St Moritz / Advanced ultimate Ski: Ski Resorts > Switzerland > St Moritz

St Moritz / Advanced

Though not an obvious destination for advanced skiers, around a third of St. Moritz's terrain is made up of black runs and there’s plenty of off-piste.

Though not an obvious destination for advanced skiers, around a third of St. Moritz's terrain is made up of black runs and there’s plenty of off-piste – some marked as itineraries, some strictly backcountry – that doesn’t get tracked as rapidly as in major off-piste destinations. There’s also a rewarding sense of scale – not just significant peaks, but good vertical drop and extensive coverage of whole mountain sides that can be as important to a group of strong skiers ripping across rolling red runs as the actual technical difficulty or degree of pitch.

Corviglia
Firmly in this category is the terrain above St. Moritz. South of the ridge running from Piz Nair towards Corviglia and on to Marguns, the only significant challenges are the off-piste chute – easily checked out from the cable car up – on the south face of Piz Nair and the relatively short Olympia black run back to town from Sass Runzöl. The higher terrain behind Piz Nair and over to Gluna has modest and easily-accessed off-piste to the side of the pistes, from Piz Schlattain either side of some rock bands, and skier's right from the top of the Gluna chair. There are also several black runs here, though nothing too tough.

Corvatsch
The smattering of black runs at Corvatsch are not the point either. Plenty of fresh tracks can be found between the piste but the highlight, with a guide, is the big descent from Corvatsch top station, which rapidly opens out onto a wide open north-west sloping face with great powder under the right conditions. It’s definitely not one to ski straight after a storm when a slab could take out the entire face with ease.

Diavolezza and Lagalp
Best of all, both on and off-piste, is the Diavolezza and Lagalp. Excellent snow – the base is over 2000m – and steep terrain all the way with several variants on both sides of the valley make this St. Moritz's expert playground. In both cases, the drawback is that a cable car rather than high speed chair is the only way back up, and at just under 1000m of descent, it’s long, but nevertheless all over too quickly. The short freeride itinerary to the Schwarze Hang, which branches off the black piste 6 halfway down from the Diavolezza is one of the toughest routes down, but the 10km Morteratsch itinerary is the real reason to come here on a fair day. Starting with a marked traverse across the Pers glacier to the Isla Persa bar and its stunning views, the descent of the Morteratsch glacier and valley has a backdrop of striking peaks including the 4,049m Piz Bernina.