Cervinia/Zermatt, IT/CH, Feb. 4, 2024

[Sbooker]

Won’t do a specific report {but I as admin will} but went Cervinia/Zermatt today. It was all piste skiing and sight seeing basically.

Glacier is impressive.

It was surprisingly quiet.

Had a nice lunch.

A nice day on skis but I doubt I’ll be back. Got the photo with the Matterhorn. The lift layout seems disjointed to me with hardly any signage with directions. I’d take Serre Chevalier or Espace Killy any day over Cervinia/Zermatt. The 80 euro lift ticket seems overpriced despite the impressive lift infrastructure.
Oh. Saw a dog on a ski lift. A first for me.

 

[jasoncapecod]

I was in Zermatt a few years ago during Xmas break...Yea no off piste, still my daughter and I had a blast.. 80 euros is free, for what you get . you can't park and get a coffee at Vail for that price...
We also went during the summer to hike and ski...tremendous trip too

 

[Tony Crocker]

80 euros is free, for what you get

+1

Had a nice lunch.

Next time check out Chalet Etoile.

Our experiences in Zermatt/Cervinia have been quite different: loaded with powder both times. Cervinia is a very good powder area for intermediates, not that competitive on a blue sky Saturday in 2018.

The lift layout seems disjointed to me

The Gornergletscher is a big geographical barrier. If based in Cervinia you're not likely to ski the Gornergrat, Hohtalli or Rothorn sectors of Zermatt. Based in Zermatt you can easily go either side of the Gornergletscher.

 

[Sbooker]

Next time check out Chalet Etoile.

Was booked out.

 

[ChrisC]

Oh. Saw a dog on a ski lift. A first for me.

Telluride has a Gondola that is part ski lift and part pedestrian commuter lift linking the old town of Telluride and the newer Mountain Village.
It has designated dog-friendly cabins.

Next time check out Chalet Etoile.

There are two versions of Chalet Etoile: 1. Sit-down waiter-served section with a more extensive menu. 2. Inside walk-up/cafeteria with a more limited, less expensive set of delicious options (always some specials of the day)

When I discovered option 2 with its specials, it became a no-brainer always to go there.

However, food-wise, you cannot go too wrong anywhere in the Zermatt-Cervinia complex.

I’d take Serre Chevalier or Espace Killy any day over Cervinia/Zermatt. The 80 euro lift ticket seems overpriced despite the impressive lift infrastructure.

Coverage is looking a little thin. Hmmm. I thought more of the storms that hit Northern France/Switzerland might have made it to Zermatt, but I guess not. I guess this is why not a single yellow itinerary on the Zermatt map is open. By February, they should start opening. Not a good year.
Zermatt Interactive Map (Unfortunately, you must wait until business hours to see what is open/closed. Many resorts will use an 'expected' status vs. closed.)

Many years, Zermatt is simply a pretty place to cruise around on long pistes that may not be overly challenging, and great food. Other years, it's an off-piste paradise.

During Winter 2017/18, I arrived after Zermatt previously suspended access via train due to avalanches. They were not heli-skiing, but simply ferrying wealthy clientele trapped in Zermatt to the outside world. Happens every 30-50 years.

 

[Tony Crocker]

The amazing week Liz and I had at Zermatt in 2014 is looking more like an outlier. But we scored another powder day at Cervinia in 2018. Cervinia is less rocky, more intermediate, the kind of place that would work well for James on powder days as it did for us in both 2014 and 2018. I think Cervinia like much of Aosta does well on storms from the west as well as south. How much of that spills over into Zermatt I don't know as the pass between them is 11,500 feet. Neither place gets much from the north as there are way too many high mountains in between.

 

[ChrisC]

I had to check the snow report during Zermatt's 'business' hours. They have essentially no off-piste itineraries open. Well maybe one No wonder Skieric had some criticism of Zermatt. However, I think its conditions were well below Val d'Isere/Verbier/etc - the northern French and Swiss Alps. Winds likely did not help - but it looks like best terrain was no open either.

I am on the plane and heading back to Canada. My first trip to the Alps was fun, but a little disappointing with regards to conditions. I think Zermatt had similar conditions to what everyone experienced in other locations.
On the plus side: Amazing lift network with Trams, Gondola's, bubble chairs and trains everywhere. Very modern. Amazing scenery, lots of long groomers. Natural snow base appears to be about 3 feet in most areas. Appears to have lots of amazing off piste terrain on both the Zermatt and Cervinia sides if good conditions.
Negatives: Wind blasted off piste with virtually no where wind protected. Upper elevations were wind packed coral. Lower elevations did have a melt freeze. Very few black runs, almost not moguls, off piste was unskiable due to coral appearing wind blasted snow and lack of skier traffic on the off piste. It was a great experience, but I am not rushing back there.

List of open lifts/pistes Link

Screen capture of Zermatt interactive map - I put black 'X''s where yellow off-piste should be open. Pointed out the single itinerary open.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Zermatt with nice June coverage two days ago. The only downside appears to be Sahara dust on some facets in the distance and that it got sticky at the very bottom, which is to be expected.

Has anyone here skied amongst lots of dust? Seems unpleasant, if only aesthetically.

 

[ChrisC]

I have seen dust on Telluride's slopes. Frightening when you just see a brown dust cloud coming from the Utah deserts - Moab/Canyonlands NP.

However, those storms are often accompanied by a lot of snow, which quickly covers them. They are typically a late-season phenomenon, but they become more standard as the deserts heat up.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Had a nice lunch.

Next time check out Chalet Etoile.

Bryan from Solitude said that I could post this summary describing his Chalet Etoile experience:

In the last Cervinia TR, there are pics with a mention of Chalet Etoile as maybe the best on-slope eatery in the world, so I wanted to check it out. We finally had lunch there and it sucked. The pasta with shrimp was just barely passable and a small portion. Pasta with lobster had a few pieces of carcass and a claw. It was overcooked so you couldn't even crack it open. Pasta wasn't even hot and, again, a small portion (sorry, I didn't take pics). That said; it WAS priced like the best on-slope eatery in the world.

No disrespect meant. I'm sure it can be great. It just wasn't. Every restaurant can have an off day, or maybe we just picked the wrong dishes. A funny thing was that we ordered the pasta with lobster after our first course. While we were waiting, I looked a couple of tables over and saw a couple struggling with pieces of lobster. I said oh shit and told my SO I hoped that wasn't our dish.

We've had consistently great meals on-slope here and in Zermatt, including Foyer des Guides in Valtournenche, which was superb. All our other meals were at least excellent.

 

[Sbooker]

Bryan from Solitude said that I could post this summary describing his Chalet Etoile experience:

In the last Cervinia TR, there are pics with a mention of Chalet Etoile as maybe the best on-slope eatery in the world, so I wanted to check it out. We finally had lunch there and it sucked. The pasta with shrimp was just barely passable and a small portion. Pasta with lobster had a few pieces of carcass and a claw. It was overcooked so you couldn't even crack it open. Pasta wasn't even hot and, again, a small portion (sorry, I didn't take pics). That said; it WAS priced like the best on-slope eatery in the world.

No disrespect meant. I'm sure it can be great. It just wasn't. Every restaurant can have an off day, or maybe we just picked the wrong dishes. A funny thing was that we ordered the pasta with lobster after our first course. While we were waiting, I looked a couple of tables over and saw a couple struggling with pieces of lobster. I said oh shit and told my SO I hoped that wasn't our dish.

We've had consistently great meals on-slope here and in Zermatt, including Foyer des Guides in Valtournenche, which was superb. All our other meals were at least excellent.

Disappointing for them that it didn’t live up to its reputation.
For what it’s worth I’ve had a couple of excellent meals slope side in Alta Badia. A venison ragu pasta is particularly memorable. But this place in last year Serre Chevalier was also top notch.

La Cabane

Cuisine traditionnelle à base essentiellement de produits frais. Service le midi. Cadre chaleureux.

www.serre-chevalier.com

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Final wrap-up from Bryan about Cervinia (he's now at Les Arcs):

We had two weeks in Cervinia with a few days over in Zermatt and in Valtournenche. Granted, it only snowed a few nights a few cm at a time and there was a freeze-thaw most nights, so the conditions played a role in our disappointing outing there; however, many of the lifts had only one or a few on-piste options from their tops so everyone funneled down the same trail or trails. This included most of the upper gondola on the eastern end of the resort and also from the upper tram at the top-most point before you go over to Zermatt. Things got slick really fast. The little new snow we did get was wind-blown off most anything that looked interesting to ski off-piste by the morning after it snowed.

I don't think Cervinia even does a good job with overnight grooming because pretty much every run slicked up really fast early in the day even before temps hit close to, or above, freezing. I saw virtually nobody on the off-piste slopes. Many on-piste skiers like to go VERY fast zooming among the crowd, so with one trail option in many spots it got pretty hairy. We didn't even want to stop on the trail sides for fear of getting run over.

At Valtournenche, it was also the case that the upper-most chair and gondola on the lower half of the mountain only had one run down from each, which is probably 2/3 of the total vertical there. That said; Valtournenche had a GREAT restaurant near the bottom called the Foyer des Guides, and was very worth hitting. The top half of Valtournenche actually seemd to have more interesting looking off-piste than Cervinia, but we didn't even consider trying it because it was heavily crusted.

We stayed at an area above town with its own (slow double) lift called Cielo Alto. It's really the only treed skiable area in Cervinia so would be the place to go in white-out storm conditions.

We took two days going over to Zermatt. The wind didn't seem to affect the new snow as much as Cervinia and I can only surmise that the winds howl down from the north into Cervinia more than into Zermatt's terrain, but our "sample size" was limited so it could be different other times. The snow line was far above town so you were limited there to the few piste options. We did find a nice area of powder high up, off the upper-most chair below the east flank of the Matterhorn (between the Matterhorn and the main glaciered summer-skiing area).

The bottom line after just one day in Les Arcs is I wouldn't go back to Cervinia. The food was great and the scenery was spectacular, but we were there to ski The terrain here at Les Arcs is far more interesting, it's spread out and there's so much off-piste that we're salivating at the prospect of new snow around next weekend.

 

[ChrisC]

Bryan from Solitude said that I could post this summary describing his Chalet Etoile experience:

In the last Cervinia TR, there are pics with a mention of Chalet Etoile as maybe the best on-slope eatery in the world, so I wanted to check it out. We finally had lunch there and it sucked. The pasta with shrimp was just barely passable and a small portion. Pasta with lobster had a few pieces of carcass and a claw. It was overcooked so you couldn't even crack it open. Pasta wasn't even hot and, again, a small portion (sorry, I didn't take pics). That said; it WAS priced like the best on-slope eatery in the world.


That's surprising. I had excellent, high-quality experiences that could justify a top slopeside restaurant at prices well below those in Zermatt.

I have eaten there twice: 1. sit-down restaurant (April they opened the terrace / outside deck) and 2. self-service takeaway (a much smaller subset of menu items - you can see what is being prepared, it is cheaper, and no reservations). I don't have photos of the meals, but the portions were fine. The walk-up is an outstanding value - you are notified when ready/or served hot at the cashier.

Overall, I would be less likely to order seafood in the mountains and go with something more local and heartier: mushrooms, pork, deer, boar, ossobuco. However, the Alps are not too far from the sea; if it's on the menu, it should be done well.


Part of Menu at Sit-Down from Tripadvisor 2022
LINK

Self-Service/Bistro Menu 2023 (note cheaper prices, everything <$20)

However, I often skip over restaurants in the Alps due to time and $ (I would rather have a guide) despite longer lift hours. I have eaten at several 'note-worthy' restaurants at Zermatt-Cervinia and Courmayeur. Standard French restaurants at Val d'Isere, 3 Vallees and Chamonix - with Plat du Jours are fine. I order lots of Goulasch soup for quick and inexpensive fare in Austria/and W Switzerland - only so much Rosti one can handle.

Some ideas - lots of other lists.

SUITCASE Magazine | Perfect Piste Stops: the Best Mountain Restaurants in Europe

suitcasemag.com

I prefer Switzerland's self-serve high alpine mountain huts - Verbier, Crans-Montana, and Corvatsch have some standouts. Even the hut at the top of La Grave is solid.

 

[ChrisC]

Final wrap-up from Bryan about Cervinia (he's now at Les Arcs):

We had two weeks in Cervinia with a few days over in Zermatt and in Valtournenche. Granted, it only snowed a few nights a few cm at a time and there was a freeze-thaw most nights, so the conditions played a role in our disappointing outing there; however, many of the lifts had only one or a few on-piste options from their tops so everyone funneled down the same trail or trails. This included most of the upper gondola on the eastern end of the resort and also from the upper tram at the top-most point before you go over to Zermatt. Things got slick really fast. The little new snow we did get was wind-blown off most anything that looked interesting to ski off-piste by the morning after it snowed.

Cevinia, by itself, is not one of my favorites in the Alps (likely towards the bottom along with Les 2 Alpes [good snow, but weird layout], Morzine/Les Gets [too low in elevation], etc.) Connected to Zermatt - it's great for a day or two (or afternoon) - as an Italian add-on. I would not stay 3 days there, let alone 2 weeks.

Some of my reasoning mirrors your friends:

• The exposure of Cervinia is South & West, and pistes can suffer about halfway down despite the high altitude.
• Off-piste is a bit underwhelming for its size, primarily due to a giant ravine and reservoir dividing the area lower down.
• Grooming is confined to 1-2 pistes - but this is true for all the Alps. (Intermediates might not be as well-served as in the US, with multiple runs per lift.)
• Winds. There are a lot of videos of Cervinia's lifts blowing in the wind. Think your friends were there during one of the more significant wind events - saw some videos online. Links to Zermatt can go down during the winter months.
• Few trees for storm days.
• Most pistes are on the easier side.

 

[ChrisC]

I could not figure out the off-piste areas to ski - it's not apparent, and no one writes about it.

Post in thread 'Europe 24/25'

Mar 2, 2025

Finally, I found some off-piste Cervinia freeride maps by local Italians. Never knew where any of the lines were since there are not many written guides describing Zermatt-Cervinia.

Cervinia - Plateau Rosa / Testa Grigia

• ChrisC

 

[Tony Crocker]

This is a classic example of small sample size of conditions driving impressions. Liz has the opposite view considering the blue sky powderfests we had at Cervinia coming over from Zermatt half a day in 2014 and on a full day staying there in 2018.

a giant ravine and reservoir dividing the area lower down.

The was so much snow in January 2018 that ravine was my end of day 4,000 vertical powder run.

I could not figure out the off-piste areas to ski - it's not apparent, and no one writes about it.

The north slope skier's right off the Plateau Rosa piste was rather obvious to me in 2014, though I took a lot of from former admin about its avalanche potential. I would not argue that there is a ton of off piste, but since Cervinia is mostly an intermediate area there's enough to fill up a powder day since it's not competitive.

Obviously we were lucky while sbooker and Bryan had adverse experiences.

 

[ChrisC]

The north slope skier's right off the Plateau Rosa piste was rather obvious to me in 2014, though I took a lot of from former admin about its avalanche potential. I would not argue that there is a ton of off piste, but since Cervinia is mostly an intermediate area there's enough to fill up a powder day since it's not competitive.

Agree. That is the most apparent off-piste choice.

My UK MBA friends have been skiing at Easter School in Cervinia for a few days. It's an obvious choice since his wife is Italian (Sardinian), and the sun is as important as snow to her. (Note: I did use the High Camp pool at Squaw Valley with her during March Spring breaks). However, I have not gone since COVID unless Monterosa also looks good.


I don't like putting places in "bad/do not return" lists, but here are a few I will not return to (from my ski areas list):

Ski Area / Experience*	Continent	Country	Region
Chamonix - Les Houches	Europe	France	Haute Savoie
Les 2 Alpes	Europe	France	Southern Alps
Cervinia	Europe	Italy	Aosta Valley
Via Lattea - Sauze D'Oulx	Europe	Italy	Piedmont
Jungfrau - Grindlewald-First	Europe	Switzerland	Berner Oberland
Davos - Rinerhorn	Europe	Switzerland	Graubünden

Even Portes du Soliel is a strong offering with decent snow below 1500-2000m.



And Cervinia is improving - the 'Progetta" area (right) is now a HS 6-pack lift. Likely the best north-facing runs and off-piste.

Interesting that Cervinia wants to put S3 Style lifts up the center to Zermatt. Those were getting a bit old and outdated from the 1980s.