The guests’ connection to nature is as important as the skiing,” says owner George Papamarkakis, showing me through The Capra in Saas Fee. “That’s why we created a fire-and-ice theme in the design. We hired a British design team to soften the Swiss architecture with log fires and crystal lights, which mimic the glaciers outside.” He speaks like someone who has spent a minute in the mountains, respectful of their power and conscious of their appeal.
Where Swiss hotels often preen as grande dames, The Capra prefers to remain more intimate and personable, a boutique retreat stitched into the fabric of the town. Saas Fee is recognisable to millions from George Michael’s Last Christmas, filmed here in 1984, the steep gabled chalets and balconies heavy with snow as iconic as the song itself. Saas Fee is still car-free, still small, and when I step off the train, a little electric milk float ferries me to the hotel through narrow streets that smell of wood smoke.
Saas Fee
Filme von Draussen
Inside, The Capra carries its five stars lightly. The two-Michelin-Key hotel boasts 38 suites with a curated selection of books, a television, and terraces overlooking the twinkling lights of the alpine village. I drink a glass of Jacques Germanier Brut du Valais, a chardonnay sparkling wine born in nearby rock tunnels, then wander past the bar to the library. “We’re about books and culture, not boutiques with clothes and jewellery,” George says, opening the door. The hotel partners with Payot Libraire, staging readings and workshops to prove a ski resort can nourish the mind as well as the body.
The Peak Health spa follows, with its salt rooms, pools and saunas, far more than you expect from a hotel of this size. In the wine cellar, a fondue feast awaits. Raclette bubbles in a cast-iron cauldron, ladled over rosemary bread, fresh vegetables and potatoes, served with emulsion mustards and chive mayonnaise. Washed down with petite arvine, a local mineral grape, the bed simply cannot arrive soon enough.
The Capra exterior
The next morning I climb onto the milk float again, carried to a ski-in, ski-out cabin where my snowboard awaits in a private locker. After a restorative shot of espresso, I meet Ben Shubrook, a transplant from Hampshire who has been here since 2009. “Saas Fee has the best snow in Europe,” he tells me. “The snow is always exceptional, and it’s never that busy.” The high altitude and Allalinhorn glacier guarantee long, snow-sure seasons, but also broad and varied terrain. There are 100 kilometres of pistes spread across wide, largely empty slopes that weave between 18 peaks higher than 4,000 metres.
At the upper reaches, I ride at 3,500 metres above sea level, with glaciers and sheer rock faces framing the runs, while lower down the trails wind past forests and the roofs of the timber-clad village. Bond aficionados might recognise nearby pistes from the 1969 Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. There are plenty of great places to stop for lunch along the way. Spielboden is run by The Capra, perched on the side of the mountain at 2,600 metres, with an excellent selection of wine and a broad suntrap terrace where furry marmots gather.
Cross country skiing
Alternatively, if you aren’t partial to motion sickness, pop into Mittelallalin, the highest rotating restaurant in the world.
On the final afternoon, I venture off-piste with Shubrook, visiting an ice cave in one of the glaciers, and scraping up some delicious, freshly fallen slackcountry powder. While I’m out, I catch a glimpse of a capra. The mountain goat watches me for a moment before vanishing into the white. It is a reminder of what The Capra sets out to capture: the alpine wildness that surrounds Saas Fee, and the quiet luxury that waits when you return. Between the firelit suites, the mineral wines, the glacier-carved pistes and the sense of being somewhere both remote and rare, the hotel earns its name. To stay here is to share the wild animal’s perspective, high among the peaks, surveying a landscape that still feels unspoiled.
From £365 per night; capra.ch
