Some Swiss ski resorts are feeling the pinch from the Strong France. Crans-Montana and the Portes-du-Soleil have dropped their lift pass prices by 3 CHF. Gstaad is holding prices steady. However Zermatt and Saas Fee will increase daily lift pass prices by 2 and 1 CHF respectively. A rise of 2.7% in the case of Zermatt bringing a daily lift pass to a mind boggling 75CHF (67 Euros, 58.75 UKP, $ 95), compare this to a day pass in Chamonix at 51.50 €. 40% of skiers are non-Swiss, largely European.

Swiss resorts like the Portes du Soleil risk local skiers accessing the area from France. You’ll pay 57 CHF (51 EUR) on the Swiss side of the border or 43 Euros on the French side, a difference of 8 EUR at today’s exchange rate. Samnaun has aligned its prices on those charged just across the border in Austria.

Should be interesting to compare the Chamonix Unlimited pass (including Verbier) this year.

my mate said that the Cham pass only has 6 days rather than 8 or something in Verbier this season. or so he says…

ah so you can only use it a limited number of days then ?

Also I think you have to go via the lift pass office each day.

But Chamonix is, for French standards, also “mind-boggling”! At last year’s rate of 1.45, Chamonix was nearly the price of Zermatt! Obviously from a touring/off piste point of view, they are comparable, but sticking to the resorts in Chamonix cannot be compared to the Zermatt ski area. At least from my point of view.

Swiss resorts are going to suffer big time this year! Especially the more familly oriented ones, like Ovronnaz, Leysins, St-Luc, Arosa etc. The heavyweights like Verbier, Davos, Zermatt, St-Moritz should barely notice it.  The Euro is worth 30% less!! No one is going to reduce their prices by that margin…

I look forward to skiing Les Contamines for about CHF 37 this year! Now that’s cheap! At least for us swiss franc earners.

1430 EUR for the Unlimited season pass (800.00 if booked before the 14th Oct). That is up from 1300,00 € last season, a wopping 9% increase which must be due to the Verbier access ? I couldn’t find a similar pass sold by Verbier but their 4 vallees/mont fort pass cost: fr. 1’580.00 which is around 1430 EUR at today’s rates. Interesting. I guess the idea is to discourage the Verbs from buying the Cham pass and using it all season in Verb (if the unlimited access of this pass is kept for 2011/12).

A six day Unlimited pass is 250,00 € up from 255.00, up just 0.9%.

I agree with what you say about Cham. it is a very very expensive lift pass although the Cham valley pass is more reasonable. What I was interested in is if there is any scope for lift pass arbitrage between CH and FR/AUS/DE ?

For info: The Compagnie des Alpes sold its 20.3% stake in Téléverbier for 13,8 M EUR in 2009.

In terms of arbitrage, the Italian side of Zermatt (Cervinia) will be selling at EUR 52 this winter. That’s almost CHF 18 savings (at today’s 1.12 rate) compared to the CHF 75 in Zermatt!! This will be the case in most EUR/CHF international resorts, as the Swiss would have to reduce their prices 30% to match. That’s just way too much!