Skating the St. Moritzersee (Switzerland), high up in a luxurious setting

Skating the St. Moritzersee: a majestic winter landscape beside the luxurious town of Sankt Moritz makes for a special skating experience. With plenty of sun above hard ice on a beautiful lake that is often in good condition.

Natural ice in Switzerland, high up

As in neighbouring Austria and Italy, mountain lakes in Switzerland freeze over in winter. Which makes for magnificent skating on natural ice. The setting does differ from the other places.

On the St. Moritzersee (Switzerland), for instance, you skate twice as high as on the Weissensee (Austria). Instead of a good 900 metres, we are now talking about a good 1,800 metres.

Which is why you see far fewer trees on the surrounding mountains, because of the tree line. The Italian Reschensee is somewhere in between. That lake, together with the Haidersee, lies at about 1,500 metres.

Natural ice at Sankt Moritz: nature and town closely bound

On one side high peaks as a spectacular backdrop, on the other a fair amount of building. Nature and town greet one another, bound together by this very beautiful mountain lake. The sun completes the photogenic spa resort.

Skating the St. Moritzersee on firm, fine natural ice

In winter it freezes here almost constantly, during the day as well. Sometimes, even regularly, in double figures. No thaw, no mess: the constant frost makes for a ‘clean’, strong sheet of ice full of skating pleasure.

Urban, and yet something romantic and historic

That the setting beside the ice looks partly ‘urban’ may mean less ‘charm’ for some. No welcoming little villages with a few authentic restaurants, but plenty of luxury fashion shops and wealthy people.

Even so, there is something of appealing romance and history here too. Badrutt’s Palace Hotel in St. Moritz first strikes you as an imposing, fairytale, landmark romantic hotel.

Then the story from 1864 about hotelier Johannes Badrutt adds a great deal more.

• Badrutt convinced English tourists that you could stay there in winter too, and with plenty of sun.
• Those English visitors, with their damp winters, could scarcely imagine it. They could stay for free if Badrutt turned out to be wrong about his ‘sun guarantee’.
• The tourists did not leave the Kulm Hotel until spring, with suntanned skin. The fun was had in skiing, curling and, at the same time… skating.

In short, Sankt Moritz is the birthplace of winter tourism, and of the winter sports that go with it, in the Alps.

And with all of that in mind, skating the St. Moritzersee really does have charm.

One nice fact to finish: the Winter Olympics were held at St. Moritz twice.