India Voyages » How to Learn to Skiing

There are two ski schools and three snowboard schools with more than 200 qualified instructors who will teach you the ropes on their beginners slopes in Devos. Within three days one should be gliding down the mountains which have 315 km of ski slopes and 55 different ski lifts, chair lifts, cable cars and gondolas that compare well with the finest in the world. As in some ski resorts, the runs are patrolled by guards who will set the skier right side up if he happens to do a nosedive into a snowdrift. And if your toes have to be thawed, step into a mountain inn or tavern and fortify yourself with a jigger of kirsch, a skier advised us. These runs are also the mecca of cross-country skiers who schuss down the 75 km of prepared trails across stunning landscapes.

In addition to its unrivaled ski runs, Davos also boasts a truly magnificent open air ice rink with a sun roof and an ice stadium where hockey matches and exhibitions of international caliber are staged throughout the winter. Skaterswhirled, glided and collapsed beneath leafless trees while wool-hatted toddlers tooted on toy trumpets.

In summer the landscape is completely transformed into rolling green meadows dusted with colorful wildflowers and lazy cows. The ski runs give way to over 450 km of trekking and hiking trails and the Davos lake is once more an inviting pool of sparkling blue water ideal for sailing and swimming. Indeed winter and summer are so very distinct that Davos seems to be two different resorts at the same location. There are opportunities for para and hang gliding, playing tennis, squash and golf, visits to an alpine zoo and four museums, and embarking on rides in cable cars and gondolas up to mountaintop restaurants that gaze into the valley.

From Davos, the road leads over the Fluela Pass to Susch in the Engadine, a distance of 18 mi. Here the road rises gently, larch forests giving way to pine trees and then firs, and above the timber line, to a rocky desolate expanse. Then one is confronted by a sheer gorge flanked by enormous and vertical cliff faces, related a couple from Dallas whom we met in the course of our amblings. They raved about their ski instructor and his prowess and after 20 minutes of isn’t-this exciting-chuckles, we walked together down nameless trails turned into snow-draped goat tracks in winter.

But Davos was not always a holiday resort. It was a retreat for those ravaged by tuberculosis. The altitude and bracing climate and the setting, as close as you can get to paradise on earth, probably eased the suffering of the infirm.

Even today, Davos has a number of world famous clinics (including four for children). But now they are marketed as part of the total tourism package.

Like migratory birds we had obeyed an intuitive urge —not to go south but north—and had enjoyed a brisk white week in winter. The first sensation was the tingle of light, of being ensconsed in an endless white panorama, and the unforgettable sight of steep piney slopes ascending into the clouds. Wherever we went, we found that the train had beaten us to it climbing mountains at impossible angles or simply boring through them, and clinging to cliffsides like an iron leech. (Railway buffs can board the Bernina Express here and go on to Tirano and Lugano or hop on to the Glacier Express to Zermatt. And as the train corkscrews through the rock, watch, with a glass of glorious Graubunden wine in hand, the world go by your panoramic glazed windows!)

Whether on a train or outside it, nature’s power and spectacle were on blatant display here and something of Davos came to us duty-free. The icy glow of the snow... the pure essence of the jagged mountains... people smiling over foaming cups of hot chocolate as an exhausted evening sun freed itself of its cordon of clouds... snow crunching underfoot like shards of glass... the sun setting on large puddings of ice in a fiery burst of colors...

How and Where
Located 144 km from Zurich in the eastern corner of Switzerland, Davos is a little under a threehour train ride away from Zurich.

Two scenic trains chug into Davos: the Heidiland Berniana Express between Davos Tirano Lugano; and the Glacier Express, Davos Zermatt. From Davos one can embark on picturesque train rides.

Devos is both a sunner and winter resort replete with star hotels and even pension and bed and breakfast establishments. Today it is a holidays, sport, health, culture and congress center.

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