Pristine powder: A Swiss tryst with snow peaks

Mike Onions was living the dream. Not only had he succeeded in becoming one of the handful of British ski instructors working in France, but he had done so in Courchevel, the country's most prestigious resort. So why did he jack it all in?

"The lift system in Courchevel is fabulous," he says. "But it's as if in making the mountains so accessible with all those lifts, they're jeopardising the very thing people are coming to experience."

Rosy heights

Mike moved to Arosa, a pretty Swiss village at the top of a dead-end valley, reached by a dramatic mountain railway. While the Three Valleys ski area (of which Courchevel is part) has 180 lifts, Arosa manages just 12 but Mike is happier.

Over dinner at the smart chalet Mike rents out, his friend Jason Savidge talks about his quest for smaller, quieter resorts. A globetrotting DJ, he settled in Switzerland and used to run chalets for snowboarders in the resort of Laax.

"But Laax was getting too busy with all the competitions and festivals," he says.

So he moved to Churwalden to run Snowmotions, a company that helps skiers and boarders explore the Swiss canton of Graubnden. I'm staying at the Lodge, a cheerful chalet that Jason and his business partner Dave Blackburn opened in Churwalden.

Three's company

On my second afternoon, Jason, Dave and I take two chairlifts that drop us just below the summit of the 2,575-metre Statzerhorn, then turn right and make a high traverse, crossing the steep slopes below the peak and aiming for the far flank of the mountain. We reach the far ridge.

Below us is a deserted valley, beginning in steep open slopes, then levelling out into meadows dotted with larch trees white with frost. Though it hasn't snowed for several days, there's not a single ski-track to be seen, just a perfectly smooth covering of deep, light powder.

For a few moments we savour that delicious mixture of nerves and excitement. Then we push off, gingerly testing the snow's stability at first, making short, slow turns, then, as the gradient eases, relaxing, ramping up the speed and making wide, carving arcs, each one throwing up a huge plume of snow that sparkles in the afternoon sun.

Eventually we drop down to the densely forested bottom of the valley and trace a frozen river that leads all the way to the Lodge's back door at 1,229 metres.

But there's far more to this area than that one run, however fabulous. Churwalden's few lifts link it to villages along the valley: Parpan, Valbella and Lenzerheide.

Piste and quiet

Together the four villages muster a respectable 155km of piste, served by 28 lifts, and throughout my stay, I never see a queue for any of them. This is the opposite of French-style "factory skiing", where many lifts spread out like a spider's web from a central purpose-built resort.

There's enough skiing in the Lenzerheide valley to keep you busy for a week but on our third day Jason suggests its time to try the "safari". Off-piste skiers of intermediate level and above can get even further away from it all by taking the lift to the highest point in the valley, then dropping off the back of the mountain and skiing all the way to Arosa.

Into the wilderness

There you explore the pistes for a bit, ride the lifts to the top, strike out into the wilderness once more and eventually reach the hamlet of Tschiertschen (a handful of wooden chalets, with four lifts). Up the lifts again, you take a few turns on the great north-facing slopes and head up and off the back, through fields and a forest, and pop out back in the Lenzerheide valley. It's an epic day but Jason has kept the best till last.

Top secret

After three days of showing me round the villages, he lets slip that there is a forgotten resort even he likes to keep secret. After much pressing, he drives me to St Peter-Hochwang. Tourists pass by as they drive or take the train up the Schanfigg valley to Arosa but few stop. After all, it only has two lifts.

There's a smiling woman who wants to chat as she sells us the tickets but is distracted by kids waving as they head out for their afternoon ski class.

We ride the lifts to Hochwang Htte, a wooden mountain refuge where climbers can stay the night. When we come out, the Sun is setting behind Arosa's peaks, the snow has turned pink, and the kids have gone home. We clip into our skis and push off through the buttery snow, finding our way down a mountain that's ours alone.