SWIZERLAND

FEATURING ZERMATT, SAAS FEE, ST. MORITZ, ENGELBERG, DISENTIS,

AND ANDERMATT

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ISSUE 87 DECEMBER 2009 £3.90www.fall-line.co.uk

ISSUE 87 DECEMBER 2009

HOW TORide a pillow lineBackcountry 360

Rodeo 5

ON TEST ON PISTE SKIS & BOOTS, PLUS GO ANYWHERE JACKETS AND PANTS! HELMETS WHY IT’S WORTH

WEARING ONE

NEW SKI AREASREVEALED!Fast and cheap CANADIAN road tripSecret JAPANESE

powderSea to summit in NORWAY

NEW SKI AREASREVEALED!Fast and cheap CANADIAN

WINTHISLID!

FL86 Cover.indd 1 3/11/09 14:21:56

8 WTF!? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it’s Phil Meier and his Superman

10 Sluff News and lots of other jolly exciting, novel things

27 Investigation Protective gear gets the Miss Marple treatment

30 Eric’s chalet Not Bristow. Kendall, long time Fall-Line contributor with tales from his new home

32 Speed freaks How you can be the next Hermann Maier

34 Ski lab Hats, packs, jackets, resorts – it’s all tested here

46 Big travel story Get high in the Swiss Alps

58 Little spots Eastern Canada? Any good? We ride and rate Tremblant, Mont-Sainte-Anne and Le Massif

66 Backcountry More off-piste tips from Fall-Line friend and British Mountain Guide Martin Chester

71 Exotic travel story Ski touring, by boat. Best pack your skins and captain’s hat

78 Day in the life Henrik Windstedt, Sweden’s big mountain charger

82 Skills finder Improve yourself

89 Gear Off skiing, are we? Best check out our lovely boots, skis and clothing

112 Resort finder Better get lively, it’s après heaven Austria

116 Chalet finder Stay with them. There will be tea. And cake

118 Course finder Get tuition, from moguls to free skiing to jib skills

125 Slope finder Get downhill, near you

126 Shop finder They know their skiing, and their kit

130 Skeeks Your 15 seconds: www.skeeks@fall-line.co.uk

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From sky to sea, Jean Mi Gouadin fi nds his line in

Lofoten, NorwayPHOTO THOMAS CHARRY

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Swi zerLANDTHe A-z OF

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The exemplar alpine country, Switzerland sits slap-bang in the

middle of the mighty Alps, and boasts more 4000 metre peaks within its borders than anywhere

else in Europe. Here you’ll find the biggest glaciers, a thriving

ski scene, ancient mountain settlements, awe-inspiring

terrain, and everything running like clockwork

WORDS RACHEL DEVLIN

Swi zerLANDOrsOn Welles may have

suggested that Switzerland wasn’t the most exciting of places with his quip in The Third Man, “Five hundred years of peace and democracy and all it’s produced is the cuckoo clock”. We beg to differ; Switzerland consistently produces

some of the finest skiing in the world, and that makes us very excited

indeed. Much of it is made up of massive vertical runs from top to bottom, accessed by huge cable cars, with the high altitude of most resorts making it a snow-sure destination with whopping dumps of the white stuff. And, with the charm of resorts that have mostly developed naturally rather than being purpose-built, you’ll avoid the battery farm overcrowding of the slopes in neighbouring countries like France. Oh, and Switzerland also does ‘big’ with style:

Fifty-seven 4000 metre peaks, including the Matterhorn and Eiger

At forty-five square miles, the Aletsch glacier is the biggest in Europe

Jungfraujoch, at 3454 metres, is Europe’s highest train station, nestled between the Monch and Jungfrau mountains

Some of the world’s biggest cable cars are at Klein Matterhorn and Schilthorn

And more resorts than you can ski in a decade, including Davos Klosters, Grindelwald, Saas Fee, St. Moritz, Verbier, Zermatt, Andermatt, Arosa, Crans-Montana, Nendaz, Villars; and lesser known spots such as Disentis, Engelberg, Laax, Lenzerheide, Samnaun and Savognin, to name a mere handful that we’ve had a poke around…

The in-country train connections are outstanding from any of the airports and, if you book with Swiss airline you can get your bags delivered straight to your hotel.

In the past, the only downside to all the good Swiss stuff to be had was the country’s reputation for being pricey. However, especially with the current financial times, this is no longer the case with the euro’s strength against the pound. In fact, a trip to most Swiss resorts will probably actually work out cheaper than a French trip this season! So from the freeride wonders to be found in resorts such as Engelberg and Disentis, to the excellent parks of Laax and Saas Fee, Switzerland can be all things to all skiers, once you know where to look. With this in mind, here are six of Fall-Line’s favourite high Swiss resorts to give you the rundown an all you need to know.

Paddy Graham makes a very casual high speed

re-engagement with the piste, Pontresina, near St

Moritz, SwitzerlandPHOTO yves garneau/nike aCg

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et’s cut to the chase, shall we? You’re thinking lovely pics, stunning spot (and nice boat, obviously…) but why bother ski touring when you can just catch a chairlift? You’ve got a point. And frequently we feel the same.

But here, at the top of Norway, on the same latitude as Alaska and Siberia, just 200 miles from the arctic circle, there are no lifts. No cats; no helis (even if you could afford one). Put simply, it’s skin up, or miss out.

Who cares? you say. Well, you’ve not seen the endless powder stashes that soar skywards

from the Atlantic; or bulleted down a fresh line, knowing that you’re about to conquer a peak that most people have never seen before, let alone skied.

Still not sold? Well, how about extending your ski season into May? Because that’s when I was in this epic part of the world, enjoying, you’ve guessed it, masses of fresh snow…

You don’t need to be a regular heel-raiser to enjoy Lyngen Lodge, where I stayed, either. And Graham Austick, the British Mountain Guide who owns it, and runs his touring company Summit to Sea here, will happily hire you suitable skis/skins, and organise basic tuition for you.

He’ll also, more than likely, be on hand to pick different routes every day (from the 50-odd options that the lodge’s guides have previously scoped out) and lead your skin fest. No bad thing as even if you’ve been on a handful of touring breaks, as I have, you can’t fail to be spooked when there’s not one, but two avalanches on your first ascent of the trip.

But it didn’t stop our group of seven as we zig-zagged, poles swinging in wave-like rhythm, towards the summit of our col, 900m above sea level (trust me, that’s more than enough altitude if you’re more used to lifts than legging it up hill). However, it does reinforce what unforgiving terrain this is, and

You’re about to conquer a peak that most people have never seen before, let alone skied

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Today’s mountain tip: don’t leap up and down near the edge PHOTOGRAPHY GRAHAM AUSTICK/LYNGEN LODGE

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