Anyone skied at Zermatt Switz??

[Showtime06]

I'm going on a trip there in feb, was wondering if anyone knew some good info on the mountain or the party scene... or even some stoke from there would be sick!!! thanks

[fez]

when i was like 16, my little brother, my dad and I went on a ski trip to Courmayeur Italy. Part of the trip was a day trip to Cervinia. We had wanted to ski over to Zermatt, but had been told we would need a different ski pass and would not have enough time to go there and back before the bus left.

So we took the chair up to the top at Cervinia and my brother and i were searching out powder wherever we could with dad watching and following along on the groomers.

After a bit, we decided to get on a lift and have another run. When we got to the lift line, the lifties wouldnt let us on the run. Told us our tickets were no good and we were in Switzerland.

We had to ski all the way down to Zermatt, buy tickets, then take the lifts back up and over again to Cervinia.

We barely made the bus.

Other than that i dont remember much about Zermatt, so i guess this really doesnt matter. Never mind.

[Showtime06]

don't worry about the info...good story though

[fez]

i left out the best part though.

as we were bombing the groomers back to the bus, i crashed.

I was a little stick chaser at the time who was just starting to do some sg and dh racing, and tended to ski pretty fast. My brother and my dad got a bit ahead of me because i lost a ski off the edge of the piste.

Suddenly my brother stopped and flagged my dad down for him to stop too. Dad asked my bro what was up, my bro said that they needed to wait for me. My dad asked why, since we were already late and i would probably be able to catch them pretty easy.

My brother pointed back up the slope and said, yeah, but just imagine whats about to happen.

What my brother had noticed was a huge sweeping turn that would lead to a blind drop and a bunch of air. In the obvious landing zone of the drop was a group of probably 10 Italians sunbathing in the middle of the slope. Guys without shirts (they just looked like they had sweaters on) and women in bikinis (the sweaters were less obvious).

Just as my bro had expected I came flying around the corner, saw the Italians, threw my skis sideways in the air and slid eventually to a stop.

Learned some cool Italian words as i skated hard to get away and that cloud of snow settled over the sunbathers.

Dad and bro were entertained though.

[Ripzalot]

Here's some stoke for ya. I've been a few times and it's a great (huge!) resort. At the top, it's glacier, so a bit flat and wide open but it gets steeper as you descend. The snow can be sketchy at the lower elevations to the village but you should have no problem in February. Be sure to ski the italian side, Cervinia, as this has much more interesting terrain (on the sunny side too). The Gornergrat is also fun with lots of offpiste easily accessible. Also, consider a day trip up/around to the next valley and visit Saas Fee if you have the time.

[Ripzalot]

Ooops, here's the stoke:

[Superstar Punani]

Zerflatt is good for about a day or two. The top part is like the Alpine Racer 2 game but long bomber groomers get old after 2 runs.

There's some decent Hors-Piste shit off skiers right of the top tram, but it's loaded with crevasses, dead ends and other surprises best not skied during a white out.

Night life is good.

As for my 2 cents, hit Zerflatt for a couple days, then keep driving to "Valley E".

[Showtime06]

thanx for the info...i'll be there for a week so hopefully i'll be able to keep myself busy, any good cliffs sections or anything real crazy??

[altagirl]

Jumping crevasses is fun when you can see them. Snow was good, but I can't think of any terrain that was that spectacular - most of it's pretty flat.

I went there with some good friends and several morons from work. They evidently had a different view of the terrain...

Moron #1 showed up at the bar telling tales of his near death experience and how his genetically superior traversing ability saved his life in some ridiculous no-fall zone in a gigantic cliff band. But no one saw it and he couldn't describe where it was or how he got there...

Moron #2 (possibly the least athletic person ever to join the army) could barely snowplow down a bunny slope and was greatly dissappointed to discover that we were not, in fact, planning to summit the Matterhorn and ski down the rocks.

Anyway, the nightlife is awesome. I remember several really cool bars there, but drank way too much to provide any specific details. But you're probably guaranteed to have fun and spend entirely too much money no matter where you go after skiing.

[altagirl]

Oh, and from what I recall the terrain was better on the Cervinia side. But we kept getting free shots of grappa at the on-slope bars the day I was there so maybe that had something to do with it...

[Showtime06]

thanks a lot for the info altagirl...i'm def looking forward to the nightlife, hopefully i won't remember too much

[subtle plague]

There is nice skiing to be had.
if you go on the Stockhorn side of the area. And then ski down from 3286m ( one of the gondola stops on the ridge there, i think there are 3 alltogether) a few meters on a red slope you can duck a rope and ski the fall line towards the trifji Lifts. The triftji Bumps are nice too.
And you can ascend a bit from the last part of the Stockhorn gondola and ski down some glacier( i never did that though), as some guided tours do.

Ducking the rope on the Klein Matterhorn Top Station and skiing the direct Glacier descent is fun too but it is a little "crevassy" sometimes.....