Area: | Engelberg Titlis |
Base: | 990m |
Summit: | 3020m |
Skiable vertical: | 2000m |
Lifts: | 10 (1 draglift) |
Total lift vert: | 4370m |
Slope orientation: | Northwest-facing |
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For a zoomable, scrollable map of the areas, see this online map using Openstreetmap or Opencyclemap.
By train, Engelberg is reached by the LSE (Luzern Stans Engelberg) rail line, which goes (you guessed it) from Luzern via Stans to Engelberg. It's a roughly 10 minute walk from the rail station to the lifts, although in peak season there's a free shuttle bus doing the rounds. The "Snow and Rail" tickets from the SBB include, as always, return train travel and a day's lift pass.
By car, it's a short drive South from Luzern, through Stans and up the spectacular Engelberg valley. There's plenty of parking close to the lifts, but it will cost you CHF 5 per car.
From Zurich by train, you need a change in Luzern, with a total time of around 2h20m. Connection time in Luzern is rather long, and as the trains are only every hour, there are inevitable waits at both Engelberg and Luzern on the way back. Even from the base of the lifts it's still quite a trek up to the runs, with a gondola to Gerschnialp and then to Trübsee, followed by either a cable car or a chairlift before you can hit the slopes. The "Snow and Rail" ticket from Zurich (with a halbtax card) is currently CHF 76.
By car from Zurich, it's a relatively easy run through Luzern and Stans to Engelberg (at least, it was an easy run at the time of research, taking about 1h20 from Zurich). Cost of the lift pass only (halbtax not valid) costs a surprising CHF 58 at weekends/holidays, otherwise CHF 52.
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Apart from the small, beginners-oriented area at Brunni, there are two areas to the main Titlis ski area, partly linked by a two-way chairlift over the Trübsee. The main one has a handful of runs between Trübsee and Stand, served by a chairlift and a cable car, and a couple more underneath the "Ice Flyer" lift higher up. The rotating cable car takes you up to get to these runs, but the only run back down to Stand is a steep and icy black.
The second area on Titlis, on the other side of the Trübsee, has another handful of runs, served by three chairlifts. It also has an advertised "terrain park", with the terrain seemingly composed almost entirely out of metal bars - not to everyone's taste. Getting back to Engelberg from here then requires taking the fairly steep reds down to Alpstübli, the Trübsee Hopper back across the lake and up to Trübsee, and then the gondolas back down to town, or alternatively (if snow conditions allow), the long blue trail round from Alpstübli direct to the gondola base itself. This is an easy run but has got a couple of scooting sections.
Note that Summer skiing is possible in Titlis, even in June! On June 2, only the 'Ice Flyer' lift was open, with just a couple of runs(beware of off-piste crevasses). The new snow from the week before freshened up the conditions nicely, and although the steeper, direct slope underneath the lift was initially rather hard, it softened up nicely after an hour or two. Beyond 2 o'clock, the slush was getting heavy and slow. There was also a half-pipe open, near the base of the Ice Flyer, a couple of rails and a couple of quite big jumps, but all these require a little walking to get back up again. Beware of the June sun!
Flat spots are not very common in the Titlis area, in fact almost all of it is red runs. But, as mentioned above, the long blue from Alpstübli (1760m) to the gondola base (990m) has a couple of short sections which will probably require some scooting.
The official website is at titlis.ch, with a good pdf piste map. Snow'n'Rail details are at railaway.ch. Snow conditions are at snow-forecast.com.
For hiking in the Engelberg area, see the Alpine Pass Route which comes over the Surenenpass and Jochpass.