Area: | Stoos |
Base: | 1270m |
Summit: | 1910m |
Skiable vertical: | 640m |
Lifts: | 6 (4 draglifts) |
Total lift vert: | 1250m |
Slope orientation: | North-facing |
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Stoos is a small, car-free resort perched up on a plateau above the Vierwaldstättersee in central Switzerland. It looks directly across the Muotatal at the Mythens, and across the lake to the Rütli meadow, Rigi, the Burgenstock and Pilatus. The views are excellent, even from Stoos there are views a long way down to the lake but from the Fronalpstock it's spectacular.
There isn't a huge range of lifts and runs to choose from here, but the off-piste offers some nice surprises.
For a zoomable, scrollable map of the areas, see this online map using Openstreetmap or Opencyclemap.
There are two main ways up to Stoos, either a funicular (cable train) from Schlattli or a cable car from Morschach. Schlattli is not far from Schwyz on the way into the Muototal, whereas Morschach is near Brunnen on the Vierwaldstättersee side.
From Zürich then it's a train to Schwyz, a bus from there towards the Muotatal as far as Schlattli, and then the impressive funicular steeply up to the Stoos resort. A Snow and Rail ticket costs CHF 48 and includes the journey there and back. Getting there takes only around 1h30 from Zürich but the return journey can take almost 2 hours due to the extra changes at Schwyz Post and also at Zug.
Note that getting from the funicular station to the lift base (and back again) requires a bit of walking, through the pedestrian-only village to one of the lift bases. The Fronalpstock chair is nearest.
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showing the runs and lifts |
Shown clearly on this 3d diagram, there are two main peaks to the Stoos resort, with the pair of chairlifts leading up to the Fronalpstock, and a T-bar dragging up to the Klingenstock. The other three drag lifts in the middle serve some shorter, beginner-friendly runs (and the small jump park), and go some way towards connecting the two peaks together. The majority of the queues concentrate on the chairlifts and the Klingenstock draglift.
The two easiest slopes, ideal for beginners, run underneath the two draglifts to Holibrig and Sternegg. There are a few options for coming down from the Fronalpstock, but most don't stray too far from the lift line. The real treasure trove, well worth the slightly troublesome drag lift ride, is the Klingenstock. There are lots of different ways to come down, with an interesting mix of pistes on either side of the lift. Plus, if the snow is fresh and you take a trip off the back of the Klingenstock to the right, you enter a huge area of accessible off-piste, with gentle waves to ride, curving eventually back round to rejoin the pistes. As always, off-piste requires care and judgement, but if the conditions are right, this area is a treat.
The jump park below the Sternegg lift is small but interesting, with two reasonable-sized jumps and a couple of wooden playthings.
One noticeable part of the Stoos resort is the flat area in the middle - it's not easy to get across from one side to the other. In both directions you'll run out of steam and have to resort to walking. On the pistes themselves, there are a couple of small rises on the Fronalpstock side, which can be problematic for slower riders.
Looking down the Stoos pistes to the Mythens
Resort information is at stoos-muotatal.ch, which has all the usual info including the slightly deceptive piste plan. For Snow and Rail information see railaway.ch (in German only).