5 Days in Flims Laax

Murschetg is the base the ski area was built around. The ticket office at the valley station is open daily from 8:00 to 16:30 in the high season, rocksresort and the signinahotel sit directly on the lifts, and the garage holds the cars of anyone who drives. The first lifts date from 1962, platter lifts up Crap Sogn Gion, and in 1967 an aerial cableway followed that was then the largest of its kind.

Today the Luftseilbahn LAAX carries you from the village up to Crap Sogn Gion, and a 12-seater gondola goes from Laax to Curnius. Rent equipment at LAAX Rental at the valley station and buy the pass online beforehand, because the shop prices move.

Crap Sogn Gion is Romansh for St. John's rock, which is a grander name than the place deserves. It's a gentle, wide, sunny shoulder at around 2,200 m, with no sharp peak, and that's exactly why it works as a ski and freestyle hub: wide slopes, long daylight and sun all day, because there's no tall mountain to the south.

Take your first runs on the blue and red slopes around Alp Dado to warm up, then look around. The terrace of Caffè NoName sits in the middle of the snowpark, and the Burton Test Center is here.

LAAX lists five snowparks, and this is the learning side of them. The beginner park between Crap Sogn Gion and Alp Dado has boxes, rails and small tables. Whoop De Doo, the newer one, has wave-shaped tracks that bring the feel of a pump track into the snow, and the resort rates it easy. Ils Plauns is the next step up, with rails, boxes and kicker lines, rated medium.

You don't have to be a freestyler to enjoy them. Roll through the beginner park once at slow speed, and look before you drop in.

Capalari is one of the restaurants the resort marks as open in winter, and its pitch is the recipes of the Tatta, the Romansh word for grandmother. It sits at Crap Sogn Gion, so it's the easy lunch after the learning parks. Order from the Graubünden side of the menu, such as barley soup or capuns. Prices on a Swiss mountain are high, so lunch with a drink easily reaches 40 CHF.

P60 is the long park run that LAAX regulars talk about, a full 1,000 m of rails, boxes, slides and pyramid walls with the Pro Kicker Line, four Olympic-size kickers, at the bottom. Snowpark NoName next to it holds the halfpipe called The Beast, which the resort gives as 220 m long, 22 m wide and 7 m high, and describes as the largest superpipe in Europe. It's free to ride with a normal pass.

If you're not riding the pipe, stand at the edge and watch for ten minutes. The LAAX OPEN, a FIS World Cup freestyle event, uses this area every January, and its snowboard finals are held at night in the lit pipe. In 2027 it runs from 13 to 16 January.

The long, easy way home from Crap Sogn Gion goes down piste 52 to Curnius, then piste 53 to Falera. The resort describes the run as a cozy descent from 2,552 m to 1,220 m, and it's a good shaky-legs last run. Curnius also has a chairlift back to the village, and it is the start of the Thursday night skiing on piste 64.

The Tegia Curnius is the hut that serves hot drinks and food at night skiing and night sledging. The chairlift from Falera to Curnius dates from 1974, and today it's a four-seater.

Casa Veglia, in the rocksresort, is one of the winter restaurants the resort describes in plain Swiss terms: fondue chinoise, thin slices of meat cooked in broth at the table, and hearty sides like Älplermagronen, the Alpine macaroni. It's at the base, so you can walk from your apartment or hotel.

The Riders Restaurant is the vegetarian and vegan option, and the Riders Lobby has live acoustic bands.

Crap Masegn is a junction, not a summit: the station stands on a fork between two ridges, where the cable car from Crap Sogn Gion meets the gondolas from Treis Palas and Fuorcla. In the cold light of the first morning lift, it feels like the middle of the mountains.

Stop for a coffee at Elephant Masegn Snacks 2477, which the resort lists as open in winter, then ride on to the glacier.

The Vorab is a double summit on the border of Graubünden and Glarus, and its glacier runs down the eastern face towards Flims. A gondola ends at the edge of the ice, and the T-bar from there is the way to the highest point of the ski area at 3,018 m. The resort's slopes page says to take the T-bar if you want that top, and the glacier is why the area has snow when the valley has none.

This is the Vorab massif of the Glarus Alps, part of the Tectonic Arena Sardona, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The black slope No. 35 from the Vorab glacier to Lavadinas is the resort's own pick of the most beautiful slopes in LAAX, and it carries a warning: the black slopes are not for everyone. It runs under the Bündner Vorab to a saddle and then down to Lavadinas over wide slopes that carve well.

With only 15 km of black piste in the whole area, this is the run to ride if you want something steep. If you don't, red piste 31 from Vorab-Fuorcla is the way back to the middle of the mountain.

The Vorab Restaurant at 2,570 m is the highest in the LAAX ski area, and it opens in winter. It is the lunch for a glacier day because it's on the way and has the view. Lavadinas, lower down, is the sunny insider tip for freeriders, a bar with a grill that serves soup, sausages and an Alpine hot dog, and takes cash only.

Keep lunch quick if the weather is changing, because the descent is long.

The yellow routes are LAAX's secured freeride lines, marked and controlled with avalanche blasting. Route 77 Pign, for example, starts at the saddle of the Lavadinas entrance, climbs about 80 m to a 2,900 m summit and drops 500 m in 1.3 km. Route 76 Uno starts at the La Siala mountain station and drops 500 m over 2.2 km.

They are not groomed and not patrolled like pistes. Carry a transceiver, a probe and a shovel, know how to use them, and check the day's avalanche bulletin, because blasting doesn't remove every risk. The Avalanche Training Center at Plaun lets you practice a burial search first.

The valley run from the La Siala mountain station to Flims is the one the resort advertises: red and blue piste No. 10, past the Sardona World Heritage Site to Segnes, then through forest to the village. You drop 1,710 m, which is a real day's skiing in one go.

Start early enough in the afternoon, because it's long, and check that the lower part is open.

The Legna Bar is the après-ski bar of Flims, with a big sun terrace directly at the valley station. It is where the valley run ends, which makes it the obvious first drink. The mood is skiers in boots, music and a terrace, not a club. Take the local bus back to Laax, free with a valid day lift ticket.

The FlemX is the gondola that runs from Flims up to Foppa, Startgels and Segnes, and on to Nagens Sura or Cassons. The valley station sits in the middle of Flims Dorf, and it is where the Flims-side ticket office, LAAX Rental and the Legna Bar all are. Beginners have the new Ami Sabi slope at Spalegna in Flims, where first turns are made on a blue run and the ten FIS rules are learned.

Foppa is where ski lifts began in Flims. The chairlift from the village started building on the day of the 1945 armistice, ran first on wooden masts because there was no steel in wartime, and opened on 17 December 1945. Local history calls it the first detachable chairlift in the world. Before that, guests were driven to Foppa on a tractor sledge.

Today Foppa has the Berghaus Foppa and the Ami Sabi snow wonderland for LAAX School guests. The slopes above are wide and sunny, with runs back to Flims on piste 10. It's a pleasant place to find your rhythm before the more serious runs.

The second stage of the old chairlift, Foppa to Naraus, followed in 1947, and Naraus is where the Flims ski area reaches into the forest edge above the village. The freeride route 70, Viwalti, finishes by the former Naraus traverse and rejoins piste 10 back to Flims, so this is also where the ski area changes from groomed to wild.

Berghaus Foppa is the mountain hut that feeds the sledging run and the night sledging evenings, and it's the easy lunch on the Flims side. Expect Swiss hut food, so ask for what comes from the kitchen's own pots, such as soup or a rösti.

Sledging on the 3 km Foppa to Flims run is a good family break from skiing. Sledge rental is CHF 12 and a sledging day ticket is CHF 45 for an adult. Night sledging, Tuesday and Saturday evenings from 6 to 9 pm, ran from 10 January to 14 March last winter.

You skied the bottom of piste 10 at the end of day two, so today it's just the way home, from Foppa in the late afternoon sun. The forest part suffers first on warm days, so in March go earlier. Then take the free bus to Laax if you sleep there.

Flims Waldhaus is the old resort district, where the grand hotels of the cure era stand in a park. The Waldhaus hotel opened in 1877 with a park of 200,000 square meters and still has a hotel museum, and the Schweizerhof opened in 1903. Nietzsche stayed at the Segnes und Post, the first hotel in Flims, for four weeks in the summer of 1873 and wrote enthusiastically about the baths in Lake Cauma and the whey cures.

Walk the quarter after dark and book dinner at a hotel restaurant ahead. It's calmer and more formal than the ski base, and the history of Flims is in its streets.

From Segnes the FlemX splits: one branch goes on to Nagens Sura, the other to Cassons. The Segnes station is at the edge of the Segnesboden, the high basin that is part of the Tectonic Arena Sardona, and it is where the Flims and Laax sides of the area meet.

If you are on the first lift, the Segnesboden in the low sun is the best view of the day. The Tectonic Arena is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because the rock layers here are folded and thrust, with older rock lying on top of younger, and the resort's winter guides explain it on snowshoes.

Cassons is the start of two of the resort's secured freeride routes. Route 70, Viwalti, leaves from the Cassons mountain station, crosses the wide ungroomed Cassons slope, then drops through light forest to piste 10 back to Flims, about 3 km and 800 m of descent. Route 71, Vivorak, runs close to the ridge, goes over a short steep section and a boulder field and ends at the Segneshütte, 2 km and 400 m, with a short climb at the end.

The old Cassons cable car opened in 1956 and ran until 2015, its masts were taken down in 2018, and the old summit station burned out that June. The FlemX branch takes its place.

The Segneshütte is one of the oldest mountain huts in the region, on the lower Segnesboden at around 2,100 m in the middle of the Tectonic Arena Sardona. You can sleep here, and at lunchtime it is the place to sit in silence in the sun after route 71.

It isn't on the groomed network: the way back is the FlemX from Segnes.

Berghaus Nagens at over 2,000 m is open in winter and offers rooms right on the slope, and the Freeride Base next to it is where patrollers talk about the snow and avalanche situation over coffee. If you plan to ride a yellow route tomorrow, ask here. It's also where you learn about morning avalanche blasting and closures.

The Stalla Alp Nagens, at 1,980 m in a renovated cowshed, serves Swiss specialties all year round, so it's a second lunch choice nearby.

The resort calls the sunny slopes of Nagens and Mutta Rodunda the ones for more athletic skiers, so the afternoon here is for laps. Route 73, Altes Trasse, starts at the Mutta Rodunda chairlift station, runs under the cable car and ends on piste 16, 1.3 km and 320 m down.

From Nagens you can cross over to Crap Sogn Gion, then ride piste 52 to Curnius.

On Thursdays the 6 km piste 64 from Curnius to Laax Murschetg is lit from 7 to 10 pm, and the Tegia Curnius and the restaurants in the valley feed you. Last winter it ran from 5 to 26 February, and the 2026/27 dates haven't been published, so if you come in January it may not be on. A night ticket was CHF 22 for adults.

The alternative is the lantern path, a winter walk from Falera to Laax village lit with 300 lanterns, which the resort groomed and lit Thursday to Sunday from 6 to 8 pm in earlier winters. Check which of the two is running this season.

Lake Cauma, Lag la Cauma in Romansh, is the jewel of Flims, a turquoise lake in a bowl of forest with a wooded island. In summer it's crowded with swimmers. In winter it's the opposite: admission is free once the bathing season ends and the boats are gone. The forest sits on the debris of the Flims rockslide, the largest known landslide in the Alps, about 10,000 years ago.

The walk from Flims Waldhaus through the forest takes about 30 minutes and is buggy-friendly. The Ustria La Cauma restaurant is open all year, but evening tables need a reservation.

Il Spir is the viewing platform on the edge of the Rhine Gorge, designed by the Chur architect Corinna Menn and opened in September 2006. It gives a 180-degree view of the Ruinaulta, which the tourist office calls the Swiss Grand Canyon: a 14 km canyon the Rhine cut through the rockslide debris. It's the one gorge platform that is open all year, and you can walk there from Flims Waldhaus in around 45 minutes on a pram-friendly trail.

Conn, the restaurant just before it, took part in the winter culinary trail on Fridays to Mondays last winter, with capuns, pear ravioli and barley soup on the menu. Check its days before you walk out.

Ustria La Cauma by the lake serves regional dishes with a Mediterranean touch all year, and it doesn't need an admission ticket. If you prefer to eat in Chur, skip this and take an early bus.

The winter culinary trail (Fridays to Mondays last winter, CHF 75) is the organized version.

Chur is the capital of Graubünden and is reputedly the oldest town in Switzerland, with a car-free old town and a cathedral. It is 21 km from Flims, about 30 to 40 minutes by PostBus, with several buses an hour on weekdays and the last ones from Flims leaving after 11 pm. The Rhaetian Museum is in the old town.

Verdict: Chur is the better choice when the weather is bad, because you can go indoors. If it's good, the lake and the gorge are the better use of the day, and Chur is only the evening.

Chur is the best place to eat the Graubünden canon in one sitting: capuns, barley soup, Bündnerfleisch and a slice of walnut tart. Pick any restaurant in the old town that cooks them and has them on the menu, and ask whether the capuns are made fresh.

If you'd rather skip Chur at night, the signinawellness spa at the rocksresort is the standard end to a ski week, with a 25% discount at the Riders Hotel and the rocksresort for hotel guests. Check the hours and booking rules at reception.

Buses between Chur and Flims run into the late evening (a Monday in January had Flims to Chur departures until 23:23), but check the return times on the SBB app before you stay out.