Seen through a green lens, the old-school mountain resort has much against it: fuel inefficient lift systems, energy-guzzling snow cannons, carbon-heavy restaurants indebted to dairy. But the Swiss mountain resort of Laax – or Flims Laax Falera, to give it its full name – has one indisputable virtue that few others have: it is on track to being the world’s first self-sufficient Alpine destination by 2023. Which is to say that this eco pioneer plans to cover 100 per cent of its energy needs from climate-friendly resources. And that’s only one of its astonishing brags.
The brains pulling the strings have also toyed with such bombastic ideas as installing wind turbines on a glacier (another world first) and building an Uber-style lift system (to open later next season, in fact). Come to Graubünden to hike and mountain bike in summer, or ski or snowboard in winter, and they’ll also tell you that, since 2008, the resort’s entire electricity requirements have been covered by hydroelectric and renewables (also a first in Switzerland). But such a determined location isn’t all about scientific modelling and environmental speculation – this is wholeheartedly a place for dreamers and fun seekers. Here’s why.
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The world’s first on-demand cable car is opening soon
Flem Express, the world’s first on-demand cable car / Image: ©LAAX | Philipp Ruggli
Where Laax differs to most other European resorts is that the cable car company – so often a lone wolf in the mountains – is part of the much larger Weisse Arena Group, which owns an exhaustive list of everything in the resort, from six hotels and 32 restaurants to adventure schools and rental shops. That means every cog in the big wheel buys into the sustainable makeover and there’s a new era-defining gondola on the way. Named the Flem Express, its cable cars will operate on demand, with destinations selected before boarding and automatically navigated towards the UNESCO-recognised Tectonic Arena Sardona. It’s a lesson in how anti-green aerial tramways can be eco, too.
flem.express
IT’S HOME TO THE WORLD’S LONGEST TREETOP WALKWAY
A teeny part of the Senda dil Dragun treetop walkway / Image: ©LAAX | Philipp Ruggli
The Senda dil Dragun treetop walkway is 1.56km long and 28m high, but that tells only a fraction of the story. Not only does the raised passageway ease you out from the resort to resettle you at eye-level among bushy pines and firs, but the woods are home to deer, squirrels, buzzards, kites and a ruined castle. Among other arresting features are a vertiginous spiral slide, and platforms to help educate visitors in how best to look after and learn from our forests.
flimslaax.com/naturerlebnisse/baumwipfelpfad
