Most Alpine resorts are praying for cold snaps. Laax, in eastern Switzerland near the Austrian border, is busy retooling itself instead. The resort has committed to being carbon neutral by 2030 — a target that means eliminating all oil use, generating every kilowatt sustainably and cutting food waste to zero. Given how much criticism the ski industry is taking over climate change, it is one of the boldest answers out there.
The driving force is Reto Gurtner, the 71-year-old CEO of Flims Laax, whose father built the resort's first lifts in 1962. Gurtner spent time in California in the 1970s, came home with a snowboard and helped build the first halfpipe on the glacier by hand. That freestyle spirit still defines Laax: the halfpipe is busy with riders, and the resort's approach is 'snowboard-friendly' rather than stuffy. He calls the overall philosophy 'greenstyle' — an optimistic, design-led push toward sustainability.
The tech is genuinely interesting. The new gondola system at neighbouring Flims does away with empty cabins trundling up and down all day. An algorithm lets skiers pick one of five mountain destinations, then dispatches individual gondolas on demand, balancing energy use with passenger flow. Snowmaking, meanwhile, runs on hydropower, and Laax doesn't add chemical or biological additives to its cannon snow — which, with electric piste-grooming machines arriving, is less environmentally damaging than you might assume. Gurtner also points out the resort isn't overly snow-dependent: freestyle parks need relatively little snow, and mountain biking and hiking carry the summer season.
The mountains themselves are worth the trip. From Segnes at 2,100 metres, snowshoe trails lead toward the Tschingelhörner, the jagged rock face that puzzled geologists until they worked out the African tectonic plate was riding over the younger European one. Wolves and lynx have returned to the area — Switzerland now hosts around 40 wolf packs, up from the first Alpine pack recorded in 1993 — and a sightings website lets you check whether one has passed close by. One writer got a surprise: a wolf had walked within a mile of his route hours earlier.
If high-tech Laax isn't your speed, the next-door village of Falera offers a quieter version of sustainability: hand-hewn barns, an old chairlift, no cars in sight, and an electric bus back to town.
For travellers, the practical appeal is obvious. Laax's slopes sit mostly around 2,000 metres, so it's more snow-secure than lower-lying resorts currently suffering green hillsides in midwinter. Getting there is straightforward by rail: trains from Zurich run via Chur and the scenic Rhine Gorge to Ilanz, with buses on to Laax. Package options exist too — Inghams was offering seven nights B&B from £1,618pp including flights.
Whether Laax's 2030 pledge lands exactly on time is almost beside the point. If you want to ski somewhere actively wrestling with what winter sports looks like in a warming world — and ride a quiet, electric-flavoured mountain while you're at it — this is the resort to watch.
