The Sunnegga Paradise is a

ski Skis are runners, attached to the user's feet, designed to glide over snow. Typically employed in pairs, skis are attached to ski boots with ski bindings, with either a free, lockable, or partially secured heel. For climbing slopes, ski skins c ...

area that forms part of the

Zermatt Zermatt (, ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Visp (district), Visp in the German language, German-speaking section of the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It has a year-round population of about 5,800 and is cl ...

ski resort, in

Valais Valais ( , ; ), more formally, the Canton of Valais or Wallis, is one of the cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of thirteen districts and its capital and largest city is Sion, Switzer ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. The area relating to skiing is found on the Rothorn mountain, above the town of Zermatt. The trails extend to the valley floor between the Rothorn and

Gornergrat The Gornergrat (; ) is a rocky ridge of the Pennine Alps, overlooking the Gorner Glacier south-east of Zermatt in Switzerland. It can be reached from Zermatt by the Gornergrat rack railway (GGB), the highest open-air railway in Europe. Betwee ...

mountains, and includes the ski runs directly down to the Oberhausern area of the town of Zermatt, terminating at the passenger lift that takes skier directly down inside the

funicular A funicular ( ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep grade (slope), slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to ...

train station in the area. The Sunnegga area catches a large amount of sun due to its unique topography, often despite the rest of Zermatt being submerged in cloud.

Restaurants

There are several restaurants in the Findeln area, including Chez Vrony, Findlerhof, Enzian and Paradise.

Lift system

Access from the resort to the Sunnegga area is via the SunneggaExpress funicular railway, built in 1980. From here there is a new "Combi" lift (a combination of 6-seat

chairlift An elevated passenger ropeway, or chairlift, is a type of aerial lift, which consists of a continuously circulating steel wire rope loop strung between two end terminals and usually over intermediate towers. They are the primary on-hill tran ...

s and 8-seat

gondola lift A gondola lift is a means of cable transport and type of aerial lift which is supported and propelled by cables from above. It consists of a loop of steel wire rope that is strung between two stations, sometimes over intermediate suppo ...

s, built in 2005) that takes skiers up to the Blauherd interchange. From here there is a 150-person

cable car Cable car most commonly refers to the following cable transportation systems: * Aerial lift, such as aerial tramways and gondola lifts, in which the vehicle is suspended in the air from a cable ** Aerial tramway ** Chairlift ** Gondola lift *** ...

(built in 1996) up to the Rothorn, and an old 4-seater gondola (built in 1971) down to Gant on the valley floor, from which a connecting cable car carries passengers up to the Gornergrat ski area. At the Rothorn area there is the Kumme 3-seat chairlift that serves a series of runs to the side of the Rothorn. Skiing down below the Sunnegga area is covered by the Patrullarve 4-seat lift (built in 1989), which transports skiers directly up to Blauherd. Accessing the Gornergrat area is the Sunnegga-Findeln-Breitboden 4-seat chairlift (built in 2007 to replace a 2-seat chairlift built in 1956). Leisee Shuttle leads from Sunnegga to Leisee.

Skiing

The main novice arterial of the Sunnegga area, the ''Standard'', starts at Blauherd, and continues down to Sunnegga. There is a narrow, often busy, novice run down to Findeln, ''Easy run'', which mainly serves the purpose of serving the area's famous restaurants and terminates at the 4-seat Findeln chairlift. Below this is a beginners area, the ''Eisfluh''. The other main novice run, the ''Kumme'', can be found outside the Rothorn top station, that takes skiers down to the Kumme 10-person Gondola, the first fully autonomous gondola in Switzerland which opened in 2020. Advanced runs are best found by Fluhalp, which links the Rothorn to the Gornergrat via the Gant Hothalli cable car, and the Tuftern which takes the skier from Blauherd down to Patrullarve. Zermatt does not have many listed expert runs, as such tend to be graded as itineraries. The Rothorn area has several expert runs, but have been poorly used in the last few years due to inadequate

snow Snow consists of individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water througho ...

fall and the area's propensity to catch large amounts of sunshine. There are only two expert runs in the area, the longest of which, the ''Obere National'', runs from Blauherd down to Patrullarve. There are

off-piste Backcountry skiing ( US), also called off-piste (Europe), alpine touring, freeriding or out-of-area, is skiing in the backcountry on unmarked or unpatrolled areas either inside or outside a ski resort's boundaries. This contrasts with alpine sk ...

sections off to the left of this run that can prove enjoyable when snow cover is good. The second expert run, the ''Downhill'', is found by taking a left turn at the top of the Rothorn, from which you can find a blue, red and black. This run is actually quite timid - being a simple straight run, and all of these runs suffer badly if snowfall is not plentiful.

References

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