Without question the best destination for freestylers to head to in Switzerland, Laax has four parks and a superpipe all located around the Crap Sogn Gion which adds up to about 80 individual features.
A completely new terrain park called Ils Plauns was built last season between the Crap Sogn Gion and the new six seater chairlift Alp Dado. It was here that the Burton European open slopestyle event was moved, and its more sunny, open aspect proved a massive success. With a beginner, medium and pro line, the new park offers a huge and varied playground for each level. There’s a good selection of easy kickers, plenty of entry-level rails and boxes and now a permanent airbag to try your inverts on. There’s also a boardercross park to satisfy you and your mates’ competitive streak.
Right below the summit restaurant is the ‘No Name’ park, which is dominated by the legendary Laax Superpipe – an intimidating, 140m-long beast that gives some of the pro’s jitters, never mind joe public. They tend to stuff this dug-out earth shaped beauty full of the last remaining snow at the end of the season, so they can get it up and running almost as soon as the resort opens.
On one side of the pipe is the Swatch ‘Shoot-my-Ride’ with three kickers and a few rails, while the other side is more jib focused with 15 or so features. Continuing down from the No Name park, piste 60 (the Crap Sogn Gion-Curnius piste) is a dedicated freestyle run, with 30 or so obstacles and kickers dotted along it’s 1km length. You can also cut across to meet this from the newest Ils Plauns park; either way you’re looking at the closest European equivalent to the long park runs of California, which you can lap to your heart’s content.
As if all this wasn’t enough, Laax also offers Europe’s first indoor freestyle academy, which includes a snowflex jump into a foam pit, a skatepark, and trampolines for practising inverts. Perfect for those bad weather days or evenings. An initial introductory course is mandatory.
