Diemtigtal - Grimmialp

The praise is for exactly what families come for: a sunny, compact and easily read hill at the far end of the Diemtigtal nature park, by the village of Schwenden, within easy reach of Spiez and Lake Thun. The pistes are kept well groomed and the mix is gentle, roughly forty per cent blue and half red. Winter here is not only alpine skiing: over twenty kilometres of cross-country trails, winter walking paths and a marked snowshoe route.

Scale and altitude draw the criticism. There is barely anything to ski by wider standards - a handful of piste kilometres served by a three-seat chair, a T-bar and a children's lift. The area lies between 1,233 and 1,833 metres, which is low, and warming winters hit it visibly: the snow guns only work in genuine cold and the machine-made cover reaches a short stretch at the bottom. The lower lift section dating from 1964 was long earmarked for replacement.