TL;DR
My first day skiing in Switzerland started with missing luggage and ended with one of the better days on snow I've had in a while. Grindelwald is a big resort with serious terrain, iconic views of the Eiger North Face, and enough variety to keep you busy for several days. Here's how day one played out.
Grindelwald Ski Resort: Eiger Express, First Flyer, and Skiing With Someone Else's Gear
My luggage was in Frankfurt. I was in Switzerland. This is how my first day of Swiss skiing began.
After a sunrise coffee that went some way towards softening the blow, I drove down to Grindelwald to sort myself out. The team at Buri Sport had me fully kitted out within the hour — jacket, pants, boots, skis, poles, goggles, helmet, the lot. Rental gear is never ideal, but it was either that or watch other people ski from a café, and I wasn't prepared to do that.
Grindelwald First — Morning Session
The plan was to start at Grindelwald First, which is the more mellow, family-oriented side of the resort, and then cross over to the main area in the afternoon. A gondola gets you up from the village, and from there you're looking at three chairlifts spread across terrain that suits beginners through to comfortable intermediates.
The pistes up here are well-groomed and the views are immediately ridiculous. The Eiger sits right there in front of you from the moment you step off the lift, and it doesn't really let up all day. It's distracting in the best possible way.
One thing worth knowing about Grindelwald First is that your ski pass includes access to the First Flyer — a zip line that sends you face-first down the mountain at a reasonable rate of knots. It's not going to replace skiing, but it's genuinely fun and the fact that it's included in the pass rather than an expensive add-on is a nice touch. There's also a seated version if the face-first option doesn't appeal. Both are worth doing if you're up there.
Up at the top, the First Cliff Walk — a viewing platform that extends out from the ridge — is another inclusion worth a few minutes of your time. It's more of a tourist stop than anything else, but the position is impressive.
Grindelwald - FIRST TIME IN SWITZERLAND
Crossing to the Main Grindelwald Area
By early afternoon I'd done enough laps on the First side to want more, so I made my way back down to the village and across to the main Grindelwald ski area. The entry point here is the Eiger Express — a 3S gondola that is genuinely one of the better lift investments I've seen at a European resort. It's quick, it's large, and it gets a serious number of people up the mountain in a short amount of time. From the top, you can also connect across to Männlichen, which opens up the wider Jungfrau ski region.
The terrain on this side of the resort is on a different scale to First. The runs spread across the entire front face of the mountain, and there's considerably more vertical to work with. The flat afternoon light made visibility tricky towards the end of the day — one of those conditions where the snow starts to blend into itself and your depth perception quietly checks out — but what I did ski was very good.
One thing that caught my attention while riding the chairlifts up here: the Lauberhorn. If you follow ski racing at all, you'll know it's one of the most famous World Cup downhill courses in the world, and the race was happening that same weekend. Watching the course from below while skiers were up there training put a bit of perspective on just how committed those athletes are. The course looks serious from the chairlift. From the start gate it must look genuinely terrifying.
The Verdict — Day One
Grindelwald is a big resort and I'd barely scratched the surface of it in a single day. The First side is a solid, well-run area with good grooming and some genuinely fun add-ons included in the pass. The main Grindelwald area via the Eiger Express is where the resort really opens up — more terrain, more vertical, and the kind of scale that justifies the trip from Australia on its own.
The luggage situation was an annoyance but not a disaster. Buri Sport sorted me out quickly and the rental gear was perfectly functional. I'll be back next week to ski the sections that were closed for the Lauberhorn race — there's still a significant part of the resort I haven't touched.
That evening I drove down to Interlaken for dinner.
Tomorrow: Schilthorn and Mürren.
About the author
Michael Fulton
Melbourne-based skier and snowboarder with 50+ resorts across 5 continents. Specialises in Australian resorts and international resort comparisons.
