Like most of my discoveries in the Alps, I learned about the Val d'Anniviers region through numerous positive trip reports on Alpinforum that extolled the lift-served and lift-assisted freeride terrain. In a bit of "be careful what you wish for," I arrived during a multi-day storm cycle so a bit more than half of my eight-day visit to the canton of Valais was marked by poor visibility. While that was my overriding memory of the trip, looking at the TRs several years later, it actually wasn't quite that bad as I scored 3.5 bluebird days.
This was the best online map I could find of the two areas; however, it must be from a dozen or so years ago because you don't see the tram that goes from the village of Grimentz to mid-mountain at Zinal. To give you an ideal of scale, they're about the same general footprint as Alta and Snowbird -- two ski areas separated by a ridge/valley -- but with more vertical. If you ski all the way to the base villages, Zinal has 4,300 verts and Grimentz has 4,700.
Zinal
With virtually all of the terrain except the valley runs being above treeline, it was often tough going despite the excellent conditions -- often feeling like black and white TV. Thus, I had to edit most of the photos below to brighten them, adjust the contrast, pump up the color, and rotate them slightly because most were askew due to slight vertigo. If I'd been at a North American ski area (with trees more or less to the top), this would've been a nice calf-deep quasi powder day; however, with the flat light, it was challenging at times.
The life of a destination skier: going out on days when a local would've stayed home.
Looking across the ridge:
Here's what it looks like on a sunny day:
Heading down through a nice chute with numerous other narrow shots in the background:
I followed these two on a couple runs through light chop that skied nicely:
Some nice turns when it cleared up a bit:
Mid-afternoon, heading down to Zinal on a long valley run where visibility improved toward the bottom:
Nicely pitched right to the bottom:
- Days 1 and 2 at locals joints Nax/Mont Noble and Evolène + Arolla
- Days 3 and 4 at Anzère (storm day) and Vercorin (excellent tree skiing)
- Day 5 and 6 at Zinal and Grimentz
- Day 7 at St. Luc/Chandolin on a perfect bluebird day
- Day 8 at Thollon les Mémises with stunning views of Lake Geneva
This was the best online map I could find of the two areas; however, it must be from a dozen or so years ago because you don't see the tram that goes from the village of Grimentz to mid-mountain at Zinal. To give you an ideal of scale, they're about the same general footprint as Alta and Snowbird -- two ski areas separated by a ridge/valley -- but with more vertical. If you ski all the way to the base villages, Zinal has 4,300 verts and Grimentz has 4,700.
Zinal
With virtually all of the terrain except the valley runs being above treeline, it was often tough going despite the excellent conditions -- often feeling like black and white TV. Thus, I had to edit most of the photos below to brighten them, adjust the contrast, pump up the color, and rotate them slightly because most were askew due to slight vertigo. If I'd been at a North American ski area (with trees more or less to the top), this would've been a nice calf-deep quasi powder day; however, with the flat light, it was challenging at times.
The life of a destination skier: going out on days when a local would've stayed home.
Looking across the ridge:
Here's what it looks like on a sunny day:
Heading down through a nice chute with numerous other narrow shots in the background:
I followed these two on a couple runs through light chop that skied nicely:
Some nice turns when it cleared up a bit:
Mid-afternoon, heading down to Zinal on a long valley run where visibility improved toward the bottom:
Nicely pitched right to the bottom:
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