|
Skiing in Switzerland
The Differences From North Anerican Ski Resorts
Skiing in the Swiss Alps is an exhilarating experience.
In one area, there's the awesomeness of the Alps – the Alps! – lovely little villages and the rush-free demeanor of those on the slopes.
In the other, there is the good snow and the rush of bolting to the bottom of the mountain in order to hit the lift and do it again and again.
There are also chairlifts verses T-bars, steep slopes vs. wide runs, outrageous ticket prices compared to a relative bargain, lunchroom food as opposed to gourmet meals and a far different approach to lift line etiquette.
Skiing in Switzerland is definitely different than skiing in the United States and Canada. I had heard about some of these differences but until the Spring of 2009 when Tourism Switzerland, sent me to Saas-Fee and Lenk in the Alps did I experience it first-hand.
So here's what I noticed, observed and experienced, the differences of being on the mountains in North America and the Alps of Switzerland.
• THE CONVENIENCE
High-speed chairlifts rule the North American resorts.
Americans are, by any measure, a pampered population. We like a remote control for the TV, riding lawnmowers and the ability to complete all our grocery shopping at a single location called, appropriately enough, a "supermarket."
When it comes to ski resorts, we like the ability to do a run, hop on a high-speed quad or other fast chairlift and be back at it. All trails come together or are easily connected with a minimum of effort. Occassionally a gondola is involved but the primary method of transport is by chairlifts. The skis or snowboards come off only when it's time for lunch or it's the end the day.
The Swiss take a different approach.
This, Americans, is a T-bar.
For starters, they have a contraption called a T-bar. This a cable on a pulley containing no seat (in fact, sitting down is the quickest way to wind up on one's rear end) that drags skiers and boarders up the hill to a run. Some of these T-bars are on steep hills and require full concentration to avoid disaster or bodily harm. Or, at the very least, extreme embarrassment.
The Swiss do have chairlifts, mind you, not just not enough of them in my opinion. And they do such a nice job with them; one in Adeloden even has heated seats! Why don't they build more of them?
Then there's the matter of getting from one area to another. In the States, all the runs are connected through a well-organized series of chairlifts. In Switzerland it's common to have to take a gondola to an area, walk for a distance, go through a tunnel and take yet another gondola or other method of upward transportation to reach the top.
This can take 30 minutes or more, to say nothing of the hassle of walking in uncomfortable ski boots and hauling those the skis and poles. Plus, access to some runs requires excessive "poling" as we call it in the States, and even walking uphill for some distances.
Pausing to admire the view in the Swiss Alps is a common occurance.
In Adelboen-Lenk, an otherwise wonderful ski area, the smaller of the two ski areas has an outstanding long and scenic run from the top to the bottom. But once at the bottom, skiiers and boarders have to pop off their equipment, cross a small road and walk up three flights of stairs to a gondola. The Swiss tackle this task as if getting a drink of water; in America this type of effort would make the resort go bankrupt because no one would go to it.
Skiing and boarding in North America is defintely more convenient than in Switzerland. But to be fair to the Swiss, this is pretty much commonplace throughout Europe.
Score this for North America.
• THAT CONVENIENCE COMES AT A PRICE
There is a price to pay for that convenience, and it's readily appararent at the ticket office. Lift ticket prices in the USA and Canada are ridiciously expensive. At $80 and even $90 and beyond, it's more out of control than a novice snowboarder.
A single-day lift ticket at Heavenly in Lake Tahoe is $82, Mammoth (CA) is $83 and Aspen a whopping $95. Canada is not much better; at Whistler, it's $80 CDN. (For a list of lift ticket prices at resorts around the world, click here.)
In Switzerland, that's about the price of a two-day lift ticket. Saas-Fee, for example, is 133 CHF for two days, or about $100 USD. Even exotic St. Moritz is just 58 CHF per day.
Score this for Switzerland.
• MORE PEOPLE KNOW HOW TO SKI IN SWITZERLAND
The natural ability of the skiers and access to slopes is a Swiss plus.
There are good – and bad – skiers and snowboarders anywhere. But in North America, because it's like golf in that it's expensive to play and often difficult to get on a course, there are more novices and low- level people on the slopes than in Switzerland.
 Snowboarders are a particular problem. Many of them don't know – or seem to obey – the written and unwritten rules of the slopes, often sitting down in the middle of runs or where trails merge, or blasting down the hill of control only to suddenly wipe out with no warning right in front of unsuspecting skiers, such as myself.
In Switzerland, getting to the ski areas is easy and thus, people learn to ski early in life and they go often, the way an American may go to the mall.
Score this for Switzerland.
• THE SNOW IS BETTER IN NORTH AMERICA
I've not been to every ski area of the USA and Canada, or even all over Switzerland for that matter, but good snow is always a topic of comparision conversation. So to address it here, I called in an expert in this area, David from Rhode Island, to get his input. Here is his conclusion:
"The snow in North America is MUCH better than Europe (at least generally speaking). The snow, especially in Utah, is very light and there is a reason the people there claim to have the best snow in the world. Colorado is next after that. The East Coast is known for having a lot of ice because the weather is not very stable. One day it's warm and the snow melts, a few days later it gets cold and it all turns into ice. British Colombia and Sierra Nevada (Lake Tahoe) is known for having very heavy, wet snow."
Score this for North America.
• THE RUNS ARE WIDER IN NORTH AMERICA
 It goes back to the convenience factor, but the runs at North American resorts are much wider than those in Switzerland
The Alps certainly have the altitude and vertical drop – Saas-Fee has one run that is an astonishing 9 kilometers – but North America has the advantage in width.
Score this one for North America if one is a beginner or intermediate, and Switzerland for more seaoned skiers.
• BUT SWITZERLAND (AND EUROPE) IS MORE 'OPEN'
Turning this back over to David, here is his follow-up to the snow situaion: "It's not as strict as the US in general, such as closing areas for skiing that are out of boundary. The biggest difference is that in Europe (at least the Alps) is that you ski above the tree line. So in Europe, you can ski pretty much anywhere on the resort, while in the US they have to cut down trees to make trails. I prefer the European way."
Score this for Switzerland.
• LIFT LINES
North American resorts place smiling staffers with hand-held scanners at the lower parts of the mountain to swipe codes on ski passes, efficiently moving people through lift lines and onto the chairs.
These lines are mulit-lanes, like a Los Angeles freeway. There's even a separate line for single skiers or snowboarders, and it works like a carpool lane.
These "toll booths" tie up traffic at lifts in Switzerland.
Switzerland's resorts prefer that people go ghrough electronic gates. This is not bad, except there are not enough of them and it creates bottlenecks. They also have turnstiles and this causes further backups. And for some reason, these are at all heights of the mountain. There's no point in having them at higher elevations because once a skier is up to certain level, he or she must have had a lift ticket to get there in the first place.
It reminds me of that scene in Blazing Saddles where they erect a toll booth in the middle of the desert. Perhaps a &*@#-locad of dimes would help.
Also, singles lines are somewhat rare in Switzerland.
Score this for North America.
• LIFT LINE ETIQUETTE
It's very social at the lifts in North America.
There is order to society in America and that translates to the ski lifts. People scoot along and when lines merge, they come together nicely.
In Switzerland (and throughout Europe) it's a fight to the front. The most aggressive are the first ones to get on the lift. People cross over other people's skis with little or no regard for personal space or courtesy. The Germans are particularly forceful. Perhaps this is related to the above situation regarding lift line efficiency. Regardless, this is simply not proper behavior.
In America, lift lines are also one of the best meeting places for singles on the mountain. Shouting out "single!," not only means one is headed to the singles line but it alerts other singles to a person's availability.
Score this for North America.
• THE PACE IS MORE RELAXED IN SWITZERLAND
Why hurry when there's scenery like this on the slopes in Switzerland?
There is something about Americans (shared on the slopes by Canadians) that propels us to try and fit in as many runs as possible in a day. We brag about it at lunch – "I was doing four an hour" – as a point of pride. Americans like to go fast and be first at everything.
The Swiss, on the other hand, like to take their time and enjoy their surroundings.
Taking a break for a long lunch is typical of Swiss skiing.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the mountain chalets at North American resorts and the ski hauses and restaurants in Switzerland. In the States and Canada, lunchtime is a mere brief break in the ski day. It's hustle into a "station," grab something quick and then put the gloves back on and zip up the jacket.
Fun-minded skiers and boarders usually pause for a drink, perhaps even two if it's a warm and sunny day. But then it's back to the slopes. Their big break comes at the end of the day for ski apres. Some Americans seven skip lunch entirely, opting instead for a big breakfast and skiing or boarding through the day without stopping.
Not so in Switzerland, The Swiss treat lunch like it's dinner out in the town. They take their time, 90 minutes to two hours. Perhaps longer. Heck, they even peel off the slopes to stop in places for a hot drink before or after lunch.
I have a couple of theories why this is the case. First, with all the effort that goes into skiing in Switzerland, people make up for it by taking these long breaks. Second, it's the lift ticket prices. When it's CHF 40-50, what's the hurry to make another run? In North America, when that lift ticket is $90, it makes sense to get in as many runs as possible in an attempt to justify that steep price.
Score this as a tie; while the Swiss "stop and smell the roses" pace is certainly desirable, it's hard to fault North American "slopers" for wanting to ski a lot. Especially with those lift ticket prices.
• FOOD IN AMERICA VS. FOOD IN SWITZERLAND
Lunch in Lenk; this is a typical small Swiss sit-down spot.
Fine meals at North American resorts are reserved for dinner. Lunch is just something to hold them over until that big meal.
The chalets or "warming huts" serve food cafeteria style and tables are first come, first serve. Groups gather to find a place to sit, appoint a "table bitch" to watch over the area, grab a tray and pick a "station" of a particular kind of food. This last step usually involves getting in the shortest line regardless of what is being served. Then they rightfully complain about spending $12-15 for that meal.
The food is hot and hearty. It's pasta with meat, a one-meat-and-two side dish plate, cheeseburger and fries and sometimes pizza. One of the most popular items is chili in a large bread bowl.
Rosti is a Swiss national dishes and it's at all resort restaurants.
In Switzerland, practically everything is in a sit-down restaurant. They have waitress service. A menu. So relax, you'll be a while. This can be achieved because Swiss ski resorts have many more places on the slopes than in North America. They may be small, one-room huts, but they outnumber the chairlifts.
The food choices border on gourmet. Full dinners consist of chicken, pork chops or steak with noodles and vegetables and Jagerschmitzel, a veal schnitzel smothered in mushrooms.
Many Swiss choose rosti, one of their national dishes which is an egg on potatoes that resemble hash browns. Sometimes, this includes ham or bacon making it resemble a breakfast dish served in some places in the States called a "skillet."
These cost of these full meals is between 15-30 CHF, so it's more than Americans are used to pay for lunch. Then throw in a few koffee schnapps or other drinks because it's so relaxing it's easy to kick off the ski boots, and the price speeds up as the pace slows down.
Score this for Switzerland.
• SWISS VILLAGES VS. AMERICAN SKI TOWNS
Saas-Fee, a typical cool village in the Swiss Alps.
Resorts towns in North America are, for the most part, purpose-built areas that have grown around the business of the mountain. In Switzerland, just the opposite is the case. They are farming communities that have added skiing (and hiking) as an additional activity.
The village in Mammoth (CA) is created to resemble a Swiss resort.
As a result, the small villages in Switzerland are as lovely as the girls who inhabit them. They are quaint and simple. These villages, in addition to being in the Alps, makes skiing in Switzerland an experience. In the States, it's more of a trip.
Plus, it's just cool to be in a village in the Swiss Alps.
Score this for Switzerland.
• GETTING TO THE RESORTS
Trains beat planes and certainly are better than cars.
In America, everything revolves around the car (or more accurately, a sport utility). Even when flying to a resort, renting a vehicle is pretty much a requirement. There are some group vans or buses available with journeys lasting one, two or three hours. But driving is king.
In Switzerland, it's not uncommon to see people walking around Bern and Zurich wearing boots and carrying skis. It's so easy to get to the slopes that people can be back in the cities by dinner. That's because of the Swiss Travel System, the trains that efficiently – and on time – reach any resort in about two hours, and ones outside cities in less than an hour. Once at a destination, the villages are small enough for people to walk everywhere.
Score this for Switzerland.
FINAL SCORE – On the surface, it appears as if Switzerland takes the competition by a ski tip. But let's take the Swiss approach and don't go too fast to the conclusion.
The real answer is that the best place to ski or snowboard is all a matter of preference. Switzerland has many great attributes and so do North American ski resorts.
Personally, I would prefer to have the best attributes combined. Now that would be the ultimate skiing experience.
The Bartender can be reached at bartender@pubclub.com
 PubClub.com's Zurich Nightlife Article
© 2009. All rights reserved.
|