Elm
Elm is a ski destination in Glarus with 28 km of mapped pistes and 8 lifts, between 1'016 m and 2'100 m. Mostly blue and red, 5 km black.
Rank Elm against every ski area near Chur for this weekend
This weekend
Measured snow, weekend forecast and day pass
Snow at the nearest SLF station
Snow depth 1 cm, no new snow in 24 hours, at SLF station Chüebodensee (2'058 m), 1.8 km from the ski area. Measured on .
Source: WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, IMIS station ELM2. This is the nearest comparable station, not the ski area's own pistes. Fetched .
Weekend forecast
- : Partly cloudy, 5°C, wind 5 km/h
- : Partly cloudy, 5°C, wind 5 km/h
Source: MeteoSwiss, local forecast for Martinsmadhütte SAC (2'002 m, 4.5 km from the ski area), with the temperature at the ski area's mid-mountain, averaged over 09:00–16:00. Fetched .
Adult day pass
CHF 59 for . The operator’s published tariff for the season. The coming weekend has no price yet, so this is the day pass for a Saturday in January.
Source: sportbahnenelm.ch, “Tages- und Halbtageskarten, Erwachsene, 1 Tag”, read .
For the size: the area maps 28 km of pistes and 1'084 m of vertical, and areas like that charged about CHF 55 for . This pass is 8% more.
Skiboard’s comparison, a curve through the 141 day passes it read for that day; the km are what OpenStreetMap maps, which an operator’s own total can exceed. It says nothing about which lifts run on the day.
Day-pass prices this weekend at every Swiss ski area
Written into this page when it was last built. The live ranking uses the newest values.
Your trip
Parking at Elm
Main car park: Parkplätze Sportbahnen Elm · free · sportbahnenelm.ch, read 30 Oct 2026
4 car parks by the lifts
OpenStreetMap maps these 4 car parks by the lifts of Elm, the biggest first.
- Car park free · 120 m from the Gondelbahn Elm-Ämpächli · by a piste · Map
- Sportbahnen Car park · free · by the Gondelbahn Elm-Ämpächli · by a piste · Map
- Car park free · 130 m from the Gondelbahn Elm-Ämpächli · by a piste · Map
- Car park free · 220 m from the Gondelbahn Elm-Ämpächli · piste 260 m away · Map
Distances are in a straight line to the bottom station of the nearest lift. Fees change: check with the car park before you go.
Car parks from OpenStreetMap, read 30 Oct 2026 (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL). A car park missing? Fix the map
Travel time from Swiss cities
| From | Car | Train |
|---|---|---|
| Chur | 39 min | 1h 43Elm, Sportbahnen · 2 changes |
| Zug | 1h 05 | 1h 56Elm, Sportbahnen · 3 changes |
| St. Gallen | 1h 08 | 1h 49Elm, Sportbahnen · 2 changes |
| Lucerne | 1h 15 | 2h 19Elm, Sportbahnen · 3 changes |
| Zürich | 1h 18 | 1h 42Elm, Sportbahnen · 2 changes |
| Winterthur | 1h 22 | 2h 14Elm, Sportbahnen · 3 changes |
| Zurich Airport | 1h 24 | 1h 58Elm, Sportbahnen · 3 changes |
| Bern | 2h 21 | 2h 52Elm, Sportbahnen · 3 changes |
| Basel | 2h 30 | 2h 47Elm, Sportbahnen · 3 changes |
| Lausanne | 3h 13 | 4h 14Elm, Sportbahnen · 4 changes |
| Geneva | 3h 58 | 4h 49Elm, Sportbahnen · 4 changes |
| Geneva Airport | 3h 58 | 4h 59Elm, Sportbahnen · 4 changes |
Train: the timetable’s fastest connection leaving the city’s station between 06:30 and 09:30 on Sat 16 Jan 2027, to the valley station of the area’s lowest lift, with the walk from the last stop. Car: an estimate from coordinates, not live traffic. Check your trip on sbb.ch before you go.
Plan your trip
Practical links for the trip. They do not affect the ranking.
- Stay in Elm Booking.com · Saturday to Sunday, 7 Nov – 8 Nov · 2 adults
The mountain
Facts
- Mapped pistes
- 28 km
- Blue pistes
- 13 km
- Red pistes
- 9 km
- Black pistes
- 5 km
- Ski routes
- <1 km
- Lifts
- 8
- Top station
- 2'100 m
- Base
- 1'016 m
- Vertical
- 1'084 m
- Longest mapped run
- 5.9 km, from 2'100 m down to 1'027 m
- Mountain restaurants
- 6
- Canton
- Glarus
Piste map
How steep the pistes in Elm are
Blue and red: typical.
| Colour | Pistes | Steepest 100 m, typically | All of Switzerland | Here |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue | 8 · 10.2 km | 30 % | 28 % | typical |
| Red | 10 · 8.3 km | 40 % | 38 % | typical |
| Black | 1 · 0.9 km | 48 % | 51 % | — |
The steepest 100 m: 59 % on 5 Piste Blistock (red).
Flat stretches 1
- 5 Piste Blistock Red · 47 % of its 840 m nearly flat: on a snowboard you may have to push · Map
Long descents without flat stretches 3
How this was measured
Skiboard measured the 19 pistes OpenStreetMap maps in Elm (19.4 km) on swisstopo’s terrain model: the steepest 100 m of each, against every Swiss piste of the same colour.
Measured along the line OpenStreetMap draws, on terrain without snow: snow and grooming soften steps, and a piste can run beside its line. A gradient of 100 % is 45°. Colours as OpenStreetMap maps them, which can differ from the lift company’s piste map: check it before you go.
Piste lines from OpenStreetMap, read 30 Oct 2026 (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL); terrain: swissALTI3D © swisstopo. A piste wrong or missing? Fix the map
Mountain restaurants in Elm
OpenStreetMap maps 6 places to eat or drink up the mountain in Elm, highest first.
- Alp Ämpächli Oberstafel Mountain hut · about 1'690 m · Map
- Munggä Hüttä Restaurant · about 1'690 m · Map
- Berghotel Bischofalp Restaurant · about 1'650 m · Map
Show 3 more
Opening times change with the season and the snow: check with the restaurant or the lift company before you go.
From OpenStreetMap, read 25 Oct 2026 (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL). A place missing or closed? Fix the map
Ski schools at Elm
| School | Private lesson | Group lesson at the weekend |
|---|---|---|
| Schweizer Skischule Elm | CHF 225 for three hours | yes |
Every price and time
One ski school publishes its prices for Elm. What it charges for group and private lessons, and when its group lessons run:
- Schweizer Skischule Elm Swiss Ski School
- Group lessons
- children CHF 55 per half-day (2 h), children CHF 95 per day, CHF 195 for five half-days, CHF 260 for five days; from age 4; lunch supervision CHF 18 a day
- Private lessons
- CHF 95 per hour, CHF 175 for two hours, CHF 225 for three hours; for one person
- Times
- children’s group lessons 10:00–12:00 and 13:00–15:00; group lessons also on Saturdays and Sundays
Prices as the schools publish them, the low-season price where they vary; a lift ticket and rental are not included. Skiboard sells no lessons and earns nothing from a booking. Group or private lesson, and what ski schools charge across Switzerland
About Elm
Ski areas near Elm
How popular Elm is
Sportbahnen Elm AG counted 176'301 first entries (“Ersteintritte”) in fiscal year 2025/26.
How many ski here
Sportbahnen Elm AG counted 176'301 first entries (“Ersteintritte”) in fiscal year 2025/26. Annual report 2025/26
Each of the twenty areas Seilbahnen Schweiz counts had at least 411'000 skier days in winter 2025/26.
What polls say
- Blick Winter Awards 2025/26: 3rd in “Best ski area: leisure and fun”. 64'000 Blick readers voted, among 68 Swiss areas in five categories.
A skier day or first entry is one person on the lifts for one day, whatever the ticket. Skiboard adds no score of its own: the counts are what Seilbahnen Schweiz and the lift companies publish, the placings are polls run by others. Searches and social-media posts follow the news more than skiers, so they are left out.
Elm in numbers
25'656 winter hotel nights · 29 % second homes
Hotels, homes and lifts in Glarus Süd, where the area’s lifts start: the federal statistics, and what the lift company publishes.
Hotels
In winter 2025/26 (November to April) the hotels of Glarus Süd sold 25'656 overnight stays, +15.5 % on 2024/25. 27 % of their rooms were occupied, with up to 695 beds in 22 open hotels. In summer 2025 (May to October) they sold 45'357; over winter 2024/25 and that summer, 33 % of the nights were in winter.
Guests in winter 2025/26: 77 % of the nights were Swiss residents’, then Germany 6 %, United States 3 %, Netherlands 2 % and United Kingdom 1 %.
Winter hotel nights, season by season
| Winter | Overnight stays | Rooms occupied | Beds at peak |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025/26 | 25'656 | 27 % | 695 |
| 2024/25 | 22'206 | 27 % | 635 |
| 2023/24 | 23'330 | 32 % | 632 |
| 2022/23 | 25'394 | 30 % | 677 |
| 2021/22 | 29'582 | 31 % | 751 |
| 2020/21 | 22'003 | 23 % | 743 |
| 2019/20 | 23'683 | 26 % | 771 |
| 2018/19 | 27'519 | 26 % | 808 |
| 2017/18 | 25'686 | 22 % | 822 |
| 2016/17 | 25'778 | 24 % | 870 |
Homes
29 % of the 6'761 homes in Glarus Süd are second homes (housing inventory, October 2026). Above 20 %, the Second Homes Act allows no new second homes there, with narrow exceptions.
Upscale homes in Elm / Braunwald are offered at about CHF 6'900 per m² (UBS Swiss Alpine Property Focus 2026): -5.7 % on a year, +3.1 % a year over ten years.
Lifts
Sportbahnen Elm AG, fiscal year 2025/26: CHF 6.5 million revenue, CHF 3.5 million transport revenue and CHF 2.7 million invested. Its shares trade on OTC-X. Annual report 2025/26
3 installations with a federal licence (gondolas, cable cars, chairlifts and funiculars; drag lifts are licensed by the cantons). The newest licence: 2002 (Unter Ämpächli - Schabell); half of them date from 1996 or earlier.
The 3 federally licensed installations
| Installation | Type | Licensed | Length | Rise | Operator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unter Ämpächli - Schabell | chairlift | 2002 | 1'629 m | 587 m | Sportbahnen Elm AG |
| Elm Obermoos - Unter Ämpächli | gondola | 1996 | 1'140 m | 465 m | Sportbahnen Elm AG |
| Ober Ämpächli - Steinböden | chairlift | 1982 | 1'553 m | – | Sportbahnen Elm AG |
Commune figures count every hotel guest, not only skiers, and holiday flats are not in the hotel statistics. A licence year is when the installation’s current federal licence starts: usually the year it opened, sometimes a renewal.
Sources: Federal Statistical Office, hotel statistics (HESTA) · Federal Office for Spatial Development, housing inventory · Federal Office of Transport, cable cars with a federal licence · UBS Alpine Property Focus
Featured in
Catalog facts from OpenSkiMap / OpenStreetMap (ODbL). Where an SLF station is nearby, the app shows its measured snow, and the day-pass price is read from the operator’s own shop or tariff; for opening status, check the operator.
Skigebiet Elm · Domaine skiable Elm · Comprensorio sciistico Elm