Corviglia - St Moritz Skiing & Snowboarding
St Moritz's three separate ski areas of Corviglia, Corvatsch & Diavolezza Lagalb offer completely different skiing experiences. Corviglia is the standout for the majority of skiers & snowboarders that love its modern chairlifts, sunny, wide-open intermediate terrain & perfect grooming. Most terrain is above the tree-line over 2,000m elevation, making skiing the resort in poor visibility a challenge for most.
Check out the ski trail map for Corviglia St Moritz below.
Corviglia is a piste skiers paradise directly above St Moritz. Accessed by four different points in the valley, its 155km of south-aspect slopes are wonderful for combining fast turns & long lunches. Those starting early are rewarded at Corviglia as the piste trails will be deliciously perfect and totally deserted until after 10.30am (ish) when the glitterati finally get out. Mid-winter first tracks are wonderful as the sun starts to pop over the mountains to the south-east.
The off-piste freeride terrain is vast as well & includes everything from expert-only chutes to wide open alpine bowls. Small areas of north-facing terrain hold fresh lines for many days after the last snowfall.
Ski Lifts
As one would expect from a high falutin place like St Moritz, the ski lifts on the mountain are generally first class. It’s just that getting up to them ...... isn't! Strangely, the worst place to access the ski area is from the centre of St Moritz. The journey up via the two-stage funicular is painful to say the least. The villages of Celerina and St Moritz Bad (as in ‘spa’) on the fringes are better via gondola & cable car (respectively).
There are plans to replace the Corviglia's Signal cable car (St Moritz Bad) with a gondola (by season 23/24) & also to lift link Corviglia to Corvatsch via a gondola from the Signal car park to above Corvatsch’s Hahnensee run. A tasty prospect indeed & one that will turn St Moritz Corviglia into truly one of the great ski resorts of the world.
Lift Pass
All the St Moritz resorts are part of a dynamic lift pass price system determined by demand on any given day. Whilst there is a price ceiling which will be paid at the ticket windows, on days of low demand, lift ticket prices can be more than 45% cheaper when pre-purchased online.
The ‘Upper Engadin’ lift pass provides access to all the St Moritz resorts, whilst passes for each individual resort can also be bought at a slightly reduced rate (or significantly reduced rate in the case of Diavolezza Lagalb!). IMPORTANT - the Upper Engadin lift pass also includes all local public transport (incl. trains & buses) for free between all of the ski areas included in the pass. Reason enough to get one!
On-Piste Terrain
With 155km of piste trails, Corviglia is the largest of the St Moritz ski resorts for groomed runs. Unashamedly geared toward the masses, over 80km of the trails are rated for intermediates.
Novices & Beginners
Corviglia is St Moritz's best place for children and those wanting to learn to ski or board. Two base areas (Celerina & Suvretta) plus three higher elevation locations (Salastrains, Corviglia & Marguns) provide a great variety of ski areas for novices. As a real treat for kids and families, Salastrains is usually accessed via a horse drawn sleigh ride for new skiers - what a beautiful way to start skiing! our pick for the best all-round place to learn is Celerina, or if the weather is favourable, up the mountain at Corviglia.
Graduating beginners can progress up the mountain, but many of the easy (blue) trails are more traverses than anything truly interesting. The better trails are longer descents into Marguns. If staying in Celerina, beginners may feel the need to download on the gondola.
Intermediates
Corviglia is the mountain for you! The vast majority of on-piste terrain is gloriously intermediate, even the advanced trails! Let it rip & enjoy. The pick of them are the gloriously fast rollers in any direction from Munt da San Murezzan - a fabulous 600m vertical of grooming excellence.
Advanced
As is often case in Europe, many of the advanced ski trails are ‘greyish’ rather than 'black' and those at Corviglia are no different. They are all wonderful to slide though. Racing the funicular down the hill from Corviglia down to Chantarella is a lark, as is the steepest trail in the resort from Fuorcla Grischa.
Off-Piste, Freeride & Backcountry
A ride to the highest lifted point at Corviglia, the 3,057m summit of Piz Nair, will reveal the resort’s best off-piste terrain. Under the cable car, challenging descents that start steep and lead to gentler bowls toward the lifts at Suvretta are on the south aspect, with even more challenging chutes & couloirs on the northside of the ridge that end with a nice intermediate piste exit back to the lifts.
Away from Piz Nair, the broad, treeless alpine expanse of Corviglia has off-piste freeride options everywhere. Amongst the longest lift accessed off-piste descents are from the top of the Marguns-Trais Fluors chairlift. Starting at 2,752m, descents of 700m vert are possible down the next piste trail, and further is happy to end up at Samedan and take the train back!
Terrain around Fuorcla Grischa (2,964m)has the resort’s steepest off-piste terrain away from Piz Nair. With some aspects away from the sun, snow quality can last as well.
More information on Skiing & Snowboarding at Corviglia is coming .......... eventually. Aaargh, we are running so far behind! In the meantime look at the photos in the Corvatsch, Diavolezza Lagalb& St Moritz pages. They tell a thousand words...