Mountain Layout — Skiing

Here is a larger, more detailed map.

Here is an interactive Saastal trail map.

Here is an interactive Saas-Fee trail map.

Here is an interactive Saas-Grund and Saas-Balen trail map.

Here is an interactive Saas-Almagell trail map.

Saas-Fee’s nearly 100 km. of downhill trails are superbly divided between beginner, intermediate and expert. Absolute beginners start on the Saas-Fee town lifts, where they usually stay for about three days. Later they ski either the Plattjen lift or the Felskinn.

The first area to get the morning sun is the Spielboden/Längfluh. These runs are on good inter-mediate to expert terrain. From Längfluh down to the chair lift is intermediate country. If you ski past this middle station, get ready for the steep and narrow.

From the top of the Längfluh cable car there is a drag lift right on the glacier. This Feekatz lift connects the two main ski areas of Längfluh and Felskinn/Mittelallalin.

The Felskinn/Mittelallalin area is the most popular section of Saas-Fee’s trails. Two small lifts tow skiers from town to the lower station of the Felskinn cable car.

Once at the top of the Felskinn cable car, you’re whisked up another 1,600 feet on the underground Metro Alpin to Mittelallalin. Here, stop to enjoy the magnificent panorama of dozens of 13,000-foot peaks. Intermediates, and beginners brave enough to come this far, should traverse to the left, and experts should cross to the right, in front of the revolving restaurant. Skiers have a choice of doing several runs or heading back to the Metro Alpin underground and the Felskinn area.

To the left of the Felskinn cable car, a drag lift opens to a delightful smaller area—the Egginer. Strong intermedi-ates will be satisfied with the Egginerjoch lift.

The rest of the Felskinn runs crisscross under the ca-ble car back toward town. The area between the middle sta-tion and the top of the Felskinn is a beginner and intermediate playground. The drop back into the vil-lage steepens considerably, and experts have a challenge on the Kanonenrohr and Bach trails.

The final section of Saas-Fee’s ski domain, the Plattjen, catches the last of the day’s sunshine. This area is served by a long top-to-bottom six-person gondola. The gon-dola takes skiers up from town (5,910 feet) to Plattjen (8,430 feet), resulting in a run with a little more than a 2,500-foot vertical drop. There are uncrowded trails for all abilities.

One interesting point for anyone searching for a place to go summer skiing, the new lifts have opened 20 km. of slopes on the glaciers at 11,811 feet above sea level. Saas-Fee has constructed a year-round snowboarding park on its glacier complete with halfpipes, quarterpipes, rails, tables, gaps and a high jump for professionals.

Mountain rating
Experts will never complain about the runs at Saas-Fee. There’s enough black to make things interesting.

Intermediates may think that the lift network and trails were laid out with them in mind: most trails above Saas-Fee start with an intermediate or beginner stretch, often with the option of taking an expert plunge.

Beginners can work toward becoming advanced begin-ners on the Saas-Fee town slopes; then the slopes above the valley beckon.