Melchsee-Frutt
Melchsee-Frutt is a ski destination in Bern / Obwalden with 34 km of mapped pistes and 14 lifts, between 1'080 m and 2'232 m. Mostly blue, 6 km black. Nearby: Hasliberg Reuti, Innertkirchen, Melchtal.
Rank Melchsee-Frutt against every ski area near Lucerne for this weekend
This weekend
Measured snow, weekend forecast and day pass
Snow at the nearest SLF station
Snow depth 6 cm, 6.7 cm of new snow in 24 hours, at SLF station Gschletteregg (2'063 m), 9.9 km from the ski area. Measured on .
Source: WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, IMIS station GAD2. This is the nearest comparable station, not the ski area's own pistes. Fetched .
Weekend forecast
- : Partly cloudy, 4°C, wind 5 km/h
- : Partly cloudy, 4°C, wind 5 km/h
Source: MeteoSwiss, local forecast for Melchsee-Frutt (1'926 m, 0.7 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 69 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: frutt.ch, “Sportpass 1 Tag bis 17.30 Uhr, Erwachsene ab 20 Jahre”, read .
For the size: the area maps 34 km of pistes and 1'152 m of vertical, and areas like that charged about CHF 58 for . This pass is 19% 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
On the Magic Pass: Magic Pass areas this weekend
Parking at Melchsee-Frutt
Main car park: Parkhaus Stöckalp · CHF 13 for a ski day · frutt.ch, read 30 Oct 2026
5 car parks by the lifts
OpenStreetMap maps these 5 car parks by the lifts of Melchsee-Frutt, the biggest first.
- Car park 120 m from the Cheselen · piste 90 m away · Map
- Car park paid · 230 m from the Vogelbüel · by a piste · Map
- Car park 230 m from the Cheselen · piste 190 m away · Map
- Car park 130 m from the Stöckalp - Melchsee-Frutt · piste 110 m away · Map
- Car park by the Cheselen · by a piste · 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Lucerne | 39 min | 52 minStöckalp · 1 change |
| Zug | 56 min | 1h 26Stöckalp · 2 changes |
| Bern | 1h 16 | 1h 58Stöckalp · 2 changes |
| Zürich | 1h 20 | 1h 48Stöckalp · 2 changes |
| Zurich Airport | 1h 28 | 2h 09Stöckalp · 3 changes |
| Winterthur | 1h 38 | 2h 18Stöckalp · 3 changes |
| Chur | 1h 46 | 3h 20Stöckalp · 3 changes |
| Basel | 1h 53 | 2h 17Stöckalp · 2 changes |
| St. Gallen | 2h 01 | 3h 00Stöckalp · 3 changes |
| Lausanne | 2h 21 | 3h 18Stöckalp · 2 changes |
| Geneva | 3h 10 | 4h 04Stöckalp · 2 changes |
| Geneva Airport | 3h 11 | 4h 13Stöckalp · 2 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 Melchsee-Frutt Booking.com · Saturday to Sunday, 7 Nov – 8 Nov · 2 adults
- Train and ski pass: Snow’n’Rail Melchsee-Frutt Not on sale at the moment · SBB RailAway, train ticket and ski pass together
The mountain
Facts
- Mapped pistes
- 34 km
- Blue pistes
- 20 km
- Red pistes
- 8 km
- Black pistes
- 6 km
- Lifts
- 14
- Top station
- 2'232 m
- Base
- 1'080 m
- Vertical
- 1'152 m
- Longest mapped run
- 5 km, from 1'970 m down to 1'080 m
- Mountain restaurants
- 5
- Canton
- Bern / Obwalden
Piste map
How steep the pistes in Melchsee-Frutt are
Blue: gentler than most. Red and black: typical.
| Colour | Pistes | Steepest 100 m, typically | All of Switzerland | Here |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue | 7 · 17.2 km | 23 % | 28 % | gentler than most |
| Red | 7 · 7.2 km | 41 % | 38 % | typical |
| Black | 3 · 4.6 km | 47 % | 51 % | typical |
The steepest 100 m: 56 % on 4 Jäst (black).
Flat stretches 3
- 17 Vogelbüel Blue · 52 % of its 900 m nearly flat: on a snowboard you may have to push · Map
- 11 Erzegg - Distelboden Blue · 44 % of its 4.3 km nearly flat: on a snowboard you may have to push · Map
- 1 Bonistock - Melchsee-Frutt Blue · 41 % of its 3.5 km nearly flat: on a snowboard you may have to push · Map
Long descents without flat stretches 3
How this was measured
Skiboard measured the 17 pistes OpenStreetMap maps in Melchsee-Frutt (28.9 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 Melchsee-Frutt
OpenStreetMap maps 5 places to eat or drink up the mountain in Melchsee-Frutt, highest first.
- Bonihorst Bar · about 2'160 m · Map
- Restaurant Bonistock Restaurant · about 2'160 m · Map
- Bergrestaurant Erzegg Restaurant · about 1'900 m · Map
Show 2 more
- Alphütte Bettenalp Restaurant · about 1'770 m · Map
- Bärgbeizli Cheselen Restaurant · about 1'400 m · Map
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 Melchsee-Frutt
| School | Private lesson | Group lesson at the weekend |
|---|---|---|
| Schweizer Ski- und Snowboardschule Melchsee-Frutt | CHF 250 for three hours | weekdays only |
Every price and time
One ski school publishes its prices for Melchsee-Frutt. What it charges for group and private lessons, and when its group lessons run:
- Schweizer Ski- und Snowboardschule Melchsee-Frutt Swiss Ski School
- Group lessons
- children CHF 49 per half-day (2 h), CHF 215 for five half-days; from age 3
- Private lessons
- CHF 95 per hour, CHF 170 for two hours, CHF 250 for three hours, CHF 320 for a day (4 h); for one person; each further person CHF 10
- Times
- children’s group lessons Monday to Friday, 10:00–12:00 and 14:00–16:00; group lessons on weekdays only
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 Melchsee-Frutt
Ski areas near Melchsee-Frutt
How popular Melchsee-Frutt is
Blick Winter Awards 2025/26: 1st in “Best ski area: leisure and fun” (2 times in a row)
What polls say
- Blick Winter Awards 2025/26: 1st in “Best ski area: leisure and fun” (2 times in a row). 64'000 Blick readers voted, among 68 Swiss areas in five categories.
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.
Melchsee-Frutt in numbers
16 % second homes
Hotels, homes and lifts in Kerns, where the area’s lifts start: the federal statistics, and what the lift company publishes.
Hotels
The Federal Statistical Office publishes no hotel figures for Kerns: it leaves out communes with few hotels.
Homes
16 % of the 3'495 homes in Kerns are second homes (housing inventory, October 2026). Below 20 %, the Second Homes Act does not restrict new ones.
Lifts
6 installations with a federal licence (gondolas, cable cars, chairlifts and funiculars; drag lifts are licensed by the cantons). The newest licence: 2012 (Stöckalp - Melchsee Frutt); half of them date from 1997 or earlier.
The 6 federally licensed installations
| Installation | Type | Licensed | Length | Rise | Operator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stöckalp - Melchsee Frutt | gondola | 2012 | 3'051 m | 852 m | Korporation Kerns |
| Distelboden - Erzegg | chairlift | 2004 | 1'607 m | 249 m | Korporation Kerns |
| Bettenalp - Bonistock | chairlift | 2001 | 1'389 m | – | Korporation Kerns |
| Cheselenfirst - Bettenalp | chairlift | 1997 | 1'086 m | 378 m | Korporation Kerns |
| Stöckalp - Erzhuis - Cheselenfirst | chairlift | 1997 | 1'280 m | 319 m | Korporation Kerns |
| Distelboden - Bonistock | cable car | 1977 | 982 m | 258 m | Korporation Kerns |
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 Office for Spatial Development, housing inventory · Federal Office of Transport, cable cars with a federal licence
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 Melchsee-Frutt · Domaine skiable Melchsee-Frutt · Comprensorio sciistico Melchsee-Frutt