Day 7
After my deep day in the woods at Vercorin on Tuesday, I shifted my sights toward the main event of this trip: the three highly-regarded ski areas in the Anniviers Valley (pronounced Ah NEE Vee Ay). Zinal and Grimentz are lift connected and I spent a day at both, Weds and Thurs, unfortunately, the weather didn't play along as I'd hoped for -- really overcast with tough visibility more than half of the time, occasional spitting rain on the lower mountain, combined with terrain that was 100% above treeline.
While the skiing itself at Zinal/Grimentz was actually pleasant on wet powder, it was difficult to do anything but stay between the sticks lining the groomed trails. Luckily, for my visit to St. Luc/Chandolin (the germanophones on Alpinforum have been raving about it for years), the skies finally cleared up for the first time since Sunday.
Heading down into the valley, it was nice to see blue skies again:
Arriving in St. Luc after a challenging switchbacked access road:
My Citroën enjoys a parking space with a view:
The Val d'Anniviers areas have high-speed lifts to deliver you from the base to the actual ski area, but once at elevation, it's more or less Poma platter drag lifts.
Four miles across, the two ski areas are connected across a shared ridgeline.
Time to ski:
The only snowmaking is on lower trails like this one:
Some of the Poma lifts are very steep and they definitely take their toll on your legs by early afternoon. I wonder what the lift queues are like during peak periods. Even t-bars can load two people at once, but platters are one at a time.
A few warmup runs:
You can see the returning Poma line up against the blue sky:
Extensive offpiste:
A quick stop at a buvette:
Conditions were absolutely spectacular with the sun warming up everything onpiste to the right consistency; however, the untracked offpiste didn't turn to slop. I finally made it to the top of St. Luc to try the signature groomed run all the way down into the village: a rollercoaster ride of 4,400 verts and almost five miles long:
Finally below treeline:
In short: an absolute knockout of a ski area and it certainly helps going on a sunny day. Definitely a place where you'd need local knowledge or a guide to max out the offpiste, avoid terrain traps, etc.
After my deep day in the woods at Vercorin on Tuesday, I shifted my sights toward the main event of this trip: the three highly-regarded ski areas in the Anniviers Valley (pronounced Ah NEE Vee Ay). Zinal and Grimentz are lift connected and I spent a day at both, Weds and Thurs, unfortunately, the weather didn't play along as I'd hoped for -- really overcast with tough visibility more than half of the time, occasional spitting rain on the lower mountain, combined with terrain that was 100% above treeline.
While the skiing itself at Zinal/Grimentz was actually pleasant on wet powder, it was difficult to do anything but stay between the sticks lining the groomed trails. Luckily, for my visit to St. Luc/Chandolin (the germanophones on Alpinforum have been raving about it for years), the skies finally cleared up for the first time since Sunday.
Heading down into the valley, it was nice to see blue skies again:
Arriving in St. Luc after a challenging switchbacked access road:
My Citroën enjoys a parking space with a view:
The Val d'Anniviers areas have high-speed lifts to deliver you from the base to the actual ski area, but once at elevation, it's more or less Poma platter drag lifts.
Four miles across, the two ski areas are connected across a shared ridgeline.
Time to ski:
The only snowmaking is on lower trails like this one:
Some of the Poma lifts are very steep and they definitely take their toll on your legs by early afternoon. I wonder what the lift queues are like during peak periods. Even t-bars can load two people at once, but platters are one at a time.
A few warmup runs:
You can see the returning Poma line up against the blue sky:
Extensive offpiste:
A quick stop at a buvette:
Conditions were absolutely spectacular with the sun warming up everything onpiste to the right consistency; however, the untracked offpiste didn't turn to slop. I finally made it to the top of St. Luc to try the signature groomed run all the way down into the village: a rollercoaster ride of 4,400 verts and almost five miles long:
Finally below treeline:
In short: an absolute knockout of a ski area and it certainly helps going on a sunny day. Definitely a place where you'd need local knowledge or a guide to max out the offpiste, avoid terrain traps, etc.
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