 Poster: A snowHead
|
Resort: Saas Fee
Country: Switzerland
Domain: Saas Fee, Saas Almagel, Saas Grund
Author: hamilton
Date: 22/2/2016 - 5/03/2016
Our holiday: Accompanying my SO on her SCGB leading duties. We're both keen off-piste skiers, and will be looking to do guided days, as well as make the most of the side-track and easy offpiste without the powder hounds in bigger resorts
Website :
www.saas-fee.ch
https://www.meteoblue.com/en/weather/forecast/week/saas-fee_switzerland_2658898
Basics : An hour or so from Zermatt, in the Valais region of Switzerland. For us, a flight to Zurich, then a couple of hours on the train, to Visp, and then 45 mins on the bus. We _just_ missed a bus connection, so had to start our apres in a very nice bar across from the bus stop. In typical swiss fashion, bus stop had screens with clear info on time and location of next bus departure. There was also a small Coop in the train station so we bought breakfast provisions.
Lift system : Varies. In Saas Fee, there are two 'main' lifts, the Alpin, from town, and the Felskinn, from the top of the ski-school drags, and two 'minor' gondolas, the Platschen and the Spielboden. Plans afoot to upgrade Spielboden completely as it is unlikely to pass its next 'mot'.
The terrain : Saas Fee is significantly glaciated
- the upper lift (in the tunnel) exits to pistes and further drags that are all on the glacier. Lower runs are not glaciated. The village is surrounded by 4000m peaks, which have a big impact on local weather & temperatures.
The snow : in our two weeks, we had almost too much snow. in both weeks, there were days when the entire system was shut down to either too much snow / high avalanche risk / high winds. On several days, upper lifts were closed due to winds.
Off-piste : On the plus side, the resort is relatively free of powder-hounds. On the morning after the first big dump, I was on the 2nd gondola up from Alpin express, and the first person to do the 'easy' offpiste to the side of the Morenia chair. On a bluebird day with fresh snow, this is no mean achievement.
There are a number of 'easy' and relatively safe offpiste areas - the Morenia chair has runs to skiers left of the chair, which can either terminate at the chair for laps, or continue on the kanonenrohr itinerary.
From the Langfluh chair, there are easy routes skiers left to lap that chair, or a more exciting variation takes you down to the lake and a forest 'wanderweg', with a short (5 minute) bootpack back to the blue piste down to Felskinn
from the Morenia restaurant its possible to cut across to the blue poma on the RHS of the ski area - this has some nice gullies, although often closed if avalanche risk is high.
the high itinerary under the mittelallalin can also be approached from the Egginerjoch drag, which increases the scope.
If you get a guide (http://www.saasfeeguides.com/) you have much more choice - the 'easy' route is out of the middle point of the metro-alpin tunnel train,
onto the glacier and down to Saas Almagel - on the day we did it, a route of breathtaking beauty.
They can also take you on the 'safe' routes across the glacier above Fee itself -
truly spectacular looking down past the crevasses and ice blocks to the town... and tranquility too.
Ducking the ropes still felt naughty though!
The resort : Saas is not a party town. There are a handful of 'apres' bars, but it's all very civilised. by 9pm town is 'dead'.... there's hardly anyone around. However, there are a lot of nice restaurants, and bakeries, so the living is good.
Food : It's switzerland, so take out a second mortgage. Hot chocolate with cream is typically 6chf on the mountain, rosti's are 25, glass of wine is 9, a 'proper' main course can be 45. Some of the cafe's, such as 360 at the top of mitel-allalin, are worth it for the view, and the staff are friendly. The Alpen-macaroni, their house special, is delicious, but the portions are huge, and come in a pan, so subtract 1 unless you are a total glutton. In the other resorts (Almagel, Grund) its a bit cheaper - as low as 4chf for a hot choccie in the valley in Almagel.
Accommodation :
On arrival, we had a couple of nights in Popcorn. Handily placed a snowballs throw from the bus station... although it _is_ a bit of a party hotel - friendly staff, but the band play till 3am, and you get complementary earplugs in the rooms.
Main base was in House Orion, a basic studio just to the right of Allalin hotel, and about 10 mins from the Allalin lift, and a little to the right of the geometric centre. The SCGB apartment was another 10 mins, and we once skinned up to the start of the langlauf tracks on the day all the lifts were shut, and that took 20 mins (the Alpa Hut has reasonable food and hot chocolate, but if you can walk another mile to the Fletchorn hotel, it's a michelin starred relais chateaux... although it felt a bit like The Shining the day we were there!
Costs: see above. Wines typically 30+CHF in restaurants. Pizzas in town at Ciccio are 28 and good. 9chf for a weissbier in town is typical - similar for glass of prosecco. the local hopfbier is about 4.5 for a 250ml bottle.
Conclusion: on a good day (and we had an absolute peach) Saas is hard to top. If there's fresh snow, and the lifts are running, you can get fresh tracks on a run that will make you feel like a god. Equally, we've had 2 days of total lockdown in 2 weeks, and 2 more days where the open runs have been diabolical as the weather has been poor due to cloud. Whilst Fee is almost a proper resort, Almagell and Grund are really just 'deviations' - you can slide down a wanderweg to Almagel for the day, and Grund is a 10 min bus ride, but you'll get bored within the day at each. Having said that, we scored first tracks on the itinerary at Grund today... and got up close and personal to a trio of Chamois who thought they had the route to themselves.
Would i come back? yes - but I'd probably get a "6 from 7" day lift pass, or be more attentive on the forecast. This is trip 3 this season, and I'm probably a bit biased as we finally got some powder... In the past I've dissed places like Chamonix for taking an age to open up after a snowfall - but here the risks are real, and you will ski past places where the avie protection has been used....
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
@hamilton, Great write up. I love Saas-Fee and have been going there for years. In fact I learn to ski there 30 years ago. This year I skied with SCGB leader Richard Congdon, and showed him a few new tracks.
One point on your off-piste section, for the route down from Langfluh to the glacier lake, I assume your guide took you down the glacier tongue. That is definitely not an itinerary, as there is a high risk of ice falls, and crevasses.
Two more spectacular guide only runs are 'Surprise' which is accessed off Aplin (back of revolving restaurant), and drops you down onto the blue from the Felskinn tunnel. The second is the 'Kiwi Wall', which lives up to its name, and is between Surprise and the Panorama piste. There are others such as the aptly named 'Make or break it', again of top, and 'High Five' off Plattjen.
Saas-Fee can also be used as a base to access many of the small resorts hidden off the main valley near Visp, many of which can be accessed by car or post bus in one hour.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
Saas Fee is wonderful in winter,
Go back in summer and it is absolutely awesome
Only disappointing aspect is the poor quality of Hot Chocolate - powder sachets that you pour yourself into wrmish mik !? Everywhere
As a nice bit of fun, google Saas Fee and Mountain Bike and see how they get on racing on snow 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ