More Moritz

This year we were faced with the following:  Mike had one week of leave and it could only be taken during the last week of March.  To me that meant the resort had to be high and snow sure. I gave Mike two choices: Calgary or St. Moritz.  I am pleased Mike chose St. Moritz because I had already skied there in 2013 and I know he would really enjoy the combination pristine piste conditions, hard packed groomed powder, lots of trains and the huge amount of intermediate cruising runs.  This trip certainly fulfilled all of the above requirements. 

Zurich's Historic City Centre

Prior to our trip to the mountains, we spent 24 hours in Zurich, a livable but extremely expensive city.  When going on our ski trips, we like to combine skiing with seeing the sights that country or region has to offer.  Some trips are skewed more towards the sights (Sapporo) and others to the skiing (Whistler) .  This St. Moritz trip was a fairly even combination of the two.  In fact the best sights were seen on the way there and back on the UNESCO World Heritage Rhaetian Railway. Unlike my previous misadventure to St. Moritz in a car, the Rhaetian Railway is definitely the way to get to St. Moritz.  The scenery  and the engineering to get a train to 1700m elevation is just incredible.   Mike and I already have an affinity to trains so we had difficulty containing our excitement as we made our way through numerous spiral tunnels, over impressive viaducts and stopped at quaint alpine stations.

Taking the train to the hill. 

We arrived at St Moritz station and got straight on the bus to the hostel.  In the hostel I felt I was back at university residence.  The accommodation was as I remembered from my previous trip, spacious, clean but spartan.  The wifi leaved a lot to be desired.  I think if I were to return to St. Moritz I would try Hotel Sonne which had similar prices to the hostel.   The hostel did make the visit to St. Moritz affordable.

The weather on the first day introduced Mike to the sunny skies St Moritz is known for.  It was fantastic. Warm enough to bask in the sun without a jacket, but not so warm the runs turned sloppy after lunch.  This was the theme for 3 of the 4 days of skiing.   The second day was cold and the spring temperatures the day before felt like a distant memory.  We went to Corvatch.  Mike was skeptical at first, but it quickly became his favourite ski area in St. Moritz, despite the monstrously long t-bar lift.   We took some fantastic photos of glacier from the runs near the summit. 

View of St. Moritz Dorf & Bad

Corvatsch

For the third day Mike took the train for a day trip to Italy over the spectacular Bernia Pass.  I decided to try out the third ski area Diavolezza.  For a few minutes, Mike and I were side-by-side heading south, except Mike was in a train and I was on the ski bus.  It was another spectacular day to be skiing.  The runs in Diavolezza were good but the lift system was not good. The only way to go up was the cable car but many of the locals wanted to ski Lagalb before it closes down for good at the end of the season.  One time I had to wait 30 minutes for a cable car to the top.   I was tired of waiting and headed back to St. Moritz at lunch. 

Diavolezza

Mike came back and raved about the journey to Italy, I could see his destination  from the top of the mountain.  I was in a winter paradise, a couple of dozen kilometers away, Mike was in his T-shirt eating ice cream with palm trees in Tirano.  The final day we started in Corvatsch and took a bus with a raucous bachelor or birthday party to the far end of the ski area and did the Snow Safari route to the far end of Corvaglia.  It was a good day of skiing. 

The train had to go down there. 

 Using spiral turns and switchbacks

Since my last time here, there were subtle clues it was not good times a St Moritz.  The high Swiss Franc makes things very expensive, even for the Swiss apparently.  The Russians were few and far between due to their economy tanking.  I noticed a few hotels had been shuttered since the last time I was here and the permanent closing down of a ski area, albeit the small one, is not a good sign.  The après ski was just too expensive and not appealing to us, we spent most nights eating mustard crisps (which are really good) and playing board games.   

On the morning of our departure, we had great weather for the spectacular train journey back to Chur and shortly after lunch we were airborne back to London.  Mike somehow got the last seat on the plane across the pond and I was in my flat wondering what to make for supper and experience the post ski vacation come-down.

Heading home

Some things I discovered since my last trip are:

•      Even cheap, supermarket own brand chocolate is really good.
•      The train is THE way to get to St. Moritz
•      Unless you are into $20 salad, make a lunch out of breakfast and take it with you. 
•      Mustard crisps are good but not melon bun good.

The original all natural bobsled run. 

Marc Says

"I stand by my original ratings.  St Moritz did not disappoint again.  Even this late in the season the conditions were superb and the lift lines minimal, even when it was the Easter winter.  St. Moritz reaffirmed itself as one of the better Winter Olympic venues."

Olympic Plaque

Mike Says
 Finally I get to give my own ratings rather than Marc’s totally arbitrary rating system:

Skiing: GOLD

The "black" cruisers will make you feel like a much better skier than you actually are.

Apres Ski: BRONZE

(It depends on where you stay...St. Moritz Bad is too far from the main town and the buses finished too early).  Silver if you stayed in St. Moritz Dorf and had lots of francs to blow.
Accomodations:  BRONZE...Think Nelles Block circa 1999 but with everyone from babies to drunk middle aged people.

Ski/Stay/Half board Package Value for Money: GOLD

Chocolate selection:  GOLD

Its Switzerland.  They are masters at making chocolate and money!

Train Spotting:  GOLD...its Europe!


Overall: SILVER

A highly polished SILVER.  Better accommodations and more time would have scored this trip a gold.