REP RESORT REPORT
Lenzerheide, Switzerland
Vital statistics
1229m – 2865m; 225km of pistes; six-day lift pass from CHF176 (£147)
Lapping quiet corduroy slopes in Lenzerheide PHOTO Lenzerheide tourism
Ski Club Rep Bill Ashford wasn’t familiar with Lenzerheide until he qualified as a Ski Club Leader and hosted a trip there in 2018. He subsequently hosted two Freshtracks trips to the Swiss resort, and here he explains why it’s among his favourite places to ski…
Lenzerheide is perfect for social group skiing – its long, wide, uncrowded pistes are ideal for enabling a group to stay together while doing their own thing. A personal highlight was going from the top of Lavoz (2330m) to Churwalden (1229m) in one blast with a group of Members, all arriving together.
Lenzerheide also offers plenty of places for coffee, lunch and après,
all surrounded by wonderful scenery.
Lenzerheide is bisected into east and west flanks, connected by the old Obertor lift. We usually start on the west side, where wooded runs are ideal for bad weather or dark mornings, before heading to Piz Scalottas (2323m) to enjoy fresh corduroy on wide, quiet runs until coffee time.
As the day progresses, we traverse south to north on a mix of blues and reds, sticking to the trees in bad light and hitting the peaks when the sun beckons. The highest point in this section, the Stätzerhorn (2421m), offers two black runs and a wide red, which feeds into a beautiful tree-lined blue trail that’s largely ignored by other skiers.
“We enjoy fresh corduroy on wide, quiet runs until coffee time”
From here, the picturesque village of Churwalden can be accessed via a long, scenic blue to a chairlift, which rather unusually requires you to remove your skis.
If you spot other people on this run, well done – I can’t remember encountering any! Clip back into your skis for a T-bar ride up to Windegga that rewards richly with an ungroomed and often untracked black piste, two pleasant reds and a wonderful blue run.
All these runs end at Pradaschier, where refreshment is de rigeur. A challenging red run leads back to Churwalden, from where the new Panoramabahn returns us to Lenzerheide.
Come afternoon, we move to the east side to (hopefully) enjoy the setting sun, taking a breather on the remarkably slow Obertor chairlift. This section offers longer pistes, including the Silvano Beltrametti World Cup run. The mountain face is divided by a ridge with the south side summiting in Parpaner Rothorn (2865m), Lenzerheide’s highest point and home to the Rothorngipfel, where we traditionally take lunch on the final day.
From the peak, we cross the ridge into a scenic mountain area – all unpisted apart from our run – before skiing back through a tunnel carved out of the rock.
Continue along the ridge to Urdenfürggli and board the Urden cablecar to cross over to neighbouring Arosa, for yet another ski area.
Alternatively, it’s a short, steep black to the contemporary Mottahütte for refreshments or live music at the Goldgraber bar followed by a pretty blue run back into town.
The hotel is a short walk from here – I find a stop at La Perla for a sharpener always helps revive flagging spirits…
MEET THE REP…with Bill Ashford
I was late to skiing. From 1980 onwards, my main pursuit was hill walking in Scotland, clocking up Munros. I came to love the Highlands in winter conditions until a warm and very wet week in February 1992 prompted my wife, Liz, to ask: “Why not try skiing?” So, in 1993, it was off to Méribel and, once I realised it was ok to fall over, I was hooked… and have been falling over ever since.
We started skiing every year as a family, often joining up with others. We skied mainly in France before falling for the charms of North America in the forms of Whistler, Vail and Breckenridge, which gave us the best family holidays ever.
However, the pound sunk against the dollar, so it was back to France, where we settled on La Tania, discovering the Ski Club and joining the resort Leader for many adventures around the 3 Valleys.
With retirement beckoning, I was inspired to become a Leader myself in 2015. So, after several wonderful Freshtracks holidays to improve my skiing, I attended the Leaders’ course and won my blue jacket in 2016.
Since qualifying as a Leader, and transforming into a Rep, I have accompanied groups on many Freshtracks holidays. It’s been a wonderful experience, meeting so many interesting people, including a 78-year-old lady who flies a Gypsy Moth and a chap who was held hostage in Tehran in the 1980s (he did get out, by the way).
Great though the social side is, it is the skiing that brings us together. The Freshtracks profiles mean that people generally ski in groups compatible to their abilities, which I think often leads to improvement. It also means that “single” skiers are welcomed, and I’ve seen many friendships form and blossom on Freshtracks holidays.
I hope to be accompanying groups for many years to come, even with social distancing. It has been a joy.