Saas Fee advice, Beginners

A snowHead

Evening.

I'm visiting my Sister in Basel this week and we are heading up to stay in between Saas Almagell and Saas Grund. We plan to ski on Saturday. I'll be there with my wife and 3 kids who are fine skiing most places, but my Nieces are pretty much beginners.

My question is, where is the best place to take them for the day? Is Saas Fee the best, or would Saas Grund be better? They have had a few lessons on day trips to Engelberg, and can ski, but have yet to leave the nursery slopes. My intention is to take them a bit further if they are up to it.

Thanks in advance

Jon

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@jonkgray78, Saas Fee is one of the best resorts in Europe for beginners, despite the advice above. All 4 of my children learnt to ski there. It is certainly better than Sass Grund is this regard, which is a lovely ski area but with very limited blue slope options.

There is a separate, extensive nursery area with no through traffic. It is great for messing around with less experienced children, and has a fun, easy bordercross section as well as some rollers and forest runs for variety.

On the main mountain there are several options that near beginners should manage easily. In particular the long blue on the glacier is of very gentle gradient for it's entire length. The only issue with this slope is the very long T-Bar which serves it, if they are not competent on T Bars they might struggle. That being said the T Bar runs alongside the slope so relatively low consequence if someone does fall off (make sure the better skiers are on the lift behind the beginners). Also there is a fun blue option at Morenia that can be lapped using either the upper section of the Alpin Express gondola or a chair lift (requires a bit more competence as you have to traverse a steeper section to access it). Have a look at the piste map and you will see some good options. I would strongly recommend that you do not ski down to the village but take the lifts down, beginners will struggle with the steeper sections of the home runs.

There are few places that have such extensive, separate nursery slopes and allow you to give near beginners a true high mountain experience. A second week skier will easily manage skiing on the glacier.

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@anarski, @zikomo,

Thank you both, just what I was after.

@zikomo, Yea, I'd had a look at the piste map, and figured downloading might be best, so thanks for confirming this. I'm guessing that if the T-Bar runs alongside the piste, it never really gets that steep?

Thanks again

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@jonkgray78, The T Bar on the glacier is of very gentle gradient. But it is long!

You'll need to Register first of course.

You'll want to focus on runs 8 & 10. Run 10, which connects the upper part of the glacier with Langfluh is flatter than any of the runs in the nursery area, so flat in fact that it can hardly be called a run. I'd drill them at the nursery area and make sure they've mastered the button lift before taking them up.

What @zikomo, fails to mention is that to access either run you have to deal with red terrain. To access 10 you have to take two gondolas, and ski down 11 a red,(granted 11 is very flat for a red gradient run) to take a chair up to the aforementioned very long t-bar. You're taking about 30 minutes of transportation for a run that will bore them after one go. If they can ski 11 consider taking them to the top and skiing down 18, which connects to 10, it's not too steep and wide open.

Run 8 might be a better option, I was in Saas Fee a couple weeks ago and brought my almost 5 year old daughter (whose had about 3 weeks on skis) up on the Alpine express to Morenia. Run 8 is nice, except for the very end which gets just a bit steep for a blue. My daughter wasn't keen, and on close inspection there are some steep parts on the button lift where I wasn't sure my daughter would have the upper body strength to hold on. So, we had lunch at Morenia and took the Alpin Express back down. But again, you're looking at either taking the Alpin Express all the way up to Felskinn and then traversing and possibly hiking up to the top of 8 or you get off at Morenia and you have to deal with the bottom of 4, which is Red to get to the button lift.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Saas Grund I think would be better as all the runs are more forgiving and wide and accessed by gondola. I did Almagell on my second week including the red runs but it is an old 2 man chair to get up.

Take the right hand route at the top (looking downhill) the one steepish bit is short and very wide.

If you do go up to Saas Fee you can lap the Alpine Express top section by walking through the tunnel and then taking either blue or red down to the top of the morenia chair (red is steeper at the end but again wide, blue is very flat) and then turn right before you get to the chair and follow the blue all the way to Morenia and repeat. The red that goes to morenia, closest to the blue run (possibly 5, it’s been years since I looked at the piste map) is also flat but has a bit of an interesting camber on it but might give variety. Unless confident in bumpy snow I wouldn’t go below morenia. The bit between restaurant and chair bottom gets very cut up compared to the rest of the runs as it changes from flat blue to steeper red and people put the brakes on there.

The nursery slope out on its own is also good for a giggle and has a slalom activity and an option to go off on a little adventure on the left of the left hand drag if there is enough snow. Can pop through trees and seems fun for kids.

After all it is free

@goweje, I don't completely agree with your descriptions, could be a bit misleading. Also it is not that helpful referring to numbers for runs, as when the OP looks on the online piste map he will only see names.

The long glacier run (Feechatz) can be accessed 2 ways, from different sides of the mountain
1. Spielboden Gondola, followed by Langfluh cable car, then a short walk to take the T-bar (you do not need to use the red slope then take the chairlift back up). The walk is probably 200M max if you want to avoid the red slope.
2. Alpin Express then the funicular. It is a very easy path (marked red on the piste map but very easy) then down to the Feechatz piste that runs along the T-bar

Alternatively from the top of Alpin Express, as lampygirl also says, you can access a succession of blues (or easy reds if the kids are up for it) which can be lapped via a chairlift or the upper section of Alpin Express.

Help!!

Saas Fee advice, Beginners

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