Ski Lifts in Arosa

Arosa’s ski area is served by 13 ski lifts including two modern cable cars, an express gondola, six chairlifts and four drag lifts.

Arosa Ski Lifts & Lift Passes

Although a few of the chairlifts are rather ancient they work perfectly well and with nearly 7,500 tourist beds in resort and a lift carrying capacity of 21,500 people per hour the lift system is fine and except at peak season and some weekends queuing is a rarity and never a big issue.

The lifts open at 9am and close 4:15 – 4:30pm and the last piste patrol is 4:30 – 5:00pm depending on time of year and with later times applying from end of January until season ends. The times of last patrol are marked at the bottom of each lift and piste reports are available online at Arosa Bergbahn in German but its mostly graphics and easy to understand.

In terms of speed and capacity the most important ski lifts are Weisshorn 1 cable car from Arosa Bergbahn station (1,739m) to Tschuggen middle station (2,013m), the Weisshorn 2 cable car (both 125 passenger capacity) to Weisshorn (2,653m) and the 6 passenger Hőrnliexpress gondola starting from beyond Inner-Arosa (1,820m) to the west of Arosa up to Hőrnli (2,511m).

From the centre of Arosa (1,739m) the you can take the Tschuggen Ost chairlift which looks fairly ancient but is a pleasant ride through the trees and caries you 300 or so vertical meters to Tschuggen in under 5-minutes and often quicker overall than using the cable car.

The beginner slopes on Tschuggen are well served by T-bar drag lifts and while there are those that think drag lifts are a pain they helpful to novices (once they have mastered the art of getting on and off) who benefit more riding uphill on skis than they do sitting on a chairlift.

Beginner skiers and snowboarders also have the option to buy a restricted lift-pass covering just the Tschuggen area (shaded pink on the map) at approximately 2/3rds of the price of the standard lift pass.

For moving around the ski area three important 4-man chairlifts are Carmenna chair which rises most of the way up Weisshorn with useful opportunity (legitimately) to exit at the half way point, Plattenhorn chair – especially useful for getting to the popular Carmenna Hűtte restaurant – and the Hőrnli when you want to stay high on that mountain.

Two annoying deficiencies in the lift system are evident at the base of the Brűggerhorn and the Innerarosa Tschuggen chairlifts. At both chairlifts you have to boot or side step 20-30 metres uphill which is irritating especially as you are likely to have to repeat the experience many times during the course of your stay.