I’ve had the Val d’Anniviers on my radar for some skiing for quite a while now. We’ve explored the area a little on bikes and got the feeling that there had to be some great skiing during the winter. So, when I got the chance to go there just after the new year I jumped on it.
The Val d’Anniviers is a bit like a hidden valley in Switzerland. The Post Auto connections are not quite as regular as you would get for other resorts and it’s quite a way up the valley from Sierre to get to the resorts of Grimentz, Zinal or St. Luc. This seems to keep a lot of day trippers away and leave the resort to overnighters and locals. While we were there I would consider the resort to have been moderately crowded, but still nowhere close to how resorts like Engelberg, Flims/Laax or Verbier can be given similar conditions.
We stayed in the Piste Rouge complex in the duplex apartment rented by www.luxurygrimentz.com. The apartment was a perfect place to base our trip. Finished in 2012 to a very high standard, fully kitted out inside with everything you can think of and only a two minute walk from the lift station in Grimentz and 4 mins to the bus stop to Zinal. As soon as we got settled in the place had a feeling of home from home.
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| The view from the back of Roc d’Orzival |
Those of us that arrived early on the first day spent some time getting familiar with the resort and skiing/boarding some of the “in-bounds” freeride routes. We warmed up on the Abondance run from Roc d’Orzival down towards Bendolla and then checked a few options for getting powder in between the pistes and taking opportunities to look out the back of the resort to get an idea of the terrain for future planning.
When the rest of our group arrived and got settled in it was time to sit around the table in our apartment with the maps and the Avalanche bulletin and make some plans for the following day. We decided to take an early bus to Zinal and check out the official freeride area there. Despite the area being officially “closed” we found it heavily tracked out, but with a bit of effort we still managed to find some fresh lines to keep us smiling.
After lunch we took a run off the back of Zinal down towards Lac de Moiry. Here we found only a handful of tracks ahead of us and a perfect open powder field taking us the 600m descent down to the lake. Once at the lake we crossed the dam and took dropped down to the road which brought us back to Grimentz where we got a drink to celebrate a great day and then went back to poke our heads into some maps to plan the next days adventures.
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| Playing in the Freeride area in Zinal |
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| Playing in the Freeride area in Zinal |
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| Looking down to Lac de Moiry |
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| Skiing beside the dam at Lac de Moiry |
We had made an ambitious plan for our third day in Grimentz. We had planned to take the lifts up to Roc d’Orzival and then descend to Col du Tsan before skinning up the ridge towards Roc de la Tsa. We had planned a route down from that ridge that we thought should be safe on paper. The plan was then to skin up to Col de la Brinta before desending to St. Jean. When we got to the Col do Tsan we could see that the slope we had planned to ride was heavily wind loaded with a big cornice on one side of the ridge, we thought about taking a Couloir down onto the face that might have been a safer option but in the end decided it was wiser to knock that route on the head and instead dropped off the back of Roc d’Orzival and just ski down to St. Jean. The snow was great off the back of Roc d’Orzival with surprisingly few tracks for something that is directly lift accessed. It was quite warm that day and the last few sections before we were skiing spring snow which was really fun.
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| Dropping in behind Roc d’Orzival |
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| Dave playing in the couloirs behind Roc d’Orzival |
Our fourth day was once again directly lift accessed. This time we choose a flat route to bring some friends along who were new to skiing powder. This route was accessed with about a 5 minute hike from the top of the lift and once again had only a handful of tracks ahead of us.
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| Untracked powder! |
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| More untracked powder. |
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| Isn’t this what every skier dreams of!? |
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| Sometimes we did have to cross an occasional track! |
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| Grimentz really is a playground for skiers and snowboarders. |
Our last day in Grimentz came all to quickly and this time we decided to get the skins out. We dropped off the back of Col de Louché and down to point 2641. (Perfect snow conditions and again only about 15 tracks ahead of us!) Then we put the skins on and skinned up to Col de la Tsevalire and on to the summit of Pointe de la Tsevalire (we had to deposit the skis and go to the very top on foot). The views from the summit were stunning and provided us with a perfect backdrop for our last day in Val d’Anniviers.
The apartment we stayed in is available to rent though the website www.luxurygrimentz.com. From time to time the owner will offer discounted rates to Swiss Alpine Adventure group members. If he does I can strongly encourage you to use the opportunity check the area out. I don’t think you will be disappointed. The last I heard they had availability from the 12th of January. If you are looking for a last minute break it could well be worth it.
For those of you who may have a property in another ski area and would like to check out Grimentz or other ski areas this apartment is also available on www.alpinehomeswap.com. Alpine Home Swap are offering substantial membership discounts to SAA members who join their site. Check it out if you’ve got a property in a ski area yourself.
Disclaimer: Many of the routes we describe here and the pictures were taken on unsecured routes outside of the resort. Unless you are well versed in avalanche safety and fully equipped with avalanche transceiver, shovel and probe I would not encourage you to do these routes without a qualified mountain guide.
(c) All picture copyright Swiss Alpine Adenture or Arno Lenzi.
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