Laax riding guide - World Snowboard Guide

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Freeriding

FREERIDERS are tempted by some amazing off-piste opportunities with some cool tree riding and full-on powder, but the place gets tracked out after a few days but with some short hikes you’ll still be able to find some good spots weeks after the last snowfall. From the top of the Vorab Glacier bear right onto the Sattel and there’s some good routes around run 35. This area can slide, and there’s two large hidden cliff faces past the restaurant so get to know the area before venturing too far from the piste.

From the top of the Vorab Pign there’s a good freeride route with some more routes as you hike a bit futher along. From the restaurant on the top of the Crap Masegn you’ll also find a few easy hikes thats should afford you a few clean lines and then pick up the slowest chairlift in the resort which will give you plenty of time to find the next line.

The ride down from La Siala summit is a real pleasure and can be tackled by most intermediates. There is an established freeride route down, but thats the first thing that gets tracked, but its easy to work out a good line from the chairlift as you head up.

Over in Flims for some easy to reach, classic off-piste riding, check out the Cassons area but it’s not for the faint-hearted. The cable-car only holds 20 people so you’ll find yourself almost alone at the top, but it only seems to be open once in a blue moon; the management either say its too avalanche prone or that they’re preparing the area. Below that the area from Naraus to Foppa is great after a good dump for beginner and intermediate freeriders, from the top of the restaurant you can go as far left as possible but you’ll need a bit of speed to avoid a walkout.

Theres some good tree riding accessed from the Nagens Gondola by picking up the black 18 run. Its quite a narrow path as it snakes around the mountain, allowing you to hop off the side and (hopefully) pick the path up again after some tree shredding.
There’s more fun stuff directly underneath the Curnius lift towards the top of the Crap Sogn Gion, absolutely nothing testing but you’ll find the area littered with bumps and little rock drop offs.

Laax overhead powder trees
Photo: Steve, WSG

Freestylers

FREESTYLERS are coaxed here with an excellent park and pipe situated on the Crap Sogn Gion. The 140m earth shaped monsterpipe is usually impeccable but locals do moan a little that things aren’t as well kept as they should be.

Laax - superpipe
Photo: Steve Dowle, WSG

Next to the pipe, you’ll find the main terrain park which has separate kicker and rail lines, but again they are well shaped and when the park's in full flow you’ll find at least 6 kickers and up to 20 rails of various shapes and sizes.

There’s a beginners freestyle area next to the craplift button lift a short distance from the main park. This has a twin line of 4-kickers and a separate rail/box line. The lift is shared with the newbies so it can be a pain watching all the unused buttons, while you’re bustin' to hit the park again.

Laax - beginners park
Photo: Steve Dowle, WSG

Early season you’ll need to head onto the Vorab Glacier where they build a park during the Autumn months

Pistes

PISTES. There's a good variety of pistes from open slopes at the top to the ones lower down that cut through the trees. They are all very open and wide, but there's nothing too testing but those with balls should try out the long black race run, Crap Sogn, back down to the base station of Murschetg.

Beginners

BEGINNERS have a great mountain where learning the basics is a joy on simple, hassle free slopes, which are easy to reach from all parts of the resort. There’s a well set out series of novice trails from the base area of Flims Dorf. The easy blues start out from the Narus and allow first timers a good choice of easy to negotiate descents back down to the base area.

Resort Statistics

Resort Type: Alpine
Winter: Nov to April
Summer: May to Sept

Lifts

Total Lifts: 29
Cable cars: 7
Gondolas: 4
Chair lifts: 7
Drag lifts: 8
Other lifts: 3 kids lifts
Max people per hour: 42,000
Board Leashes required: No

Mountain

Total pistes/trails: 60
Total ride area: 220km
Longest run: 14km

Top lift: 3018m
Vertical drop: 1998m
First lift: 1020m

Piste suitability

Green runs: 35%
Red runs: 38%
Black runs: 27%

Lift Passes

	Low Season		High Season
	CHF	GBP	CHF	GBP
Day Pass	54.00	33.61	67.00	41.70
6-Day Pass	260.00	161.83	315.00	196.07
6-Day Linked area Pass	-	-	-	-

	CHF	GBP
Season Pass:	-	-

Lift Passes:
Half day 50CHF
1 Day 63Chf
6 Days 354Chf
Lift times:8.30am to 4.30pm

Snowfall

Average annual snowfall: 7.2metres
Artificial snowmaking coverage: 20%

Facilities

	CHF	GBP
Days Rental of Board & Boots:	-	-
4hr Group Lesson (full day):	-	-
4hr Private Lesson (full day):	-	-

Snowboard Schools: Snowboard Fahrschule offer freestyle and freestyle lessons email fahrschule@weissearena.ch
Snowboard Hire: Plenty of hire shops, some allowing a try before you buy.
Night Riding: : No

Other activities

Heliboarding: : About 30mins by car, www.airgrischa.ch 2-drops will set you back around 400CHF and take most of the day.
Snowmobiles: Not available

Further information

www.laax.ch/
Email:tourismus@alpenarena.ch

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Summary

Excellent snowsure resort with a good long season. The slopes are great for freeriders and freestylers as well as suiting beginners. Good if expensive local services.

ON THE SLOPES: Fantastic
OFF THE SLOPES: Okay but not rocking
MONEY WISE: Fairly expensive place, but cheaper than many swiss resorts

Terrain & parks

HALFPIPE: Yes - 1
TERRAIN PARK: Yes - 2
BACKCOUNTRY/OFF-PISTE:Yes
TREE RUNS:Yes