Saas-Fee

Executive summary by darmansjah

Saas-Fee  is the main village in the Saastal, or the Saas Valley, and is a municipality in the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. The villages in its neighborhood are Saas-Almagell, Saas-Grund and Saas-Balen.

Its location close to the glaciers of the Dom and the Allalinhorn provides winter sport opportunities throughout the year, and neighbouring peaks such as the Weissmies, the Nadelhorn and the Lenzspitze are popular climbs in the summer season. The community is considered to be a very attractive winter sport destination in the Swiss Alps. Typical activities include skiing, carving, snowshoe trekking, canyon climbing and ice climbing.

Saas-Fee offers 22 lifts, including 3 cable cars, 1 funicular railway (Metro Alpin), 5 gondolas (1 dedicated to walkers), 2 chairlifts, the remainder being surface lifts (draglifts). The ski run has a vertical drop of 5,906 ft, a top elevation of 11,647 ft and covers 100 km (62 mi) (30 km (19 mi) beginner, 45 km (28 mi) intermediate, 25 km (16 mi) advanced). Other activities include snowboarding (halfpipe and park), paragliding, hang gliding, and tobogganing.

Saas-Fee can be reached by car or bus—postal buses run during much of the day half-hourly from Brig and Visp, though none provides a service beyond the bus terminal through the length of the town during the winter. No cars are allowed to enter the city (they have to be parked in special car parks outside); only small electric vehicles operate on the streets (and some petrol-driven garbage trucks). The decision to exclude most motor vehicles was made by the village at the time of the construction of the road from Saas Grund in 1951.

The resort offers many culture, sports and off-slope activities, including classical music, a sports and leisure complex, restaurants, and nightclubs. The resort features the highest underground funicular railway in the world up to the skiing area and the highest revolving restaurant in the world at 11,500 feet. The touristic slogan of Saas-Fee is "Die Perle der Alpen" (The pearl of the Alps). The campus of the European Graduate School is located in Saas-Fee.

Design guidelines for the village require houses to be 40 percent wooden, to maintain its architectural character.