Where to Ski And Snowboard -

Deserted slopes and great snow in Zermatt

3rd April 2011, by Dave Watts

A deserted piste at 10am on Sunday morning – Dave’s friend Helena had to go down to give the picture some action

A deserted piste at 10am on Sunday morning – Dave’s friend Helena had to go down to give the picture some action

When my train pulled out of Zermatt station on Saturday morning the sun was shining brightly from a cloudless sky – at the end of a week of mixed weather that had seen some sun, some clouds but very little new snow (about half a centimetre on Thursday evening).

But the pistes were in excellent condition, thanks to their altitude (nearly all the slopes are above 2000m with loads above 2500m), extensive snowmaking, excellent grooming and very little skier traffic. Our hotel was only half full and the resort as a whole was very quiet – partly because it was low season but partly also because the strength of the Swiss franc makes Switzerland, especially its top resorts, very expensive (a few years ago we were getting 2.2 Swiss francs to the £; now it is around 1.4, putting prices in pounds up by 50%). Spaghetti Bolognaise in a mountain restaurant was costing around £15, as was a half litre of the local Dole wine; a blowout lunch in one of our favourite rustic restaurants on the slopes was £70 or more a head.

One benefit of the lack of people was delightfully deserted slopes. The photo at the top shows one of our favourite pistes (White Hare from Hohtälli towards Gant) at 10am on Sunday morning. It was like that throughout the week, as were many other runs, meaning that you could ski as quickly as you liked without fear of collision – rather like in many US resorts and a far cry from the crowded pistes I’d encountered in La Plagne and Les Arcs the previous week. And the lifts were quiet too – the only queue we found all week was for the Klein Matterhorn cable car (and we only had to wait for one cable car then).

So, despite the cost, my wife and I and a couple of friends will be back for our holiday again next year. The quality of the skiing, the snow and the beautiful scenery more than make up for the cost.

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