Saas Fee’s glacier and its high, north-facing terrain above 2500m make it an ideal resort for a last blast ski or snowboard course. You can even go in summer. Warren Smith, the DMS&S ski skills editor (pictured), runs weekly five-day courses with his Ski Academy in Saas Fee from 9 July to 17 September. They are designed to build and develop skill and confidence to enable skiers to cope with all types of terrain. Down in the resort open air bars are delightful places to soak up the warm spring or summer sunshine while enjoying a spot of après. Other attractions // Charming traffic-free old village. // Spectacular scenery. // Powerful lifts whisk you quickly to the top. // Good off-slope facilities including a leisure centre.
THE AREA GETS AN AVERAGE OF OVER 10M OF SNOW A YEAR
Easy cruising Cervinia Italy
Cervinia’s slopes can be cold and bleak in early season but during March and April its high, gentle pistes come into their own. They reach almost 3500m with many above 2500m – the village itself is at 2050m. This high altitude, plus extensive snowmaking, guarantees good snow well into April. The pistes are ideal for stress-free intermediate cruising. They’re wide, well groomed, easy and long – around 8km with 1300m of vertical down to Cervinia and, if the runs are fully open, around 13km with almost 2000m of vertical to a lower village, Valtournenche. Other attractions // New panoramic cable car this season. // Great-value mountain restaurants. // Spectacular scenery includes Monte Cervino (aka the Matterhorn).
// Good place to take beginners. // one of Italy’s best terrain parks.
While Whistler is low the vertical is an impressive 1635m. This means that while you can expect rain at village level at times, you can also expect reliable late-season powder on the top half of the resort’s two mountains until well into April. This season, Whistler mountain is due to be open until 22 April, the linked Blackcomb mountain until 21 May and the Blackcomb glacier also opens for summer riding. The area gets an average of over 10m of snow a year – much more than Colorado resorts, for example, and for the past two seasons has received more than 15m. The top bowls on Whistler are vast and renowned for their go-anywhere terrain
and powder, and Blackcomb has some steeper ungroomed runs and chutes. To make the most of the slopes and find your way around, join a two-day clinic with extremely Canadian, which specialises in ski guiding and coaching in the steep and deep terrain. Other attractions // North America’s biggest ski area. // lots of intermediate cruising on groomers. // More spectacular than most North American resorts, with Alpine-type scenery.
// Attractive, modern and traffic-free resort with three main centres.
// lively après and good range of village restaurants.