It’s All Downhill…

When it comes to skiing, the weather gods are either with you or they’re against you. On my visit to Laax, they weren’t just with me – they were holding my hand and guiding me through perfect powder, wide, clear pistes and providing an azure backdrop to go with it. These were, as I evidently failed to notice at the time, prime panda-eye conditions.

As it happens, it wasn’t just the weather gods smiling on me. So were the food gods, the drink gods, the hospitality gods and whichever particular gods happened to be in charge of plonking one of Europe’s most exciting and modern resorts in the middle of a quiet Swiss valley.

Strictly speaking Laax (or LAAX as they like to brand it) is the name given to the ski area comprising three villages – Laax, Flims and Falera – and the ski area is one of the biggest in Switzerland, with 150 miles of pistes.

Our base was the Signina Hotel in Laax’s modern and minimalist Rockresort, which Wallpaper magazine named as its best new ski resort earlier this year. It’s not hard to see why; seven cube-shaped buildings, hewn from local stone, form the striking centrepiece of the resort, and blend seamlessly into the landscape. They also house the resort’s restaurants, bars and shops, all of which are impeccably designed and a cut above the usual ski resort pine-fest – there’s not a cuckoo clock in sight. 

MINIMALIST LUXURY
The hotel itself maintains the theme of minimalist luxury – high-quality finishings and clever storage for bulky ski gear dominate the rooms, and the vast Swiss breakfast buffet dominated my thoughts, most of the time in fact.

There are several restaurants and bars to choose from; Grandis, with its hugely impressive array of wines and excellent grill, was a highlight, as was the fabulously named Crapbar (crap meaning ‘stone’ in Romansch).

All that would be wasted were the skiing not up to scratch; emphatically not the case. 

The typical Laax piste is wide, fast and open; tailor-made for carving your way down the mountain.

It’s also something of a mecca for free-skiers and snowboarders – the resort was one of the first to embrace snowboarding in its nascent days, and it now has Europe’s biggest half-pipe.

Wuss that I am, I didn’t use it, though I did trade in my piste skis for a pair of ludicrously wide twin-tips after we awoke on our final morning to a generous dump of fluffy white powder. It was a magic carpet ride of floating, jumping and the occasional bit of lying on my back with my skis in the air and a mouth full of snow. I wouldn’t have had it any other way, frankly. The ski gods have apparently saved their most munificent blessings for Laax. 

laax.com. For reservations call +41 (0)81 927 7777 or email reservation@laax.com

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