Snow Global

From mountain hut revelry to drag queens on skis, Arosa Gay Ski Week in southeastern Switzerland proves that the Alps have never looked this fabulous…

By Doug Wallace

Thankfully, the lights at the pool at the Faern Altein Hotel have been dimmed. My partner is in full-on unicorn-patterned bikini swim trunks, but I’m playing it more low-key. Not five minutes after wading in, we are sloshing around the pool’s lazy river channel with dozens of fit men. It’s a warm welcome, and a little bit handsy – which sets the tone for the week at the 20th annual Arosa Gay Ski Week in the Swiss Alps.

I’ve been here before, maybe 10 years ago, and I well remember the moonlit snowshoeing, après-ski flirting, spa time and easy skiing – all excellent reasons for a return visit. “It becomes more fantastic every year – the energy is incredible,” says festival director Alex Herkommer. “This past year, more than 900 people came from all over the world, with a big increase in the number of guests from North America. They get to discover European culture while enjoying world-class skiing in the Swiss Alps.”

Guided skiing helps you make friends from Day 1, with groups heading up the chair lifts and gondolas each morning, organized according to ski skills. Lunch meet-ups on the mountain take in the various huts and pit stops, before après-ski parties and group dinners back in town fuel the furnace. Music performances (mostly classical) take place in the early evening, followed by a themed bash of some kind each night. “We balance the parties with the cultural events, the classical music,” Herkommer says. “But you don’t have to do everything. People can just do what they like.”

Herkommer has been running the show with a team of organizers and volunteers for the past 15 years. The Arosa group is a non-profit, with the money going back into the festival itself to help with marketing initiatives and talent bookings. Unlike some of the larger, more commercial gay ski weeks in Europe, Arosa offers more free events, lower prices and a more intimate experience. “The mountains, the charming Alpine village and the mix of luxury and laid-back mountain vibes make it really special,” Herkommer says.

Arosa is reachable by winding highway, but we take the train, a two-and-a-half-hour journey south from Zurich to the Graubünden region of Switzerland. Although it has a population of only 3,000, Arosa manages to hit multiple price points in terms of accommodations and restaurants, with lift tickets well below the prices of premium resorts like Zermatt and St. Moritz, as well as those of Austria and France. 

The ski hill merged with neighbouring Lenzerheide in 2013 to create a double-whammy ski offering linked by a giant peak-to-peak gondola. Well-groomed slopes deliver 225 kilometres of terrain – from 1,230 metres to almost 3,000 metres – with four aerial tramways, four gondola lifts and 18 chair lifts ferrying everyone around. Visitors can add in cross-country skiing, sledding runs and winter hiking…if the skiing and snowboarding don’t play you out first.

World-class skiing and high-altitude partying

We collapse into wooden lounge chairs covered with wool pillows and blankets at the famed Tshuggenhutte halfway up the hill, and case the patio for a waiter and a lunch menu. A few drag queens and shirtless models in cool ski gear flit about, posing for pictures. The sun is so bright, most people are wearing their goggles; all the better to people-watch (i.e., stare), while sharing bottles of wine and charcuterie platters, and smoking. Whenever is Europe going to stop smoking? The Swiss are so famous for their tiny little glasses of goodness – tulip-shaped glasses of monk-made beer, shots of schnapps, cordial glasses of eau de vie. I’m sitting beside someone in a Balmain ski suit, which makes me feel like I look even more homeless than I normally do. It’s definitely a scene and we are eating it up, along with a giant bowl of french fries. I half expect James Bond to show up any minute.

With each touchpoint throughout the event agenda, we meet more and more people, and on it goes. The après-ski crowd late-stayers cross over with the early cocktail-hour folks, a seamless transition like ships in the night. Me, I need a disco nap in order to keep up with all the revelry, and then I need meat and potatoes. And cheese, lots of cheese.

At the 30- and 40-seat group dinners, participants wander into whichever restaurant is hosting that night, and find a chair, turning strangers into pals long before the food arrives. “I spoke with a couple who said they had met at Arosa Gay Ski Week,” Herkommer says. “They sat beside each other at a group dinner, and now they’re married.” 

At Aifach restaurant (yes, sound it out!), family-style platters of exquisitely simple food are gone in a few minutes with eight hungry men around the table. After asking if we are still hungry, the server brings second helpings – a gesture that couldn’t be more welcoming or more demonstrative of Arosan hospitality. This is all washed down with Swiss wine, of course – labels we’ve never heard of, as not enough of it is made to export. This is an exclusive party, indeed.

One of the more eccentric of the Arosa ski week events sees everyone in leather shorts – no, it’s not what you think! We take a taxi to the bottom of the hill, then catch a 10-person snow coach that takes us up a snowy trail to the Alpenblick mountain hut for the Schlagernacht. Translation: an evening of kitschy German songs (schlager means “hits”) with catchy melodies and sentimental lyrics that everyone knows. Informed that the dress code is either plaid shirts or lederhosen (traditional Bavarian leather breeches), we show up in matching red plaid flannel shirts with Canadian flags sewn onto our sleeves. Cue the giant mugs of beer and the singing along. The party songs ring in our heads all the way back down the mountain. I muse that I haven’t gone to a party on a snowmobile in decades.

Like Alpenblick, the businesses in town pull out all the stops for Arosa Gay Ski Week. “The local businesses and hotels go out of their way to make our guests feel at home,” Herkommer says. In fact, the city council is in the process of applying for the Swiss LGBTI-Label, a stamp of approval for organizations based in Switzerland. It’s a best-practice standard showing that a company is genuinely committed to inclusion. “The fact that an entire Swiss resort town supports and celebrates LGBTQ visitors is a powerful statement about inclusivity in tourism,” Herkommer says. “I think we can be a good example for other ski resorts, to get others open to diversity.”

On our final full day on the slopes, we join the festivity at Carmennahütte mountain restaurant, where everyone has gathered along with the regular ski crowd to witness the Drag Race, an “Alpine Glam Competition,” featuring anyone who has a fabulous outfit and wants to participate. A white gala dinner at the top of the Weisshorn peak at 2,650 metres brings the festivities to a head with a black-lit smorgasbord of traditional Swiss gastronomy and, of course, more singing. The fun continues back in town with the White SnowBall, with outfits that are exceedingly more skimpy than they were at dinner. The Boy Band Project belts out everyone’s favourite ’90s boy-band songs with gusto. I know all the words this time.

DOUG WALLACE is an international travel and lifestyle writer, photographer and custom-content authority, principal of Wallace Media and editor-publisher of TravelRight.Today. He can be found beside buffet tables, on massage tables and table-hopping around the world.