Comparing Skiing in Europe to the U.S.
From the moment I first clicked into my skis, I was captivated by the breathtaking scenery and the adrenaline rush of carving down a mountain. While my friends and family would forfeit to the cold and go to the lodge for lunch, I would stay on the slopes, fueling up with a granola bar on the lift. I grew up skiing mostly in Pennsylvania, but as I got older I was lucky enough to travel to bigger and better resorts out west. The moment I got the chance to ski out west, it felt like heaven on earth compared to the icy, crowded conditions of the East Coast.
This past weekend I had another amazing ski experience different from both the West and East coast of the U.S. Before even arriving at the ski resort, I knew the Alps would offer an entirely different world from what I’m accustomed to in the US. As we neared the resort, the regional train weaved through the valleys of the giant mountains that make up the alps. When we finally stepped off the train, I did a 360 and It felt as if I were on another planet. When skiing in the US, scenic views often consist of vast open spaces with distant mountains, whereas in the Alps, you are entirely surrounded by massive, rugged peaks. But whether one prefers the expansive scenery of the mountains out west in the US or the feeling of being fully surrounded by giant mountains in the Alps is a matter of personal taste, I did find some unique features of skiing in the alps that were objectively good and bad. I personally found the Alps to be more appealing to ski, so I am going to start by highlighting the benefits that I experienced.
First of all I noticed that the ski pass that we purchased not only included the Arosa mountain, but it also included an adjacent mountain called Lenzerheide. When I looked at the ski map I immediately noticed how many runs that we had access to. In the US, ski resorts typically tend to be operated independently which usually means your skiing is confined to one area. In Europe, however, many ski resorts tend to offer interconnected ski areas spanning several villages or even countries (powder.com). Upon clicking into my skis at the top of the mountain, I noticed a long spanning gondola that takes skiers from the Arosa mountain all the way up to the Lenzerheide mountain. Although the idea of taking the Arosa-Lenzerheide gondola over the valley to discover another stunning mountain was enticing, we ended up exploring Arosa first because that was where we were staying. However, we skied Arosa until the lifts closed, and still were skiing fresh runs. This continued into the next day, when we also skied all day on Arosa. Although we didn’t get to experience the full perks of having access to two entirely separate ski areas, I can imagine that if we had a whole week trip it would have been far less repetitive than a week of skiing at a resort in the US.
Another benefit of skiing in The Alps is how much more affordable it was than in the US. I especially noticed this when my classmate texted me how much the ski lift passes were. A day of skiing in Arosa-Lenzerheide was around 85 euros, which may seem steep to non-skiers but keep in mind that this gives you access to two very large mountains in the Swiss Alps. Additionally, comparing this to ski lift passes in the US really stresses just how inexpensive this was. According to the booking site, HomeToGo: “the average daily U.S. ski lift ticket cost $198 last season. U.S. lift passes can exceed $300 a day, whereas, a lift pass in a European ski resort generally costs less than $100 a day”(MaisonSport.com). On top of the ski lift passes being relatively inexpensive, the ski rentals and nearby airbnb’s seemed to be much cheaper than their US counterparts.
However, one thing I felt was missing in The Alps was that there were little to no designated ski areas. In the US most ski resorts have ropes that span each run as a safety regulation to denote where you are allowed to ski. This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your skill level. Many advanced skiers enjoy going off the guided trail for the fresh, un-skied powder and for the thrill of dodging trees and rocks. However, if you are inexperienced and you go off trail into deep powder, I can assure you that in the best case scenario you will end up face first in the snow (the worst case scenario could involve unexpected cliffs). So to prevent new skiers from being able to claim that they didn’t know they were off trail, ski resorts in the US have ski patrol workers who keep an eye on the main runs to make sure you don’t duck under the rope. If you do choose to duck the rope, ski patrol is known to be very unsympathetic and take away your ski pass that you could have spent over $300 on. Although this rule often annoys skilled skiers in the US, it is certainly a reason for new skiers, who don’t yet know how to navigate a mountain, to prefer the US.
Another reason new skiers may struggle in the Alps is because the green trails that we Americans know to be easy, are no joke to new skiers in Europe. The easiest trails are usually the ones back to the base so that everyone of all skill levels can make it back to where they are staying. But the trail back to our airbnb involved turning between fairly steep moguls. I noticed many new skiers struggling on the run that was “easy” according to the map.
Weighing out all the pros and cons of skiing in the Alps, being someone who is more of an intermediate skier, I would say I strongly prefer skiing in the Alps to skiing back in the US (even west coast skiing in the US). I have been to many different ski resorts but I would confidently say that if flight distance weren’t a factor, there’s no mountain I’d rather revisit than the Swiss Alps.
– Jack G
Maisonsport. (n.d.). Cost break down: Is it cheaper to ski in Europe or the U.S.? Maison Sport. https://maisonsport.com/en/blog/cost-break-down-is-it-cheaper-to-ski-in-europe-or-the-u-s
Powder. (2023, November 14). Skiing in the U.S. vs Europe: What’s the difference? Powder. https://www.powder.com/ski-trips/skiing-us-vs-europe-differences
