocolate, 22 for a main dish, 4chf for a coffee. At 1.4 chf to the pound, you can burn money.
oh, and my 15 day liftpass was about 440gbp.... if you like to actually _ski_, rather than wait around in queues, it's worth it.
And on the day off.... we hooked up with Walter from fullmoons.ch, a cool local guide co, and went off the back of Rinerhorn. We climbed without skins for maybe 40 mins, and had an hour or so of freshtrack descent.
A good day with great people.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
@hamilton, did you not have a pizza at the station(can't recall the name) - the best, definitely, pizzas in the world. By a country mile.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
@hamilton,
Nice report,
| Quote: |
Most of the reason Davos is not too busy I think is because people are put off by having to get the bus, or train, between resorts.
|
Not sure that this is true though I suspect it is more an exchange rate thing. I skied in Daovs quite a bit in the 90's and it was generally fairly busy, though mainly with Continental Europeans rather than Brits. One year I went and it was a lot quieter when I asked some local residents they said it was the recession in Europe.
Davos has never been a cheap place to ski and I suspect the strengthening Franc has caused a bit of a problem.
@under a new name, Is that the Italian restaurant to the left of Platx station as you are looking from the station up the hill? It serves superb food at reasonable prices or used to . I think there is a pizzeria slightly in the other direction as well.
I became very fond of Italian food whilst in Davos the prices were so much more reasonable than eating out elsewhere.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
@under a new name, no - the downside to being on fullboard meant we didn't eat dinner out. There are lots of 'station's, if you could be more specific!
@T Bar, i agree with you, I think my initial version got edited wrong. I'm sure the cost thing makes a difference, especially as the swiss would save significantly... although the exchange rate seems to have settled down a bit now. What I'd meant to imply is (a) people are generally put off by having to take trains and buses, and actually it's pretty easy, and (b) this probably particularly applies to the Brits...
In the lifts in Madris there were 'thankyou' posters welcoming both visitors and local swiss and thanking them for their custom.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
Once had a brilliant lads week in Davos 10 years or so ago, would like to go back but CHF Swissie scares me!! Went to a ice-hockey game there too, Davos, top night, never realised it was so popular, crowd/ atmosphere amazing.
@hamilton, Great place, great skiing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
@hamilton, great report 
I love it there but I've taken others who have hated it. It's a bit Marmite in that respect.
It's certainly unique in my opinion.
@Markymark29, I've been to a game there too - one of those sports that's crap on the TV but fantastic live.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@hamilton, Ah got you, thanks for the report
| Quote: |
a) people are generally put off by having to take trains and buses, and actually it's pretty easy,
|
Agree, it is very straightforward and well organised. I will have to go back one day, probably a trip sans children as it is undoubtedly pricey.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I love it there and think the inconvenience of it being so spread out is overplayed.
We won't be going for the foreseeable owing to the cost. It was 2.4 CHF to the £ when I last went.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
