"Swiss" Ski Season 2020/2021

Davos 

Winter 2020/2021 in Germany started with the lockdown linked to the Corona Pandemic 2.0. While for most people it was a disaster that the shops, restaurants, and hair salons were getting closed, for winter-sport enthusiasts the worst nightmare was the closure of the ski resorts in Germany, Italy, and France. Austria kept the ski resorts partially open but only for the locals. In previous seasons we were often going to Austria even for a day or weekend skiing, now it was impossible.

In December skiers and mountain-sport lovers still hoped for a later season-opening, and to be honest, I also hoped for it, it was just so difficult to believe that we were in lockdown since March 2020 and it was continuing into 2021. Just before the lockdown 2.0 we have booked the ski holiday in Austrian Schladming (Salzburger Land) for the new year celebration. When it was announced that Austria prolonged lockdown, we had moved it to two weeks later, then again to two weeks later. And then, we went to Switzerland. And just like that, the ski season 20/21 became “Swiss ski season”.

Switzerland has made a smart move during the pandemic. This is just my humble opinion, so no critics, please. Swiss cantons could autonomously decide if they wanted to keep ski resorts open or not. Thus most of the Swiss skiing stayed open during the winter season. Of course, there were hygiene measures in place (masks everywhere and in ski lifts), the restaurants and shops with exception of the supermarkets were closed, all the entertainment activities like concerts, celebrations, bars, and attending the sports events were not allowed. At the same time, some hotels stayed open, and they were offering meals to their guests. One always had a take-away option. With all that almost non-stop ski business, Switzerland had not higher Corona numbers than Germany..

On the mountains the restaurants were serving food only on the open terraces or offering take always. It was perfect! It was enough! I think that every obsessed with action in the snow person would agree that the most important among all the winter holidays perks was that ski lifts were running and there was a place to stay.

Thus, taking a risk and spending more money than usual on skiing I have skied in the winter of 2021 in Swiss Davos, Laax, and Arosa-Lenzerheide. And would like to remember here this experience skiing in these ski resorts.

Just to say here, normally I do not ski in Switzerland. Before 2021 I skied one weekend in St. Moritz, and that’s all.

It is more popular for the Germans or those who live in Germany to ski in Austria or Italian South Tirol, as it is more affordable and the infrastructure is quite good there. Generally speaking, I spent almost twice as much in Switzerland in comparison to skiing in Austria. One doesn’t need to be good at math to make a conclusion that instead of one week in Switzerland one can ski two weeks in Austria. The most difference is in the prices of the lift tickets, and food. The average price of the day ski pass in Austria is 55 euro, while in Switzerland 75. To the latest stats, Zermatt is the most expensive with ski pass costing 85 quid per day. Eating in restaurants was 2.5-3 times more expensive than in Austria. Just as an example of Gordon Bleu with fries costing 30 Fr (in comparison to 12 EUR here).

Anyways it was a great experience, I am grateful I could ski at all this winter, and I enjoyed and appreciated it much more than usual!

Thanks to this opportunity I have done 16 Alpine skiing days this season! In addition I have started practicing cross-country skiing and spent another 12 ski days on a bit different type of skis (but this is a different story for a new post ;)