Andermatt - opinions

A snowHead

I was wondering what opinions were about Andermatt?

I was going to be skiing St. Anton for a week and debating whether to ass Andermatt for a few days on the end.

I am an advanced skier looking for off-piste powder.

Is a guide necessary? Is it a high snow area? Does it live up to its reputation of being a semi-La Grave?

Thx

A snowHead

Never been but it has a reputation for getting as much snow as anywhere in the Alps. My new favourite is Engelberg, which is very close as the crow flies, although it takes quite a long time to get from one to the other because of the way the valleys fit together.

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telski, It's a very long time since I've been there, and we never got off the nursery slopes, but I remember a very pretty classic alpine village and too much snow!

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Adermatt has the`Gemtock with variations off it but not really for a solo! It's appeal would seem to be the intineries off the back side which should be guided until you know. This is mostly because of how far away from people you can get rather than the skiing. The best way to do it would be with day trips, there are better places to explore otherwise, namely Engelberg, but you have to comfortable with glaciated terrain etc to get the best there. The pistes aren't what you go for.
I woud say Engelberg would deserve you comparisoon with LG more than Andermatt in the 1st look around type instance.

The drive between the two is about 90min - Andermatt sits in a high pass so driving could be fraught but mostly motorway.

The train is ok but you change a few times.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I'd say Andermatt also needs a good cover because it is quite rocky

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telski,

Welcome to snowHead

's

Andermatt is a little different to La Grave as at La Grave there are virtually no pistes whereas Andermatt has quitre a few. Without really knowing exactly what terrain you are looking for it is difficult to know what you want. La Grave has plenty of straightforward non extreme terrain as has Andermatt. Not skiing the seriously Oh S***t terrain I can't really tell you.

As far as guides are concerned there is no legal requirement in Europe to have a guide, but there are plenty of times when it is a sensible option.

If you have plenty of experience of high mountain winter navigation and avalanche assessment in your party then most people would consider a guide non essential however a local guide will still find you the best snow conditions. If you are on your own or do not have the above experience then a guide is generally recommended if you are leaving the pistes.

In many places in Europe you can reasonably cheaply join a guided group through the local ski school or guides office if you contact them in advance, though you may not find many other English speakers in your group. Hiring a guide privately is a more expensive option but in good conditions can be very rewarding.

Andermatt has a decent snow record but there are no guarantees in advance and as noted by JT above it is fairly rocky so needs a decent covering.

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

[edit]In March 2005[/edit], I ski-toured for a week very nearby - and sometimes dropping into - the Andermatt area. I was based at Realp (a village a short distance along the rail line) and at the Rotondo Hut high up.

When I was there, I thought the area fantastic. despite having a largish army barracks, I liked Andermatt, too. I stayed there overnight before going on to Realp, and can strongly recommend the Hotel Drei Koenige und Post.

I thought Andermatt under-rated by us Brits. I'd like to go back there again.

After all it is free

achilles,

You weren't there 13-18th of Jan were you..?

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Thanks for the replies.

I went to La Grave/Les2Alpes and Val d'Isere/Tignes, and had a great time. I found La Grave to be highly technical skiing. It's not overly steep. Each run began with a powder field (where there was always a rock dodge/strike or two), then a technical chute and finally some Larch trees at the end. Add a glacier or longer coulior - and that's La Grave.

However, I was looking for some more open skiing - with few trees (we have too many in the US). Primarily, chutes going into big faces/bowls for big verticals. With fresh.

So the best skiing at Andermatt is actually off the backside from Andermatt. There are 3 of us total and would definitely get a guide. How many runs could you get in a day? How do you get back from the backside to the lifts?

I thought ending in Andermatt would be a good contrast to the loudness of St. Anton.

Thanks for the advice.

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telski,
Andermatt is definately a lot quieter than St Anton. From memory the runs end up either in a side valley back to the village or over in Hospental slightly further up the valley from which you need to get a taxi back or ski the two Hospental lifts. There are probably lots of other variants that I didn't do on my brief trip. I don't remember too many trees, certainly no big larch forests like at La Grave.

snow reports

telski,

If you have a 3 or 4 day trip either Engelberg or Andermatt would be ok. You'd probably be able to do 2 guided trips off of Gemstock ( Andermatt ) per day with a good lunch, if you went further afield you'd get taxi's back. It is a bolt hole for guides from Italy when the snow is poor elsewhere.....!!!!! I'd say it mostly has touring tendancies and then you can be gone as long as you want. Gemstock itself has little glaciated terrain whereas Engelberg certainly has. The main glacier is right down the middle of the lifts but you only get onto the Steinberg from the Titlis lift which you use to scope some sort of lines. The other side Jochpass access the same bowl at about 2600m.
Then there is the Laub which is a huge open bowl of over 3000ft vertical. After that you need to drop over the side of the the Titlis/Steinberg glacier to ski down to the valleys. You could easily spend 3 days here just amusing yourself. Day 1 warm-up on Titlis and Jochberg. `Day 2 Titlis and the Laub and day 3 off the side into the hidden valley although if you look carefully on the way over to the Laub you can see it and the need to drop in higher. I don't know Andermatt well enough to list an intinary but even if you made a good and concerted start in Engelberg, you'd only begin to see what else you could do with a guide. Its why I'll be going back for a 5th time this year.

Trawl through this www.engelberg.ch

and www.andermatt.ch for tasters

Engelberg looks pretty interseting too.

Thanks for the help.

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Andermatt - opinions

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