Snowboarding holidays in Laax

When it comes to snowboarding finding steep and tough slopes becomes far less important than a good snow park and great snow cover.

One of Switzerland's most snowboard orientated ski areas is LAAX - made up of the villages of Flims, Laax and Falera - in the northern part of Switzerland's easternmost canton, Graubünden.

As much as 70 per cent of the resorts are located at an altitude of between 2,000 and 3,000 metres above sea level. Across the resorts there are 220 kilometres of pistes and 27 lifts, as well as snow cannons at Flims and lights for night-skiing at Laax.

However, what will pique snowboarders' interest are the four snow parks, aimed at all levels of boarders.

The main two parks are Plaun and Noname, the latter of which features a 140-metre superpipe, an 80-metre mini pipe as well as minimum of eight rails and 12 boxes.

The Noname snow park also has two kickers and jumps of between five to 15-metres. The park is open 08:30 - 16:00 from December to April.

However, the resort's most challenging park is Plaun, which can be stretched to create a 1.5km run during ideal snow conditions (minimum of 600 metres).

Long and thin, the park is where international freestyle championships take place, with 10-20 metre jumps available, up to ten boxes, five rails and 14 kickers.

The park is open from January to April from 08:30 - 16:00.

The two other snow parks may not have pipes but the beginners park is still a fair size at 300 by 50 metres, and features smaller jumps - along with kickers, rails and boxes to practice on.

Whereas the other three snow parks are based close to each other at Crap Sogn Gion, 2,228-metres up the mountain, the fourth park is located on the Vorab Glacier, almost another kilometre up the slope at 3,018 metres.

Snowboarding here is very much weather dependent, with the park only groomed before the season starts. It does have a substantial ten-metre jump, and offers early season snowboarding from October to December between 08:30 and 15:00.

The area can be reached with a cheap flight, as Ryanair flies from London Stansted to Friedrichshafen, where is its possible to get a special shuttle bus transfer up to LAAX.

For more information see the resort's official website laax.com.