Skiing & Snowboarding, Lifts & Terrain
We love it when a plan comes together, and Lauchernalp is case in point. Powderhounds often peruse ski trail maps in the first instance when deciding on where to ski around the world. Whilst some trail maps are a fantasy, often they provide enough key information to give us the nudge to go & visit. Lauchernalp is one such place. To give an insight, what we saw on the trail map was: a huge skiable vertical (nearly 1,700m); high elevation (top of 3,111m); potentially wide off-piste alpine between Stafel at 2,100m & the Hockenhorngrat 1,000m vertical above it; quality ski lifts (newish gondola, new six-seater chair); small enough to be quiet but big enough to have all the services & facilities; plus a long valley run into an isolated valley with small villages accessible by public transport. To our great delight all this was true. One gets quite chuffed when instincts are correct & skiing Lauchernalp, even in near zero viz, is an absolute joy. Face shots on the piste after lunch is always a good indication of a wonderful ski hill for Powderhounds! When you see it on a bluebird day, it is mindblowing.
Check out the ski trail map for Lauchernalp-Lötschental below.
Skiing Highlights
By no means a secret to the Swiss locals living in Bern, Lauchernalp-Lötschental is relatively unknown to most other skiers & snowboarders. And scoring freshies here is all but guaranteed when a storm is raging during the week. It is perhaps a different proposition on a sunny weekend day! Here are the highlights of Lauchernalp to tick off when you visit.
- Do a reconnaissance of Lauchernalp on a sunny midweek day taking your time to get to know the resort and soaking in all the jaw-dropping views.
- Having done a reconnaissance, DURING the next blizzard, get there early for first lifts (the chairs spin from 8.30am but be in line earlier) and cut lonely powder lap after powder lap from Hockenhorngrat to Stafal.
- When the sun comes out after a storm, if conditions allow (i.e. are safe enough), explore the side & backcountry terrain toward the Lötschenpass and all the way down to the valley toward Kippel & Ferden. Take a bus back to the cable car base at Wiler.
- It may seem lame to some but do the valley trail from Lauchernalp down to Wiler at least once. Whilst sections of the trail are flat and should be avoided by snowboarders, there are loads of steep sections to ski between the hairpin bends that are in classic Swiss Alps forested, rural settings with hay barns dotted around the open slopes. And there is something undeniably pleasant about cruising through this landscape on ski. The walk from the end of the trail back through the village to the cable car is memorable. Check out a few of the cow barns along the way.
- Challenge yourself to ski the 1,150m vertical on piste without stopping from Hockenhorngrat to the main base facilities at Lauchernalp. We do love a thigh-melting exercise!
Ski Lifts
We love resorts that are simple to understand and explain. Lauchernalp is one of them. Effectively a 'string' of four major ski lifts from valley to peak, it makes for easy navigation. But whilst it is easy to explain the set up, it is not easy to explain the type of lifts as one goes up the mountain. The base cable car with a 100-person capacity from Wiler (1,419m) to Lauchernalp (1,968m) makes perfect sense, given it was installed in the mid-90s. The next short section from Lauchernalp up to Stafal (2,100m) has a modern 6-seater chair which despite its tiny vertical, makes complete sense to get novices, beginners & intermediates up and out of the mid-mountain base.
The third section makes no sense. A 3-seater chair from the late '80s runs from Stafal up 620m vertical to Gandegg (2,720m). Sounds reasonable until you see what the next lift is - a modern 15-person gondola. What the ….? Shouldn't that be the third lift? Seems a little over-capitalised! Who knows? For the fourth section, it is nice to travel from Gandegg to the highest lifted point at Hockenhorngrat (3,111m) in comfort, but why the 3-seater chair below Grandegg hasn't been replaced is beyond us. Also at Gandegg is the top station of a largely redundant T-bar surface tow extending up from Marwig (2,400m). The only other lift is for novices – a long, covered conveyor at Stafel. Simples!
Good to know is that the cable car from Wiler up to the main ski area starts at 7.15am. The rest of the lifts open at 8.30am – conditions allowing!
Lift Pass
As with many ski resorts in Switzerland, there are two types of lift pass price. One is the 'get what you are given' high-priced lift pass at the cash desk/ticket window. The other is the cheaper pre-purchased online lift pass. Lauchernalp has adopted this system which dynamically prices lift passes based on weather, time of year, demand etc. The high price paid at the cash desk is the upper limit of a ticket. At Lauchernalp, pre-purchasing a day pass online can save over 20% for an adult. Get them from here.
A recent boon is the inclusion of Lauchernalp on the Magic Pass, meaning one can ski or ride here every day of the season for a super-cheap rate. Get yourself one, we have! This super-affordable season pass is far & away the best value in the world. See our lift passes in Europe page for more info the on where Magic Pass is valid.
Snow & Weather
Lauchernalp can get huge volumes of snow out of winter storms arriving from a multitude of directions. As a result, along with Titlis at Engelberg and the Gemsstock at Andermatt, the upper mountain at Lauchernalp is one of the most snow sure in Switzerland.
The ski resort’s one achilles heel is its aspect. Sunny, generally south-facing slopes can get baked when the weather warms up.
Snowboarding at Lauchernalp
Lauchernalp is totally snowboard friendly EXCEPT for the valley trail. Long flat sections will see most boarders walking, particularly if the snow is slow. Avoid it and go off-piste down to the valley or download on the cable car.
On-Piste Trails
Bietschhorn (3,934m) dominates the horizon when skiing Lauchernalp's empty piste trails. It’s easy to get distracted by the long ridge of steep avalanche-prone slopes on the opposite side of the valley when during the week there is no one else skiing the perfect groomers here. Including the long valley trail (piste #1)(also shared with sledders), there are around 55km of groomed pistes at Lauchernalp. And whilst it generally makes perfect, the one major anomaly is the baffling lack of a linking beginner-rated ski trail between Gandegg & Stafel. This ‘gap’ forces beginner to ski intermediate or advanced pistes to ski down to Stafel, which is far from ideal when the weather is poor.
Novices
Anyone new to skiing will find limited terrain in the mid-mountain sector at Stafel. You will have to negotiate a ride up the 6-seater chairlift with your gear to get there – not ideal, bit it is what it is. The long, covered conveyor lift & big views on a sunny day make for a fabulous place to learn sliding on Schnee. There are no sheltered areas for novices when the weather is poor.
Beginners
The ski terrain near the village accessed by the 6-seater chair is best for beginners. Once warmed up, and if the weather is nice, a journey to the top of the resort is a must. Ski piste #10 for glorious views and then if not feeling confident, download on the triple chair back down to Stafel.
The valley trail (piste #1) is a meandering beauty with some steep bends& a flat section or two (good for learning skating!) but is otherwise a good challenge for the leg strength of any beginner. The trail ends a little abruptly at Wiler. A bus stop is just below on the main road and if you time it right (bus in only once in each direction every hour) you can jump on and ride back to the cable car. Otherwise it’s a pleasant walk down a narrow village lane passing traditional houses, and cow & sheep barns adorned with fabulously hideous Tschäggättä masks.
Intermediates
As with most ski resorts in the world, intermediate skiers can access all the on-piste trails at Lauchernalp in good visibility. Whilst some of the advanced trails have steep sections, they are relatively short pitches with long run-outs, so should be able to be negotiated with relative ease. Piste #6 into #2 is the best-groomed run on the mountain.
Advanced
Advanced skiers will adore the empty pistes that allow warp-factor-10 carving. Lauchernalp’s advanced pistes are few in length & number but are lovely rolling perfection. The current ski trail map doesn’t show it, but there is usually another, quite long, advanced piste which descends between the Stafel-Gandegg triple chair and intermediate piste #6. Whilst not always groomed, it should nonetheless be scoped out every day to see whether this mystery run is skiable. If interested, the steepest advanced trail in our estimations is piste #5 into Stafel. But you surely didn’t come here to ski on-piste, did you?
Off-Piste & Backcountry
For us, Lauchernalp is all about the off-piste skiing. On stormy days there are all sorts of possibilities below the mountain village into the valley, and then when the sun comes out, just about the entire alpine zone is skiable, including outside the resort boundary to skier’s left & right. Experts looking for super-steeps & jumps may be better off elsewhere, but for most, skiing & snowboarding Lauchernalp’s off-piste will be Nirvana.
Inbounds off-piste skiing is fantastic in the steeper sections either side of the triple chair and dropping off piste #9 into a broad gully to exit back via a winter walking track.
From piste #6, peel off early to skier’s right and enter a fantastic alpine bowl with a natural halfpipe running down the centre for 500m vertical of powder. Continue all the way down to Kippel via the winter walking walk track or cut back hard to the left to re-enter the resort just below Stafel.
From the top of the resort, the Lötschenpass Trail allows for easy access to the adjacent backcountry terrain, and also some short but sweet off-piste drops back into the resort. Heading across to Lötschenpass hut and descending off-piste all way toward Ferden & Kippel should only be done with some local knowledge.
Skinning up into the bowls to the ‘skier’s left’ of the resort provides quieter turns in spectacular surrounds. Descents can link back onto the valley trail. The valley trail itself has several sectors where one can leave the trail & ski between crumbling hay barns to link up to the trial a few hairpin bends down the mountain. When walking back to the cable car base at the end of the trail, count how many Tschäggättä masks are along the way.