The little-known ski resorts you've never thought to visit, but should
A big ski area + a modern lift system + the finest accommodation and restaurants + a snow-sure record = the perfect ski resort, or does it?
Admit it, we’re all guilty of relying on the above equation, to varying extents, to help choose where to go on our next ski holiday – often bypassing resorts that don’t live up to our requirements on paper and returning to the same, or similar, destinations winter after winter. Little thought is given to what we could be missing out on in the resorts that appear to be lacking a piece of the puzzle.
Throwing the rule book in the snow and daring to visit new resorts is a refreshing way to approach the planning of your next ski holiday, whatever your ability on the pistes. Spend a weekend on an Austrian glacier where the snow record is unrivalled or head to Spain for a side of culture to your skiing or discover why just because a resort has a reputation for off piste doesn’t mean intermediate can’t thrive there.
You’ll not only get to visit new countries and regions, but ski a variety of terrain and experience different cultures – making your post-holiday stories the envy of your friends, who are too set in their ways to break the habit.
So, when researching the destination for your next ski holiday don’t flick past the underdog, take your time and don’t underestimate what each individual ski resort has to offer. These are the resorts that caught our experts by surprise.
Stubai Glacier, Austria
Sophie Butler
In terms of travel, the Austrian Tirol resort of Stubai is ideal for a quick weekend break. A two-hour flight to Innsbruck, followed by a 50-minute transfer, means minimal schlep for maximum time in the snow. Furthermore, at 3,210m it’s glacier skiing so I knew my break would be snow sure. But I was also braced for the disadvantages that can come with glacier skiing, anticipating a long, slow ascent to reach a featureless area with short runs and crowded pistes. How wrong I was.
Barely 15 minutes after I’d settled into the leather seats of the state-of-the-art Eisgratbahn gondola which serves the 65km ski area, I discovered fabulous runs which were not only a satisfying length but wide enough to absorb occasional congestion. And while it’s an area that’s easy to navigate in a day or two, the superb weather, spectacular mountain scenery and, above all, the glorious 10km descent from Wildspitz mountain to the base station made me wish I’d booked a longer stay.
Passo Tonale, Italy
Tristan Kennedy
When my girlfriend (who’s from Tuscany) and I began looking for somewhere to celebrate her 30th birthday we stumbled across a surprising Italian gem. Our choice of resort needed to be in Italy, so her friends from home could get there easily, at a respectable high altitude, to guarantee snow (her birthday falls early in the season), and it needed to be reasonably-priced, so we could persuade as many of our London-based friends as possible to join the party.
On paper, Passo Tonale ticked a lot of boxes. But the digital version of the piste map looked worryingly limited. Thankfully, the reality could not have been more different. On one side of the mountain pass which gives the resort its name, steep, north-facing slopes, and a cable car up to 3,000m offer some of the best lift-access backcountry anywhere in Italy. On the other side, the sunny, south-facing blues were perfect for the beginners in our mixed-ability group.
The ribbon-like village strung out over the saddle between them is not the prettiest (think Tignes in miniature), but the delectable food, apperitivi and atmosphere served up in its restaurants and outlying agriturismi were exactly what our party needed. By day three, we’d already decided to book again the following year.
Arcalis, Andorra
Abigail Butcher
My preconception about Andorra being a place for boozing Brits on the piste was blown out of the water during a trip to Arcalis. It was in 2014, a year before the Freeride World Tour added it’s stamp of ‘cool’ on the place, and while being ferried to this little ski area, tucked away at the head of a long valley, I wondered how a spot in Europe that doesn’t have any accommodation at its base, with only 30km of pistes, could be worth visiting.
All that changed after my first powder run. Arcalis has the highest snowfall of all ski resorts in Andorra, and with all the skiing above 2,000m, and facing mainly north, that snow is good quality. The place is an absolute playground; there are bowls and little cliffs everywhere, plus an area for tree skiing and three designated ‘freeride’ zones, which are avalanche controlled off-piste for you to hone your skills in powder.
Arcalis isn’t big, but to further its appeal the resort shares the Grandvalira lift pass with Soldeu and Pas de la Casa and there is a free shuttle bus service between them. While no accommodation at the base, stay in one of two nearby villages, Ordino or El Serrat — or even the capital, Andorra la Vella, which is only 30-minutes drive away.
Sierra Nevada, Spain
Felix Milns
I must admit that I thought skiing in Sierra Nevada was going to be a gimmick, what with being a short hop away from Malaga in the deep heat of Southern Spain. I was expecting a ramshackle operation and a few nondescript runs, but instead I found a true ski weekend delight.
Most of the surprisingly extensive skiing (106km of pistes) takes place in a large protected bowl, with a really characterful gun barrel run down the main gulley home, a long sweeping red with views of the Mediterranean, and a series of exceptionally steep blacks down the face. The back bowl takes you up to 3,300m, higher than the summit of Val Thorens. Don’t miss a late lunch on the sunny terrace of La Lonja, the highest seafood restaurant in Europe, with daily deliveries coming up from Granada, from where the Alhambra palace shimmers on the horizon view. The best place to stay is El Lodge, a boutique piste-side hotel with incredible cocktails, eclectic interiors and stylish outdoor pool, sauna and hot tub.
Powder Mountain, Utah, America
Gabrielle Le Breton
Driving north from Salt Lake City, away from Utah’s celebrated resorts of Alta and Snowbird, I had my doubts about Powder Mountain. Founded in 1972 as a one-lift ski town, Powder Mountain now operates six chairlifts yet also claims the largest skiable acreage of any resort in the United States. With over 8,464 acres, including lift-served, snowcat-served and guided backcountry terrain, how come nobody outside of Utah has heard of it?
Once I was lapping the resort’s untracked, powdery glades, open bowls, steeps and low-angle cruisers, I got it. Pow Mow fans keep schtum and I don’t blame them, with an average of 500 inches of snow each winter it’s a skier’s Narnia. Not that they need to keep the secret – the resort limits daily lift ticket sales to 1,500 to avoid crowds. Should you exhaust the lift-served terrain, grab a snowcat (£17 a ride) to access fresh terrain off Lightning Ridge, from where you can also hike up James Peak for descents of over 2,500 vertical feet.
Val d’Anniviers, Switzerland
Dave Watts
Driving up Val d’Anniviers, which links no less than six individual villages and three ski areas, on its narrow winding road is like driving into a time warp. Most of the villages have ancient cores with old wooden houses and barns (many on stilts) and the slopes are scattered with lots of old, slow lifts. As well this rustic charm I’d heard lots about the area’s epic off-piste runs but wasn’t sure how well it suited piste skiers.
I need not have worried. Intermediates not bothered about having a huge ski area or a slick lift system can have great fun. The two main ski areas are on opposite sides of the valley (it helps to have a car to flit between them). St Luc and Chandolin share a sunny area of mainly easy intermediate runs, that are usually quiet – ideal care-free cruising – and backdropped by stunning views – of the Matterhorn in one direction and over and down the Rhône valley in the other. Grimentz and Zinal share a bigger area (115km of pistes) that suits confident intermediates much better, with some steep reds and blacks.
Staying in sleepy and rustic St Luc allowed me to sample what is now one of my favourite hotels in the Alps – the beautifully restored and furnished Bella Tola that was built in 1859 and has a good spa and magnificent views over the valley.
La Rosière, France
Nick Trend
I went to La Rosière by chance, to review a new Hyatt hotel which opened there three years ago. I didn’t have very high hopes, by all accounts it was a modest, family-orientated resort with little of the all-round appeal of its near neighbours in the Tarantaise, Val d'Isère and Tignes, Les Arcs-La Plagne and Les Trois Vallées.
It certainly can’t compete with these mega-rivals for the sheer extent and variety of slopes – most of its pistes are gentle reds and blues which criss-cross the south-facing slopes – but it does have a rather attractive USP.
The resort is linked to La Thuile, in the shadow of Mont Blanc, just across the border in Italy. The link – a long drag lift – is admittedly a bit clunky and can get crowded, but it doubles the ski area (dubbed the Espace St Bernado) to about 150km of pistes, with plenty of north facing slopes in Italy to contrast with the sunny French side. And what could be better than working up your appetite by skiing to Italy for lunch and returning to France for dinner?
Tiroler Zugspitze Arena, Austria
Lucy Aspden
When I opted to trade a trip to a big-name resort for an Austrian ski area I’d never heard of, all in an effort to get my new-to-skiing boyfriend, Da,n to advance his skills on the slopes I’ll admit my expectations were low. What could an area that is made up of seven different villages and separate ski areas totally a modest 213km of slopes offer a skier who’d become accustomed to the thrills and convenience of resorts such as Whistler, Courchevel or St Anton? A lot, I soon found out.
Not only was the Tiroler Zugspitze Arena the perfect place for Dan to develop his skiing (conquering his first black run within the first day of lessons), but it provided me with the chance to fall back in love with the charming Austrian approach to skiing I’d long forgotten. My concerns over exploring a divided ski area were quickly abolished too – the resorts are efficiently connected by bus and the areas provide enough for a days’ skiing each, albeit at a more relaxed pace.
Our three-day trip (the area’s ideal for a weekend thanks to its proximity to Innsbruck) resulted in what I still claim to be one of the best ski days of my life – spent in knee-deep powder, alongside Dan and our expert guide Juri in the Lermoos ski area. We saw only a handful of other skiers the entire day, which we spent weaving through trees on gentle off-piste terrain. It was all washed down with a healthy dose of Austrian hospitality while reporting to friends and family back home that we’d just uncovered a hidden Tirolean gem – I certainly learnt my lesson to never judge a ski area by its piste map.
