High-end hotels and alpine excitement on a European ski safari
Explore Swiss backcountry, sample local fare and spend the night at luxury lodges on a skiing adventure to remember.
From the top of the Vorab Glacier, 3018m up in Switzerland’s Flims/Laxx ski resort, life presents you with two choices. You can turn right and drop into the steep glacier, covering 2km in what seems like two minutes, thereby redefining the term “glacial pace”. Or you can turn left and plunge down a cavernous black diamond valley, riding 1000 vertical metres of endless crests and dips, before boarding a Porsche chairlift with heated seats that whisks you back up the mountain at 6m a second to do it again. So which way will you choose? For us “Buzzers”, the choice is easy: we do both.
Ski Buzz is an annual European ski safari led by Y Travel’s Yvonne Verstandig and her brother Danny Burger, Melbourne-based ski bums who grew up riding the slopes at Mt Buller, before careers and families curtailed the good life somewhat. Verstandig says it was conceived partly to rekindle those carefree skiing days of their youth. “It’s our passion project,” she says, “but it’s also to share our love of skiing with others.”
Next year marks the first Ski Buzz since the pandemic, and heads to Italy’s Dolomites and Austria’s Ski Arlberg. Luxury lodgings are non-negotiable, with hotels as forensically selected as the resorts. “Skiing is the main game,” says Verstandig. “But these trips are as much about the fun and the banter, sharing stories over a beer, wine or gluhwein.”
There are 11 of us on this trip. Some are repeat Buzzers; others are first-timers. The social vibe is established quickly. Ski Buzz traditions are dutifully observed, including the daily “schmuck award”, a title bestowed upon whoever made the biggest fool of themselves that day (I was gonged for innocently inquiring during a troublesome boot-fitting session as to whether ski boots have a left and a right foot).
At Flims the vista is dominated by the sawtooth ridges of the Sardona Tectonic Arena, a UNESCO World Heritage site, where continental collision has formed striking layers in the chiselled mountains. The amusingly clunky 1970s aerial tramway we make repeat trips on is the antithesis of the Porsche chairlift, a charming juxtaposition that seems to epitomise Switzerland. We ski back alongside a cascading creek, breaking in our ski legs (hopefully only figuratively) for the 10 days ahead. “This is only day one,” quips Verstandig, “the real stuff is yet to come.”
Next morning is spent cruising the somnolent slopes of Laax, basking in long, free-wheeling runs through pristine powder. Verstandig might be right about it not being real, because I keep pinching myself.
Ski Buzz caters for all level of skiers, through the clever use of local guides, handpicked for their expertise in both the mountains and local culture. Breaking into groups, advanced skiers explore the off-piste backcountry, rigged up with avalanche backpacks and radio transceivers, while the less gung-ho ply a bounty of immaculately groomed runs.
Flims is a town built on rubble, thanks to the largest landslide in the Alps’ history, which sent 10 billion cubic metres of rock crashing into the Rhine Gorge about 10,000 years ago. Spring temperatures have lifted the skirt of snow in the lower valley, giving us a glimpse of how beautiful it must be in summer, when Lake Cauma fizzes turquoise through the pines.
We dine in some phenomenal on-mountain restaurants, such as Startgels, with its wood-panel walls glowing orange from the open fire; the retro, space station-esque Galaaxy, and the more traditional Runca-Hohe, where we bask in the spring sun as Ramus the resident St Bernard sidles to our legs, making speculative sniffs at our raclette and veal sausages. It’s a short ski along a cross-country trail back to the village, passing white-capped huts and cobblestone streets. Our skis run aground at the five-star Waldhaus Hotel and we make a beeline for the outdoor hot pool, part of the modern spa and wellness complex.
Staying at the Waldhaus is like living in a snowdome. Built in 1877 in the classic belle-epoque style synonymous with mountain Europe, its four buildings (linked by a conspiratorial network of underground tunnels) are perched on the hilltop, hidden among towering pines. I wake one morning and pull back the curtains to find the snowdome has been given an overnight shake-up, with fat snowflakes floating down, filling an order for fresh powder we put in the previous night at the hotel’s decadent Thai restaurant.
Come morning, that restaurant has transformed magically into a bountiful breakfast buffet. The pastries look so good I surreptitiously wrap a couple in napkins and stuff them into the pocket in my ski jacket for a mid-morning snack on the slopes.
Renovated in 2016 with luxe interior touches, the hotel delivers a level of personal service that’s instantly disarming. Managing director Peter Schoch says luxury to him means not gold-plated toilet seats but ease of living and supreme privacy; having every need taken care of by staff who care. He leads by example when next morning he drives us to the train station at Chur in his own car. Here, we board the Glacier Express for one of the world’s great alpine rail journeys.
Linking the resorts of St Moritz and Zermatt, the entire route is World Heritage listed, owing to the remarkable engineering achievement in forging a route through the knotted mountains. We disembark at the garrison town of Andermatt for a few days’ crashing through knee-deep off-piste powder. The Andermatt-Sedrun resort has recently been acquired by Vail Resorts (the 2023 Epic Australia Pass gives five days’ skiing for the 2023-24 season) and is spread across five mountains, connected by the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn train, or by traversing a series of linked trails.
Modern Andermatt owes its existence to Egyptian billionaire developer Samih Sawiris, who resurrected the near derelict town in the mid-2000s, overhauling the ski resort into one of Europe’s best, and building the five-star Chedi Andermatt, our base for Ski Buzz part two.
Each of the 123 suites has a balcony view, exquisite bathrooms with heated stone floors, and walls adorned with mountain murals. Apres ski cocktails are served in the expansive lounge-lobby by smiling staff who somehow remember every guest’s face and favourite order.
But my most lingering Ski Buzz memory is my last: riding a cable car to the summit of Gemsstock mountain for that view of the Alps you’d wait a lifetime for. It’s a panoramic chain of mountain madness, endless layers of serrated ridge lines like blades flung from the heavens. Once again there are only two ways down: steep and steeper. “Please tell me things are finally real,” I say to Verstandig.
She laughs. “Oh yeah!” And with a flick of her ski pole she’s gone.
Ricky French was a guest of Y Travel and Switzerland Tourism.