LAAX REVIEW

World Snowboard Guide - Intro

Laax and its smaller brother Flims are Swiss national treasures and pure snowboard heaven. This place is highly regarded by those snowboarders who know about it and what you have here is a full on snowboarder’s resort that links up with the more sedate Flims. Together they form an area regarded as one of the most snowboard friendly places in Switzerland. The resort bosses go out of their way to help snowboarders and it’s no wonder that when there’s a boarder event, the world pro’s all seem to make it here. The Burton European Open has been held here for the past few seasons, and the BRITS series finals are also hosted here in mid March. When events are held here, it’s not just the top riders that come to perform, some big name pop stars and DJ’s also put in an appearance.

The Vorab Glacier opens in October with a decent terrain park and a halfpipe, however it can take up to an hour to get up from the base. When the season opens fully in December the park relocates to its main place under the Crap Sogn Gion, and the Vorab area becomes a gateway to some of the best freeriding the resort has to offer.

It is notable that not many tour operators plague these slopes; if ever there was a mountain meant for snowboarders free of two plankers, this is it. Laax also has one of the best lift systems in Europe with lots of fast Gondolas whisking you up to the peaks, and you are seldom queuing for long. Beginners will also enjoy the fact that there are only a few drag lifts and they can be easily avoided without restricting yourself in anyway.

FREERIDERS

...are tempted by some amazing off-piste opportunities with some cool tree riding and full-on powder, but the place gets tracked out after a few days but with some short hikes you’ll still be able to find some good spots weeks after the last snowfall. From the top of the Vorab Glacier bear right onto the Sattel and there’s some good routes around run 35. This area can slide, and there’s two large hidden cliff faces past the restaurant so get to know the area before venturing too far from the piste. From the top of the Vorab Pign there’s a good freeride route with some more routes as you hike a bit futher along. From the restaurant on the top of the Crap Masegn you’ll also find a few easy hikes thats should afford you a few clean lines and then pick up the slowest chairlift in the resort which will give you plenty of time to find the next line. The ride down from La Siala summit is a real pleasure and can be tackled by most intermediates. There is an established freeride route down, but thats the first thing that gets tracked, but its easy to work out a good line from the chairlift as you head up. Over in Flims for some easy to reach, classic off-piste riding, check out the Cassons area but it’s not for the faint-hearted. The cable-car only holds 20 people so you’ll find yourself almost alone at the top, but it only seems to be open once in a blue moon; the management either say its too avalanche prone or that they’re preparing the area. Below that the area from Naraus to Foppa is great after a good dump for beginner and intermediate freeriders, from the top of the restaurant you can go as far left as possible but you’ll need a bit of speed to avoid a walkout.

Theres some good tree riding accessed from the Nagens Gondola by picking up the black 18 run. Its quite a narrow path as it snakes around the mountain, allowing you to hop off the side and (hopefully) pick the path up again after some tree shredding. There’s more fun stuff directly underneath the Curnius lift towards the top of the Crap Sogn Gion, absolutely nothing testing but you’ll find the area littered with bumps and little rock drop offs.

FREESTYLERS

...are coaxed here with an excellent park and pipe situated on the Crap Sogn Gion. The 140m earth shaped monsterpipe is usually impeccable but locals do moan a little that things aren’t as well kept as they should be. Next to the pipe, you’ll find the main terrain park which has separate kicker and rail lines, but again they are well shaped and when the parks in full flow you’ll find at least 6 kickers and up to 20 rails of various shapes and sizes. There’s a beginners freestyle area next to the craplift button lift a short distance from the main park. This has a twin line of 4-kickers and a separate rail/box line. The lift is shared with the newbies so it can be a pain watching all the unused buttons, while you’re bustin to hit the park again.
Early season you’ll need to head onto the Vorab Glacier where they build a park during the Autumn months

BEGINNERS

...have a great mountain where learning the basics is a joy on simple, hassle free slopes, which are easy to reach from all parts of the resort. There’s a well set out series of novice trails from the base area of Flims Dorf. The easy blues start out from the Narus and allow first timers a good choice of easy to negotiate descents back down to the base area. Off the slopes. Both the villages of Laax and Flims (which are 10 minutes apart by road) sit at different levels and are spread out but offer a host of good local facilities that will make a week’s stay well worth the effort. Mind you, neither come cheaply and a week will burn a big hole in your wallet. Laax has a host of attractions from squash courts to an outdoor ice rink but is more spread out than Flims. Forget about heading to Falera unless you’re a hermit

PISTES.

There’s a good variety of pistes from open slopes at the top to the ones lower down that cut through the trees. They are all very open and wide, but there’s nothing too testing but those with balls should try out the long black race run, Crap Sogn, back down to the base station of Murschetg. (Piste Map below)

TOWN

Both the villages of Laax and Flims (which are 10 minutes apart by road) sit at different levels and offer a host of good local facilities that will make a two weeks stay well worth the effort. Mind you, neither come cheaply and two weeks will burn a big hole in your wallet. Laax has a host of attractions from squash courts to an outdoor ice rink.

FOOD

...is much the same as in any other high mountain retreat, that is lots of hotel restaurants all serving up generally bland, traditional Swiss meals at very high prices. Still, there are a number of notable places to get a good meal including the odd pizza, try the Pomodoro and La Dolcha Vita in Flims. In Flims there’s one okay Kebab shop open till 2am, you’ll find it about halfway between Flims Dorf and Flims Waldhaus. The bakery just down from the main lifts in Flims opens easily in time for the first lift and around the time the last night-club closes.

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