LAAX is the hip new “must visit” destination; amidst maelstrom of back-flipping sustainability, Henry John peeks below the surface and discovers its true secret to success …
There’s something about LAAX that you don’t see when you first get off the bus. Well, actually you do, but not in the way that you think. All the people getting on and off the bus around you? Snowboarders each and every one of them, and young, too – so far, so obvious.
But it is what is represented by this disparate group of weary travellers that will slowly dawn on you over, say three days of skiing in this trailblazing Swiss resort. On the surface, this overwhelming commitment to freestyle skiing – a key part in LAAX’s playbook to be a California surftown of the Swiss Alps – is everywhere in the town. The Freestyle parks and halfpipe dominate the resort, especially around the main mountain hub of Crap Sign Gion (Peak of St John in the local Romansch language), and you will sit next to Olympic freestyle champions in the bars and restaurants in the resort.
But, alongside the sustainability programmes that have really put LAAX on the map, there is an understatement to it all, a laid-back-ness to the whole area that, in reality, are the key selling points here. Unlike the stuffy, old-fashioned resorts it shares this corner of the Grisson Alps with, LAAX is cool, it’s hip, it’s understated and, quite simply, it is a damn good place to go skiing.
Style
Officially Flims-Laax-Falera after the three villages that from the three resort bases, it is known simply as LAAX to the outside world. The team here quietly set about creating a surfer revolution in the late 1990s, when the resort created its first halfpipe on the Fonna Glacier, high, high above the central village of Laax. Driven off by high winds, it was quickly moved to its current location under the Crap Sogn Gion hub, where it has been built up and built up to become the world’s largest pipe. LAAX has become a hub for all things freestyle as a result, boasting world-leading events and hosting numerous national teams for training and development.
Since the early 2010s, LAAX has also become a poster child for green development. Whilst this is not uncommon for ski resorts, LAAX has embraced ecological preservation perhaps more so than any other resort. Brand new ski lifts across the board respect newly-designated UNESCO World Heritage sites and are increasingly “on-demand”, a groundbreaking strategy combining space-age technology with near-personal ski transit to as much as halve the energy usage of the lifts in question.
The team behind this pioneering surf-town vibe have now begun to take more back-seat roles, as their vision flourishes around them. And flourish it most certainly does – the park team travel the world constructing half pipes including for Olympic competition, and Laax’s Greenstyle has developed into a worldwide byword for sustainable development.
On-Snow
So, I can successfully read the brochure …
But what’s LAAX actually like as a ski resort? What is it like for skiers like you and me, who have never sent a rail or kicker in our lives and, whilst we recognise the importance of these green initiatives, realise the damage is done because we flew here and just want to switch off from the world and its problems for a while?
Let’s start with the skiing.
LAAX lies in the southeastern corner of Switzerland, nestled into the Grison Alps along with the stalwarts of Davos, Klosters, St. Moritz and, if you keep following the nearby Rhine to its source, Andermatt, too. It is an inherently snowy little corner of the Alps, benefiting from snow from all angles; nordstau events over Austria, common westerly weather fronts coming over France, and the rare albeit bountiful retour d’est systems over Italy.
It also possess serious vert. The Fonna Glacier tops out a left ski’s width over 3,000m; the base station a right ski width below 1,000m. All told, that’s 2,000m of skiing from top to bottom. Most of the 224km of pistes sit above the tree- and cloud lines, meaning even on the most socked-in days it is possible to ski in beautiful sunshine until it’s time to come home again.
On piste, there is plenty of variety to keen everyone happy. The best skiing can be found above Flims, on the far right of the piste map. A series of blues, reds, blacks and even itinerary routes spring off a ridgeline extending out from the top of the Mutta Rodunda lift link to Scansinas and Nagens. It was here I had one of many revelations about this place.
I set off by myself, agreeing to meet the rest of the group at Nagens for lunch, following the ridgeline along until black piste No.13 peeled off to my right, and happily set off down it. About a third of the way down, the piste rolled away over a pitch in front of me and I had to stop. The piste simply disappeared. It dropped off and kept going into an impossible bank of white cloud in front of me, contrasted with the brilliant azure of the sky above and the dark possibly Italian peaks away in the distance.
It was one of the most picture-perfect cloud inversions I had ever seen, and, given the quietness of the piste around me, felt like it had been sent just for me.
A lone skier flew past, the only sound in the silence for a brief few seconds, and disappeared into the abyss beyond. I was utterly, utterly, in awe of this place. Try finding that in the brochure …
I didn’t want to leave, but knew I had to tear myself away; snapping a few pictures, I set off, through the narrow strip of piste as it fed between two rock faces, becoming more mogul-y as it did so (great timing, thanks) and wound my way down the mountain for lunch.
The high alpine isn’t the only great thing about the resort; the tree runs are also fantastic, long, winding affairs that feel like they go on forever. A little busy in the late afternoons as everyone winds their way home, but the higher stuff to mid-mountain around Foppa and Startgels was generally quiet and held its quality late into the day.
The off piste isn’t phenomenal or hugely extensive, but what there is, is very good. After a foot of snowfall overnight, we danced and played around a huge variety of terrain found in numerous pockets between the Crap Sogn Gion top station and the Curnius chair, hitting rollers, dancing around trees, and enjoying wide open powder fields.
All this is served by one of the most complete modern ski lift systems I have had the pleasure of experiencing. There is concrete and glass everywhere, all signs of a complete revamp that continues well into the 2025/26 season with the replacement of the Vorabbahn.
The headline of this is undoubtedly the FlemXpress Gondola, launched in time for the 2024/25 season. A masterpiece of engineering, the four-station gondola runs on demand – at any station, press a button for your destination and the platform screen doors part to reveal a waiting bubble. Off you trot, passing through other gondola stations via a complex series of bypasses and loops, to arrive at your destination.
Whilst there have been some teething problems along the way – with the system having to be managed manually to ensure enough cars end up in the right spots – the new lift is a phenom, helped all the while that the skiing it served is exceptional – long, cruisy reds and blue just perfect for getting your carve on.
Off-Snow
This re-vamp has followed off the snow, too.
A host of mountain restaurants have had a facelift in recent years, the historic huts maintained but their interiors new, scandi, sleek, pine-y and very, very modernist, serving utterly exceptional contemporary local Swiss and Grison cuisine.
The Segneshuette is a prime example of this, perched high above Falera at the head of the FlemsXpress Gondola, at 2,100m. Pork and beef abound, everything from classic teutonic schnitzel and cutlets to the most delicate, aromatic, slow-braised veal, all served on crisp, pine tables but set in the historic mountain hotel and restaurant. For something even more modern, try the Riders Hotel, part of the rocksresort complex – vegetarian only, the menu is updated weekly, so the to-die for Saffron Porcini Risotto or Onsen egg may be gone by the time you get there …
Surrounding the main LAAX station, a series of developments form the new resort base, although the traditional village of LAAX still exists hiding just out of site around the corner.
The headline here is a series of new apartment complexes, perfect for families or friends to come and share a ski week or a weekend away. Spacious, scandi (did I already say that?) and very, very shiny and new, these are the perfect place to relax in after a long day exploring the huge ski area high above you, and will comfortably sleep four people.
There isn’t a massive amount to do off snow here; the focus really is on the skiing, and with the high quality it is, who can really blame them? For the really adventurous, however, there is the Freestyle Academy.
Dig down into the resort – literally in this case – and there is something more to simply being the site of the world’s largest half pipe. Three storeys down underneath one of the rocksresort buildings is the shiny, new Freestyle Academy, moved and renovated from temporary accommodation a little further out of town. Skate parks – half pipe, street, and bowl – parkour courses, trampolines and airbags are all on hand to help keep skills up in the off season or when the weather closes in on the mountain.
More than just a monument to backflips, it is also the breeding ground for the next generation of talent. As we watched, an after-school skate class for children of all ages – equal numbers girls and boys – poured into the bowl and began a lesson, whooping and hollering as they whipped back and forth across the space. At the same time, teenagers were throwing themselves around on the trampolines and airbags behind the skate bowl, using the facility as an indoor play centre of extraordinary calibre.
Fancy giving it a try? Adult-only sessions take place weekly, during the evenings away from the ignominious eyes of youth, offering skateboarding lessons for absolute beginners to those ready to send the half-pipe and street course.
Conclusion
It can be a bit tricky, coming somewhere that you have read so much about, heard so much about, even written so much about. For all the set-up LAAX has done selling itself as a freestyle and sustainable destination, I was expecting to be let down by the reality.
I cannot tell you how overwhelmingly wrong I was. Laax’s commitments to being the California surf town of the Swiss Alps are most certainly there, but they exist in the day-to-day as a quiet, understated environment within which can be found some truly wonderfully, magnificent skiing. Served by a deeply impressive resort infrastructure, LAAX is, more than anything else, a damn good place to go skiing.
And I love it.
FACTFILE:
Flights – Swiss Air fly from across the UK direct to Zurich. The ‘Skiers’ Airline’ allow a ski bag for free with any piece of checked baggage. Swiss.com
Transfers – Swiss Railways provide open, through tickets from Zurich Airport to LAAX, with changes at Zurich Hauptbahnhof (Main Station) and an easy swap to a bus at Chur. Sbb.ch/en
Stay – rocksresort is a brand new collection of hotels and aprtments at the foot of the LAAX slopes. Four-person apartments start at 400CHF per person for a week’s stay. rocksresort.com
Lift Passes – Prices at LAAX are dynamic, meaning you will pay a different rate virtually every day depending on demand. Prices range from 62CHF to 90CHF flimslaax.com
