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EUROPE’S BEST SKI TRADITIONAL RESORTS
by
Charles Leocha
Author
of Ski Europe and Skiing America (World Leisure)
You can often tell the age of a resort by its architecture. Europe's new ski resorts are filled with high-rise apartment buildings, created strictly for skiing, and set in the midst of expansive snowfields. The original villages where the sport was nurtured are packed with weathered chalets and barns and surrounded by extensive trail systems that have grown over time.
Courmayeur,
Italy
At the Italian end of the Mont Blanc tunnel, the
picturesque village of Courmayeur huddles beside Mont Blanc just over the
border from France and Switzerland. Snow is virtually guaranteed, with skiing
accessed across the valley or by cable car up to the shoulders of Mont Blanc,
where skiers can choose to ski back into Italy or over to Chamonix and return
by bus through the tunnel. If a skier tires of the Courmayeur slopes, Cervinia
and La Thuile in Italy are within striking distance. Chamonix in France and
Verbier in Switzerland can also be reached for a full day of skiing. Courmayeur's star quality is found in the
restaurants tucked into its medieval streets and in the surrounding villages,
where Italian skiers seem to spend as much time savoring their meals as they do
enjoying the slopes. Cortina
d'Ampezzo, Italy
Cortina d'Ampezzo's wide, sunny valley in the
eastern Dolomites has qualified as one of the world's top ski resorts,
attracting celebrities of all types. With a wonderful natural setting of its
own, Cortina also draws from the Dolomiti region and is part of one of Europe's
largest interconnected ski areas. Every evening, the picturesque town center fills
with "beautiful people" decked out in the latest ski fashions and
furs for the passegiatta, or evening stroll. Cortina, with full Olympic
facilities, is framed by two massive mountain ridges. It is anchored by the
stunning Cristallo and hulking Faloria on one side and rugged Tofana and Pocol
on the other. All of these mountains provide ski trails for
every level of skier. Further to the west, approaching the Falzarego Pass, the
areas of Cinque Torri and Lagazuoi beckon the adventurous skier. Beyond
Falzarego the rest of the Dolomite Superski region beckons. Zermatt,
Switzerland
If someone were to ask for the perfect ski
resort, Zermatt would not be a surprising answer. This charming village, was
the base for the famous first assaults on the Matterhorn in the 1860s. The
killer mountain still casts its shadow over Zermatt, which has become one of
Europe's premier winter playgrounds. The fairy-tale setting holds a village of Swiss
chalets, narrow streets, a stream splashing between rustic barns, timbered
homes and balconied hotels, and no cars or trucks. Everyone, since 1891, has
arrived by train. Local transportation is by horse drawn sleighs or electric
taxies. Here three major ski areas provide terrain for
every level of skier and the town makes dreams a reality for virtually every
visitor. Zermatt is a true destination resort--the train ride up the valley
keeps most day skiers away. This isolation means that even in the busiest
season, lift lines are not impossibly long and uncrowded slopes can be found. Despite constant development, new hotels,
apartments and lifts, Zermatt remains the world's quintessential ski resort. Champéry,
Switzerland
Champéry is a virtual unknown when it comes to
resort name recognition, but it serves as the main village on the Swiss side of
the Portes du Soleil ski area. This region, nestled just south of Lake Geneva
and straddling Switzerland and France, is one of Europe's biggest ski areas. The skiing in Portes du Soleil is pure and
unrefined, with only gossamer strands of strategically placed lifts linking
distant pistes. Here, the intermediate will feel they have reached ski heaven
and the adventurous expert will find hidden powder and isolated steeps. Set in a deep valley beneath the jagged Dents du
Midi, Champéry is just waking up to the fact that it has turned into an
international resort. The mountain village's skinny main street is lined with
century-old chalets; a plucky kid (of the goat type) prances in the back of a
station wagon; the discos look like a throwback to the 1950s; no tour buses
pack the center of town; and the new developments have kept the village's
traditional Alpine touch. Megève,
France
Many of the upper crust of Europe and especially
France make Megève their winter home when cold weather forces them to abandon
the Riviera. Furs are the coats of choice for strolling past shop windows, and
the latest fashions are found on the slopes during the day and in expensive
gourmet restaurants and some of France's best discos and nightclubs after dark. Megève has a look that set designers might
create for the perfect ski resort, from its Old World town buildings to its
narrow streets, from its art deco deluxe hotels to its perfect French country
inns, and from its gourmet restaurants to its pulsing late-night casinos and
discos. Megève hits all the notes between hedonistic excess and traditional ski
village delight. For skiers, Megève has leveraged its ambiance
with the slopes of neighboring towns, creating an area with exceptional variety
of terrain and an overall skiing domain of almost 300 kilometers of trails. Val
d'Isère, France
Val d'Isère has long been one of the true
European ski meccas, although the average skier didn't hear much about it until
local hero Jean-Claude Killy won his Olympic gold in 1968. The town was also
home to three other Olympic champions who won a total of nine gold medals. Home to the 1992 Olympics and scores of World
Cup races, Val d'Isère is a town where skiing reigns supreme. Skiers looking
for some of the best on- and off-piste runs in the world need look no further.
The ski area is linked with Tignes, creating "l'Espace Killy," with
186 miles of marked runs for every level of skier, tried-and-true off-piste
itineraries for serious experts and 104 lifts, including an underground lift
with an uphill capacity of more than 3,000 skiers per hour. Where a decade ago utilitarian hotels rose to
serve the burgeoning numbers of skiers, today the traditional flavor of this
village has been recaptured. Val d’Isère over the past years has rediscovered
and recreated its unpretentious Savoyard roots--now, the peaked roofs of wooden
chalets blend with the mountains above and local wines and Alpine specialties
are served in homey rustic restaurants beside well-known French cuisine. Kitzbühel,
Austria
Framed by rugged mountains, Kitzbühel dates back
to the ninth century, when it landed on the map as a copper mining and trading
town. With snow-covered scenery, it's hard to believe that skiing is relatively
new here--it wasn't until 1892 that skis were introduced. Today Kitzbühel is
the undisputed king of Austrian ski resorts. It's also the most glamorous and
expensive. Kitzbühel also lives up to its reputation as one
of the most beautiful Alpine towns in Austria, and one of the hot spots for
après-ski and excellent intermediate skiing. Wrought-iron lamps and flickering candles in the
shop windows lend a special charm to the streets. The jingle of bells on a
horse-drawn sleigh, and hearty laughs rising above the sound of a piano or
zither add to the perfect European ski setting. The exterior of Kitzbühel is old and lovely and
quite romantic. The atmosphere is bright, boisterous and never dull. This is
Austria's winter entertainment capital. Here, you'll rub shoulders with the
rich and famous and, no matter your financial status, be treated like royalty. Ischgl,
Austria
Living in the skiing shadow of its better-known
neighbor to the north--the Arlberg--Ischgl (pronounced Ish-gull) has maintained
its small-village character and serves as the principal resort in a wide-open
ski area that stretches over the border to Switzerland. The town itself is a
small alpine resort built on a knoll in a wide valley. Church steeples rise beside wisps of smoke
streaming from Austrian chalets. Snow-covered streets wind between shops,
coffeehouses, bars and restaurants. The scents of wood smoke mingle with the
smells of fresh pastry. No modern hotels seriously mar the effect. The far-flung ski area with more than 200
kilometers of trails combined with extensive off-trail areas is far above and
out of sight from the road, the base stations and the town. Most years, the
high altitude ensures skiing until the beginning of May. From the top, skiers
can take the long trail descending to Switzerland for a cross-border
experience. Once skiers take the lifts to the top of the
mountain, they are out of sight until they stream back down the slopes and
begin what many consider one of Europe's top après-ski rituals--"Tea
Time"--which finds skiers packed into small bars dancing, drinking and
singing, still in their ski clothes and boots, until dinner time. Then discos
crank up to take revelers into the dawn while the hardcore skiers retreat to
their down comforters. |
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TM
Like the mountain peaks that punctuate the
rugged Alps, every Alpine ski resort has its own unique personality. The Eiger,
the Matterhorn, the Kitzbuhelhorn, Monte Cristallo and Mont Blanc all tower
above resort towns that are as distinctive as the mountains they nestle
beneath.
Here, we focus on Europe's best traditional ski
villages, where skiing is mixed with an atmosphere even Walt Disney couldn't
duplicate. These are resorts where the scent of cows and the sound of sleigh
bells mingle in the crisp air, where ancient wooden chalets share the narrow
streets with modern hotels, and where rousing night life and family-owned
restaurants mix to create a vacation experience that will not soon be
forgotten.
