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Engelberg / Off-piste
© copyright Penny Kendall
Titlis
The Laub: Engelberg’s most famous (though not necessarily best) stash. 1,120 vertical metres, north facing and immensely wide, it absorbs a lot of skiers before getting tracked out. Though it’s not exactly novice deep snow terrain, it’s a great place to work on your turns, with so much width to play with and a constant gradient the whole way down – what you might call ‘perfect pitch’. Access: from the top of the Rindertitlis chair follow red piste 4, traversing off the piste to the right to reach a large rock with ‘Laub’ painted on it and two big yellow signs warning that you’re leaving the controlled ski area. Beyond these signs and to the right of the rock, the view opens out and the route drops steeply away. You suddenly feel a long way from the confines of the piste, a sense enhanced by the spectacular view over the town, far below. The game among locals is to ski the Laub in one without stopping, and then to go back up and do it again. If you didn’t know what lactic acid was before trying this manouevre, you will soon. There’s a perfectly placed restaurant, the Ritz, marking the end of the descent, to skier’s right of two beginner draglifts. Admire your handiwork from the terrace before a skate and short walk through the forest, or a cheap shared taxi ride, back to the Gerschnialp lift station. If the snow’s good, make sure you ski the Laub while you have the chance: unlike most of the other routes, it starts relatively low and descends to around 1,300 metres so in warm weather the snow suffers towards the bottom.
Steinberg: the ‘Stone Mountain’ route runs from the top of the Klein Titlis to Trübsee, descending the glacier for 1,200 vertical metres. With a steep start, a multitude of options all the way down and a mixture of open pitches, narrow gullies and small rock faces, as well as some whopping crevasses, this is an adventure; there’s almost always sensational snow, particularly in the area known as ‘never-sun’. Access: from the top of the Rotair cable car at Klein Titlis, follow red piste 1a for a short distance, then drop off the piste to the left. At the other end as you emerge from the glacier, the route flattens onto the Trubsee plateau; head for the small Trubsee chair to return to the Stand cable car station.
Galtiberg: the big one – 2,000 vertical metres - from the Klein Titlis right down to the head of the valley floor, taking in every kind of terrain along the way. Good snow is needed for the final section to be in shape but the north and easterly aspect doesn’t get a lot of sun; much of the route is in a deep cleft overshadowed by frozen waterfalls and bulging rock buttresses. Access: from the top of the Klein Titlis take red piste 1 across to the top of the chair, staying high to reach the eastern face of the mountain from where the descent begins. The route emerges at the bottom of the Furenalp lift from where buses return to town.
Jochstock
Kleine Sulz: from the Jochstock to Alpstübli (Trübsee), down the east face of the Jochstock for 800 metres of vertical. Access: from the top of the Jochstock Express, dropping off the side of red 9 at the very top. Grosse Sulz: from Jochstock to Trübsee, 800m vertical. Access: from the top of the Jochstock Express, traverse onto the north face of the 3,000 metre peak Reissend Nollen before starting to descend, merging with the route of the Steinberg descent. Both of these routes require careful navigation through the plentiful rocky outcrops and cliffs; the reward is great snow with fewer skiers than elsewhere. Steintal: the ‘Stone Valley’ runs from the Jochstock to Engstlenalp, on the far (western side) of the Jochstock Express chairlift from the two red pistes. This relatively short, open descent - 600 m altitude difference – takes you to the foot of the Engstlenalp chairlift.
Compared with the extent of these big descents, the opportunity for significant ‘between the piste’ routes is marginal in the Trubsee/Titlis area, though there is scope to explore to the side of the Rotegg drag and the black run below.
Brunni
There’s more casual off piste on this side of the valley – there’s no glacier danger and the slopes are less steep so it’s perfect for finding your feet, or for when the weather has closed in. There are open bowls and meadows back to town as well as tree skiing, with routes to both sides of the red run down from Schonegg and minor variations to the sides of the black run that also departs from the top. The big route on this side is the Grunenwald, for which good snow cover to the valley bottom is required. The longest variation starts with a traverse from the top of Schonegg; alternatively, traverse behind the Brunnihutte where the toboggan run starts. There are options through the trees at mid mountain, followed by a route that heads north along the valley, dropping down to finish at Grunenwald train station, a request stop. The return ride to Engelberg is included in your lift pass. Route finding is the biggest challenge, in particular to avoid skiing the protected areas of forest; there’s a CHF 500 fine if you’re caught skiing there. Also to look out for, allegedly, are the farm dogs near the end of the run that may give chase. At that point, no slope can ever be steep enough…
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