LIBERTY AND LENZERHEIDE: Powder in the Swiss Alps

Alex Applegate

For more photos from Lenzerheide go HERE.

Laax is a barely a memory to me—a Jagermeister and beer induced blur of broken glass, flat light, vomit and German men dancing in their underwear in cramped bunk containers. But in my defense, I was there less than 24 hours after spending almost that long on a Swiss version of Planes, Trains and Automobiles where the cognac and vodka was free and the booze car sold kingers of Heineken and even when I mistakenly got off at the wrong bus stop, I found myself at a barbeque outside a skateboard shop.

After less than a day, I was piled into a turbo diesel Volkswagon Toureg with gear stacked three feet high on the roof. While I was hardly disappointed to be leaving, I was, however, a little apprehensive about our next destination. Laax is famous throughout the ski world for hosting world-class freestyle events and maintaining one of the best park systems in Europe. Lenzerheide, on the other hand? Never heard of it.

That we were heading there at all, in fact, was somewhat of a fluke. This small village was not on the list of destinations my hosts at Liberty Skis had in mind when planning this junket. Rather, we were shuffled here by the folk at Swiss Tourism who helped put the trip together. But what a fortunate twist of fate it turned out to be.

The town on Lenzerheide sits in a narrow valley with ski lifts crawling up both sides. The crown jewel is the Rothornbahn cable car, which rises to the 2865-meter summit of Rothorn, a craggy massif with narrow, rocky couloirs snaking off it. The terrain continues down the ridge, where several cirques offer smaller chutes. It’s the type of place you’d expect to be overrun with Scandinavian pros. But the vibe is decidedly low-key. A surprise Easter snow squall blew in over 8 inches into the tight chutes of Lenzerheide, and there were only a handful of other skiers getting after the aggressive lines.

We have two more days to explore this place, including a valley that drops between Lenzerheide and Arosa that we hope to explore tomorrow. Until then, check out a few shots of the Sons of Liberty, David Lesh and Alex Applegate, taken Monday at an unknown gem of a ski hill called Lenzerheide.

For more photos from Lenzerheide go HERE.

Alex Applegate