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Lying in the valley next to Zermatt, Saas-Fee is often overlooked, mostly because it doesn't have any train access. However, were it not for the Matterhorn next door, the array of peaks around Saas-Fee would be enough of a draw in themselves: the village is perched on a shelf of pasture at the base of a horseshoe of thirteen 4000m-plus peaks. Oozing out from between them is the giant Feegletscher - or Fairy Glacier - trickling its melt-water down through the village, and active enough in its various sectors to limit what would otherwise be spectacular skiing.
But the winter snow sports area in the Saas Valley with its more than 140 km of groomed pistes has something special for everyone: wide, smooth pistes for carvers, moguls pistes for experts, flat pistes for beginners.
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| | Custom Trip Quote to Saas Fee, Switzerland | | | | | | | | | |
Additional Information
Saas-Fee is one of four linked villages at the end of the Saas valley.With the opening of the new base tunnel through the L”tschberg on 9th of December 2007, the duration of the journey from the north of Switzerland into the Valais was considerably shortened. With the new junction at Visp the guests get an additional benefit of the reduced travelling time up to one hour. Buses from Visp pass through Stalden before branching off into the valley, passing first through Saas Balen, then Saas Grund, the main village on the valley floor; from here, a road branches up to Saas-Fee - which is car-free - while a few kilometers on down the valley is Saas Almagell.
From the entrance to Saas-Fee, several quaint lanes lead down (southwest) into the heart of the village, full of shops and some boutiques, but still with much character and charm. In winter, several lifts serve a handful of good blue runs at the bottom of the glacial bowl towering all around, but the main route up the mountain is via the Alpin Express, the highest underground funicular system in the world, which emerges at the top of the Mittelallalin (3500m). From here there are some good red and blue runs on the Feegletscher, the longer ones winding all the way back down to the village; summer skiing is also possible up here. Passes in the winter of 07/08 cost CHF 64/day, CHF 192/three days or CHF 362 for a week. The top station also boasts a giant ice pavilion (CHF 7 for adults, CHF 3 for children), with scholarly explications of the workings of glaciers. In winter 60 km of trails above the village remain open, in summer 350 km.
Throughout the village you may come across the name Zurbriggen on a number of shop signs; if the name sounds familiar, it's because Pirmin Zurbriggen, a local boy made good, was a downhill skiing world champion in the 1980s. Today, he owns a hotel in tiny Saas Almagell up the valley. |