 Poster: A snowHead
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4th year with Esprit; daughter is now 7 . After 3 years in Kaprun, which is no longer in the (winter or summer) brochure we spread our winds and booked Saas fee for 23rd Jan week.
Only mistakes with the whole thing were not spotting a Heathrow flight ! (which was nowhere near as stupidly early as the return to Gatwick was), not spotting the huge expense of Switzerland, and then not reading the traffic warnings at 4 am on the Sat (A329M closed, M25 closed Jn 10 to 9) when i had only given myself 45 minutes to get to Gatwick ("there's never any traffic at that time of the morning" )
Anyway, because we were with Esprit i had paid for everything , bar lunch and the odd evening beer, in advance in £s, so once Mrs sev112 and i had found teh ready-made sandwich cabinet in the town supermarket for lunch most days, we could concentrate on the mountain.
And WHAT a mountain. From the first view from the bedroom of mountains and glaciers, you can see why the magazines call this place the Pearl of teh Alps.
Saas Fee isn't massive, but it isn't small either. In 6 days, we spend 1 at Saas Grund (which does require a hike to the bus stop and a (suprisingly for the swiss) rather chaotic boarding more reminiscent of Chamonix at teh end of teh day. Which was a bit pf a pfaff for a 5 minute journey, but Saas grund is good enough for 1 to2 days during the week. We didnt get to Saas Almagell.
Because you are effectively sitting on a glacial shelf in the village, with glaciers coming down all around, you are snow sure. And whilst there hadnt been snow for >4 weeks we could not tell. Ok, after about 3 some of eth steeper slopes were starting to ice up. In fact when we arrived the temp had dropped by 10 degs from teh week before, so they were making snow all over teh place and spreading it around at night - it was honestly like skiing fresh snow every day - they really do piste very well.
There are 3 super pistes in the village for noobs - really good. But Saas isnt a great noob or recent beginner, because it is honestly not full of good runs back to the village. OK, we did bring a 6 and 7 year old right from the top of the mountain to the bottom, and they did fine on the reds, but the blue boulevard which zigz and zags isnt really great for those recent adult beginners who hate narrow paths with big drops below - amazingly kids dont seem to worry about this.
Up top, there are some lovely wide reds and blues. A really good snow park. ONce you are up on teh glacier you have the necessary t bars, albeit there are a couple of chairs up there (covered) which give a biot of respite. The apparently" legendary 1 km T bar is actually quite easy (it's pretty flat) and if you are at all interested in geography/geology you will spend it staring agog at the glacier 20ft away from you. In fact, whilst there are glaciers everywhere you look, ski down on teh Langfluh side and you can see the reality of crevasses - sit on the wall at the cafe and look down !!!! it soon becomes clear why they really say you need a guide here for off piste !!
The steep t bar up to the Egginjoch is extremely worthwhile. At teh top the views are great, and you are right next to a sheer and beautiful rock face on the way down.
Have to mention the revolving restuarant at teh top - apparently its been in a James Bond movie. We didnt partake , but teh view is awesome, but you can stand outside to get that 
So, skiing-wise very good (just dont expect the miles of the 3V or E-K). With 7 days of brilliant sunshine, good snow on piste and not many people in resort we had a blast.
Esprit's hotel Annahof is great - very good staff and management, very clean, very good food, and wine is great. Childcare staff as always good, although as our daughter is getting older, we are relying on them less and less as she skis with us more. Pretty good english and young ski instructors (swiss Ski School) who the kids seemed to think were very trendy ! Another big tick mark for Esprit - well done again .
On the mountain and in town, a pint is about 10 CHF (so 7 to 8 quid)
Beefburger and chips was 17 CHF, Lasagne 22 CHF so generally b****y expensive compared to anywhere else ive skiid.
But portions were huge - you could easily share 1 portion of chips (10CHF, or 5CHF with burger) between 2 adults and small child.
DONT FEED TEENAGERS ON SWISS MOUNTAINS UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE BANKRUPT !!!!
Would love to go back - just dont know if i could afford to , or whether i'd be disappointed if we didnt get beautiful sunshine and great snow .
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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sev112, nice TR, thanks for sharing. We went to the Annahof in summer and loved it. Saas Fee was stunning in the summer, truly breathtaking. I would like to go back too.
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