What an interesting ski resort. Completely invisible from town, its location above Leukerbad’s surrounding cliffs makes one wonder what is in store. Turns out quite a bit.
As a first stop on a 3-month journey, arriving here by bus is nothing short of splendid. The town is set in the base of a precipitous amphitheatre topped by snow-clad peaks. Hard to think of a grander setting in which to exit a bus terminal. Grindelwald gets the chocolates for the best train exit, but I think Leukerbad wins the prize for best bus exit. By the way, the journey from Zurich airport by train to Leuk, and then jumping on the route 471 bus to Leukerbad was as expected. Seamless Swiss transport excellence.
A relatively small ski resort, one thing it is not suited for is beginners. Novices can find their feet in the small ski area (Snowpark Sportarena) on the edge of town near the Gemmi Pass cable car station. Several conveyors, a rope tow and platter tow serve the useful ski area. Up in the resort proper, much of the terrain is fairly intimidating to novices & beginners. The small learn to ski area is in a wonderful alpine setting and would be a stupendous place for one’s first turns to in the right weather. Beyond that, the lifts and trails are not the easiest. If still learning the sport, head to Belalp or Aletsch Arena instead.
For intermediates most of the mountain piste trails are for you, even the black ones. There are several wonderful long options here, but the best of them is number 12 which rolls & turns through the countryside past the buildings of Planedri and into Flaschen.
Off-piste terrain can initially feel like its lacking; however a quick reconnaissance will prove otherwise. From the top of the Schwalbennest chair, initially off-camber off-piste is skier’s left of the intermediate piste, but by continuing to traverse one ends up in some delightful chutes. The popular routes 21 and 22 can be done or go further along using the winter walking trail to drop into tree-lined descents that end at Torrentalp. Between Torrentalp & Flaschen, glade skiing is possible throughout.
The valley trail back to town runs on a traffic light system. If open, a traffic light before the ski tunnel near the Rinderhalde T-bar will be green. If you don’t know what a red light means, then perhaps don’t go traveling, let alone ski this run! Of interest, older maps of the ski area show the valley trails into town as red intermediate runs after a black entry. They are now rated black all the way, although anyone comfortable controlling their speed on a tight ‘cat-track’ after the tunnel should be able to get down safely to the fun bit lower down. Wide open piste eventually presents itself, with the Leukerbad spread out below for a cracking finish.
Torrent cable car is a maximum 15min walk from anywhere in the village. The local bus does circuits of the town and is a good option if not chasing first tracks. The first bus is after 0830hr, the first cable car leaves at 0830hr! Powderhounds will walk to the cable car or drive to Flaschen gondola.
Non-ski activities are aplenty in Leukerbad. For lovers of thermal spa pools there are two major ones to choose from. If you are like me and don’t get excited about sharing pools with a horde of flaky-skinned geriatrics, the best bet is the Walliser Alpentherme. Or, like me, just avoid going to any of them. Use the reasonable excuse that ‘I didn’t bring any swimming trunks and going nude is seriously frowned upon!’.
Located on the opposite side of town from the ski area, the cable car ride up to the precipitously perched Gemmi Pass is worth it if nothing else just to check out the Gemmi Lodge and its excellent lookout platforms, via ferrata (not open in winter), and restaurant dining area. Splendid views across the town and cliffs are a given, and then there is high alpine walking, sledding and cross-country trails. Another small cable car can be utilised to back up to the pass is sledding down. It is possible to traverse across the alpine valley all the way another lift above Kandersteg. Note that the area is somewhat spoilt by the presence of huge power poles, but I suppose electricity has to come from somewhere ...
The mountain restaurants in the ski resort are surprisingly well priced, even affordable. Try all four of them, because, well, there are only 4 of them (that I noted anyway), including the excellent Weid Stȗbli Restaurant on the valley trail. As a tourist town, there are numerous dining options and good value propositions throughout. For anyone looking to avoid the standard Swiss fare of meat, potato & cheese-based deliciousness, there is even an Asian food restaurant (it didn’t differentiate between Thai, Chinese et al, so it may not be awesome!). A few bars were open late, but being midweek in January, the town was blissfully quiet. The Chinchilla Bar in the old town sector was the best of them.
For accommodation, Leukerbad has all bases covered. As we have simple needs, we were well-pleased with the well-priced Hotel Paradis-Leukerbad-Therme. Well, well, well!
Leukerbad is a fantastic Swiss Alps destination for all things mountains & winter. Combined with one or two other ski resorts in the region, it is well worth a visit.
Read more about the pros & cons of this ski resort on the Leukerbad overview page.