Winter in Valais

This is a region defined as much by its history as its altitude: cogwheel railways built before the turn of the last century, glaciers that have shaped travel routes for centuries, and a culture proud enough of its Hérens cattle that their springtime combats de reines draw crowds the way bullfights do elsewhere. In winter, that same character shows up differently – in raclette shared at altitude, in first tracks on pristine groomed pistes, and in resorts that still feel like historic villages first, ski areas second.

Over eight days we moved through six regions of the canton, testing every way there is to get up and down a Swiss mountain in January.

ALETSCH ARENA

The car-free villages of Riederalp, Bettmeralp, and Fiescheralp sit on a sun-drenched plateau above the Rhône Valley, looking straight down onto the Great Aletsch Glacier – the largest glacier in the Alps.

HIGHLIGHTS

Skiing & the Moosfluh Viewpoint
Wide, sunny, mostly blue-and-red runs make Aletsch Arena an easy, joyful place to find your ski legs again. The real draw here is the view from Moosfluh: the glacier sprawled below, sparkling under fresh snow, with a chairlift engineered to literally shift its alignment each season as the ice slowly retreats beneath it.

WHERE TO STAY

Hotel Alpfrieden, Bettmeralp
A charming, family-run hotel sitting in the heart of the car-free plateau, with ski-to-door access, half-board dining, and a restaurant that draws guests back long after their lift pass has expired.

WHERE TO EAT

Traditional Cholera at Bättmerhitta
No visit to the Upper Valais is complete without cholera – not the illness, but a hearty, historic dish of potato, cheese, apple, and pastry that was created during the time of the disease outbreak to make best use of pantry ingredients. Steffi’s wooden alpine hut, Bättmerhitta, is the perfect place to try it, cooked the way it has been made here for generations.

SAAS-FEE/SAASTAL

Saas-Fee sits at the head of the Saas Valley, a car-free village surrounded by glaciers that have drawn climbers and explorers for well over a century. Visitors park at the large parking garage on the village outskirts and move through the village on foot, by electric taxi, or on the free shuttle bus to the ski area.

HIGHLIGHTS

Glacier Snowshoeing & Ice Climbing
If you fancy a day away from the piste then this is for you. With the Saas-Fee Guides, walk out from the piste onto the glacier itself, roped and harnessed, past crevasses that the guides navigate with practised precision. The reward: a wall of blue glacier ice, ready to climb on crampons and ice axes at high altitude. The colours alone – blues, whites, and greys blending through thick ice – are worth the effort. There are also options to book a glacier tour without the climbing element.

Ice Climbing World Cup & European Championships

One of the more unlikely venues anywhere: a ten-storey car park in the centre of the village, its central column transformed into a vertical climbing arena. Watching the speed-climbing finals here, under lights and to a packed crowd, is one of the most memorable sporting spectacles in the Alps.

WHERE TO STAY

Revier Mountain Lodge, Saas-Fee
Opened in January 2025, the Revier is a contemporary cabin-style hotel right in the centre of the village, with 82 rooms built around natural wood, panoramic windows, and a lively bar. One of the best-positioned bases in Saas-Fee.

WHERE TO EAT

Saaser Stube
A classic Saas Valley restaurant with a warm, wood-panelled interior and a menu that leans into alpine tradition without being formulaic. The centuries-old larch ceiling was rescued from old granaries and sets an atmosphere that’s hard to manufacture.

ZERMATT & GORNERGRAT

A day given over almost entirely to one of the great railway journeys in the Alps, and one of its most storied mountains.

HIGHLIGHTS

The Gornergrat Railway
Opened in 1898, this was Switzerland’s first electric cogwheel railway – a feat of high-alpine engineering that climbs nearly 1,500 vertical metres from Zermatt to a summit platform with uninterrupted views of the Matterhorn, the Monte Rosa massif, and many of the Alps’ highest peaks.

Winter Hike: Rotenboden–Riffelsee–Riffelberg
An hour-long walk down from Rotenboden station through snow-quiet alpine terrain, with the Matterhorn rarely out of view and the frozen Riffelsee in the foreground.

WHERE TO EAT

Lucy Walker Stube, Riffelhaus 1853
Named after Lucy Walker, who in 1871 became the first woman to summit the Matterhorn – a fact the restaurant marks proudly with her dresses and mountaineering gear on display. The food is excellent, and the view of the mountain she climbed from the dining room window is difficult to improve on.

LEUKERBAD

Set above the village, the Torrent ski area trades crowds for space – wide, sun-drenched slopes with reliable snow and commanding views over the Valais Alps.

HIGHLIGHTS

Torrent Ski Area
Long carving runs, gentle pistes, and a handful of more demanding descents, all reached by the Torrentbahn gondola from the centre of the village.

Velogemel
A wooden bike-sled hybrid – no wheels, no brakes, just runners and a feel for steering – invented by Christian Bühlmann in Grindelwald in 1911 and still made there today. Leukerbad’s dedicated velogemel route is one of the few places in the region where visitors can try it, and its definitely as much fun as it looks.

Gemmi Bahn & Daubensee
A historic cableway up to the Gemmi Pass – once a trading and pilgrim crossing between Valais and Bern – now a high-altitude plateau with a gentle 4km circular walk around the crystal-clear Daubensee, with views stretching across both the Valais and Bernese Alps.

WHERE TO STAY

Römerhof, Leukerbad
A well-run hotel in the centre of Leukerbad, a short walk from both the Torrentbahn and the Alpentherme thermal baths. Friendly, attentive, and well placed for both ski days and thermal evenings.

WHERE TO EAT

Rinderhütte
Perched at 2,350 metres in the heart of the Torrent ski area, Rinderhütte is a natural mid-mountain stop – rösti, alpine cheese, and a sun terrace with views over the Valais four-thousanders that make it hard to get back on skis.

NENDAZ

At the heart of the vast 4 Vallées ski area, Nendaz is a place built for big mountain days – and for testing your nerve afterwards.

HIGHLIGHTS

Ski the 4 Vallées & Mont Fort
With 410km of pistes spread across four valleys, the 4 Vallées is the largest ski area in Switzerland. Mont Fort’s summit, at 3,330 metres, looks out over more than twenty peaks above 4,000 metres – the Matterhorn visible among them. Reason enough to make the climb even without skis on.

The Mont 4 Zipline
The highest zipline in the world – 1,400 metres long, 383 vertical metres of drop, launched from the summit of Mont Fort and flown over the Tortin glacier at speeds above 100km/h. It is a claim the mountain makes confidently, and it is not hard to believe once you are standing at the top.

WHERE TO STAY

Hôtel Nendaz 4 Vallées & Spa
A four-star superior hotel at the heart of Haute-Nendaz, with 62 rooms decorated in natural wood and regional slate, and a 2,200m² spa inspired by the region’s historic bisse irrigation channels. The ski lifts are a short walk from the door.

WHERE TO EAT

Snowshoe & Raclette Evening
A night-time snowshoe hike through the forest, ending at a wood fire where a wheel of raclette is melted the old-fashioned way and served with bread and local wine in the snow. One of the finest meals on the trip – and one of the simplest.

RÉGION DENTS DU MIDI

Champéry is perfectly placed within the Portes du Soleil – the largest international ski area in the world, with 600km of pistes spread across twelve resorts straddling Switzerland and France.

HIGHLIGHTS

Ski Safari: Portes du Soleil
Cross from Switzerland into France and back again without a border in sight – marked only by a small sign on the piste and a buzz from your phone as your service area changes. And, for the bold/adventurous/slightly crazy, Le Mur Suisse offers a 331-metre extremely steep decent on a slope approaching 40 degrees.

Rando-Parc, Morgins
The first ski touring park of its kind in Valais, the Rando-Parc in Morgins offers waymarked touring routes of varying difficulty through quiet forest and open alpine terrain – a world away from the groomed pistes below. Skinning up through the trees in January, you earn every turn you make on the way down.

The Fantasticable, Châtel
A zipline flown prone and face-first – suspended horizontally in a harness – at speeds approaching 100km/h and up to 140 metres above the mountain pastures of Plaine Dranse. Accessed via skis on the Swiss side, you literally fly over to the French side of the Portes du Soleil, it’s a fittingly theatrical end to a day that unites borders.

WHERE TO STAY

Hôtel Le White, Champéry
A sleek, contemporary four-star hotel at the entrance to the village, with direct access to the Croix-de-Culet cable car and unobstructed views of the Dents du Midi peaks. Clean lines, natural materials, and a wellness area that earns its place after a long day on the mountain.

WHERE TO EAT

Café du Nord, Champéry
A village restaurant with the kind of unpretentious, welcoming character that suits the end of a long ski day – and the end of a long trip. Good food, no theatre.

Le 42, Hôtel Le White
The hotel’s own restaurant, with a terrace view of the Dents du Midi and a menu that leans into refined alpine cooking. A fittingly comfortable place to draw the curtain on the trip.

Valais in winter rewards anyone willing to move through it rather than simply ski it: a railway built before electricity was common, a cattle culture as proud as any in the Alps, a zipline that holds a genuine world record, and a glacier large enough to have shaped the valleys long before any of it existed. Eight days here barely scratches the surface.