Europe, Switzerland: The Longest Ski Slopes I

Every winter many of us ask themselves a question which mountains we should visit to make our trip pay off. By this we mean such ski slopes that would be in accordance at least with some of our criteria, an accommodation and a route wouldn’t ruin our wallets and would result in final joy from our vacation.

A universal advice or a guide where to ski in Europe don’t exist, thus everyone has his/her own tips for vacations for several seasons.

Many renowned alpine ski resorts offer all possible comfort one could wish. Remarkable hotels, wonderful nature and, particularly, endless tangles of ski slopes which, if connected, make more almost 30 kilometers of tracks!

In the positions from third to fifth are placed three Swiss ski resorts. Almost 16 kilometers long ski slope is waiting for you at Les Diablerets: Gletscher - Reusch that is located in Switzerland’s southwestern corner. A picturesque alpine village, Les Diablerets, lays in 1.160 meters above the sea level and it is a part of the Vaud Canton. Local ski resorts offers 125 kilometers of ski slopes in total and 45 cableways and ski tows. The longest slope is around 14-15 kilometers long, its elevation of 1.700 meters means you will pass along Les Diablerets-Oldensattel-Reuschech and some adventurists even prolong this route by taking an adrenalin track from Scex Rouge - the upper station of a cableway.

Almost 17 kilometers long ski slope has also a world-famous Zermatt ski resort that lays in the shadow of the mighty Matterhorn . Skiing is lifted to entirely different dimension in land where every from nearby 20 peaks is higher than 4.000 meters.

The third place also belongs to Swiss, i.e. Jungfrau /Schilthorn. The three peaks that dominate Mönch, Eiger a Jungfrau the area are the center of ski region that has one of the most diversified ski slopes and cross-country tracks in the Alps. The longest slope is 19 kilometers long and its elevation is 2.100 meters. We can find it between the stations Schilthorn and Lauterbrunnen.

The Jungfrau (3471 meters above the sea level) is well-known for the fact that there is the highest placed railroad station in Europe, Jungfraujoch. We will devote an article to its history and technical details of this unique railroad in the near future. We can only recommend you trip up to a lookout from which you can see the Aletsch Glacier. 

Which ski slopes are truly the longest? And how they compare with the Czech slopes or Slovakian slopes ? We will reveal the answers to you next week.  

Text: Jan Chaloupka

Photo: wikipedia commons: R.Zumbuehl, Steinmann, M.Lehmann