 Poster: A snowHead
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Saas Fee appears to be the only ski resort in the world for which there isn’t a rolling snow-condition / resort review report on Snowheads, so there was more than the usual air of uncertainty as we hauled ourselves out of bed at silly o’clock for the trip to Manchester.
I pioneered a new feature for skiing holidays last year – starting the holiday injured. Last year, my dodgy disc flared up on departure day, rendering me incapable of standing up straight or walking properly round the airport. This year I decided to add crashing off my bike the day before departure into the mix. This alternative way of not being able to walk properly did, at least, not leave me looking like I had a dose of piles, but is still not to be recommended!
Anyway, the rest of the party, Mrs Snowplough and the Little Snowploughs were in good form, and we were soon accommodated in all the splendour that Monarch Airlines could manage, winging our way to Geneva. We were in and out of Arrivals faster than an efficient Swiss fiddler’s elbow and soon on an agreeably plush Swiss coach for the transfer to Saas Fee.
For the first time on an Esprit holiday (and this is our fifth), there was no-one on the coach to announce that their child was “too good for lessons”. I was disappointed, as Mrs S and I have made a tradition of having a small wager on how long it will take, with “double or quits” on who will make the announcement. Experimentation with the Swiss reclining seat technology provided an agreeable alternative way to pass the time.
We were in resort by 1pm. It was just our luck to have picked a traffic free resort, which involved a 10 minute walk from the bus stop to the hotel. Not ideal as by this stage, my injured leg had seized up to such an extent that I was outpaced by toddlers on the walk. Once in the hotel, I went for my favourite pre-ski injury treatment: alcohol and Ibuprofen. The Ibuprofen was imported, but the beer was subject to the full force of Swiss market forces. In retrospect, 7CFH was not bad for a pint in a hotel bar, and it was mighty fine beer. The pain subsided sufficiently for me to attend to the non-trivial tasks of ski hire and getting the Little Snowploughs to bed in good time.
Popular legend has it that the lift system in Saas Fee is rather dodgy, with too much walking between gondolas, cable cars and trains. This is an outrageous lie – the system is perfect to minimise crowding on the pistes and to ensure you get enough exercise walking with your skis to keep you warm in the frigid condition that predominate in the Saas Valley. The Swiss always have everything covered. It was chuffing hard work on one leg, though.
Surprisingly, my skiing did not seem unduly affected, and I thoroughly enjoyed the perfect snow, blue skies and good company whilst implementing my turns, the radius of which was somewhere between those claimed for the skis and that achieved by the Titanic when dodging icebergs, so I was in good form. The ski area at Saas Fee is limited, it must be said. There are 100km claimed, but there was a lot of repetition involved. This didn’t bother me, though. With my technique, no two trips down the same piste can ever be identical; to me, the ski area was a virtual 300km. (Left, right and centre!) One of the guys in the hotel spoke very highly of the off piste, but as I managed all the open black runs on one leg, it’s fair to say the piste skiing is not overly demanding.
We went on the Esprit guided days three times. One of the guides wasn’t a proper guide; he was the best skier of the normal staff, but the official #2 guide had wiped himself out attempting to beat the unofficial Saas Fee TO rep “top-to-bottom” time trial challenge the week before. Super Sub could not stop grinning as he led us round, having swapped room-cleaning for skiing in perfect conditions for his paid duties. We took an electric taxi and coach to Saas Grund with the guide one day, for more skiing on empty pistes in perfect conditions. Getting back in time to pick the kids up precluded a detour to Saas Almagel, which was a shame, but maybe the home mountain of Pirmin Zurbriggen doesn’t really deserve to be sullied by me.
Overall, I have far more recollection of skiing in splendid isolation than of crowded pistes, and the only lift queue I encountered was when I arrived at the back of our guide group of 12 for a gondola.
The week passed in a blur of civilised adult skiing before lunch, rounding the kids up from their Esprit gourmet lunch, ritual humiliation for me on the piste as the Little Snowploughs demonstrated the effectiveness of their lessons, before returning for tea and cakes at the hotel.
Catering at the hotel was very efficient. In true Esprit style, fresh veg has only ever been rarer on polar expeditions, but there was always a fully stocked fruit bowl to munch through, stocked, naturally, with Swiss quality produce, rather than the manky stuff that frequented the Esprit fruit bowl in Courchevel last year. For once, Younger Little’s Snowplough’s dislike of potatoes did not cause an issue, and she was plugged with pasta and tomato sauce when required, rather than having to survive on fresh air, as is usually the case. The rest of the hotel was typically Swiss. Everything worked, and all space was used efficiently.
The Little Snowploughs’ instructors were English rather than locals. This did not appear to cause rioting amongst the indigenous instructor population, and was certainly to the liking of the youngsters. At the end of the week, the elder one got the Red Queen badge, with her younger sis getting Red Princess. Honour was shared, though, as the younger one beat the elder one in the ski school race.
Saas Fee is a lovely place, albeit a long way from one end to another. As well as skiing, there is the revolving mountain restaurant at the top of the highest lift, a 5k natural toboggan course, a zoo and everything goes quiet at 7pm. Surprisingly cheap for Switzerland as well. We paid 130CHFs for our evening meal out for starters, mains and the odd bevy. I’d budgeted for more, and was strangely euphoric at only having paid ~£90 for a family meal!
Also on the cost front, when you account for free lift passes for the 9 and unders, along with various Esprit discounts, a week in Sass Fee was, all in, a fair bit cheaper than it would have been in either Peisey or Selva.
Overall, a top holiday. We wouldn’t go back to Saas Fee, but only because the skiing is rather limited.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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We did Saas Fee with Esprit last year and had 7 beautiful days. We also went there in Summer and the place is even more beautiful.
What have they done to teh "Wellness" area on the basement level - last summer there was an architect, the chalet owner and a builder down there talking about what they were going to be doing to re-arrange the snow club room etc ?
Also i think the exca=haneg is a lot better than it was last summer and winter , so you won there.
Know what you mean about walking - getting off teh Felskinn cable car, we eventually just turned left over the ridge onto the black rather than walk down the tunnel and skiing teh reds.
PS. What time is the current record for the Top to Bottom - last year they had something like 6 1/2 mins. We found that out on Day 2, and ended up doing first lift each day for the rest of teh week and meeting the wives at the bottom once they had done all their straps etc up . Never beat 10 mins though.
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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?
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The basement is now in top condition. There's a jazcuzzi, steam room and sauna, along with two large, light childcare rooms, with oddles of ski storage space/boot racks etc.
I didn't really keep track of the time-trail thing. Sub ten minutes for one of the reps from the top of the Metro Alpin rings a bell, but I was focused - in futility, as it transpires - on keeping up with the rest of the family. We cruised down in under 19 minutes one day!
We were in the Jungfrau region for summer hols in August when the xrate was 1.17. It felt positvely cheap last week at 1.40!!
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