Preview: discovery of the Six Senses Crans-Montana, a new luxury resort in the Swiss Alps

The snow crunches on the last meters of piste n°2 in Crans-Montana.

Skiers heading towards the gondolas can't help but turn their heads, just long enough to take a look: set on a massive stone base, two tall chalets with slate roofs and glass balconies now stand between the larches.

Below, half a stick-length away, the start of the Cry d'Er gondolas.

At the very top, the Plaine Morte glacier (2,927 metres), the highest point of the 140 kilometers of slopes in Crans-Montana, the eternal sunny spot of the Swiss Alps.

In the luxury boutiques of the rue du Prado and on the snowy paths of the resort, we have long watched for the arrival of the newcomer of the hotel group Six Senses.

Here it is, built on the cable car route.

With such an address, it was popular: here,

we reach new heights.

But first, you have to dive underground: a wide tunnel runs towards the reception of the resort, set in the depths of the mountain.

Begins a “journey towards the light”, thought by Reda Amalou and Stéphanie Ledoux.

The architects of AW2, already accomplices of Six Senses in Vietnam, have taken up a frame from the local architect Jean-Pierre Emery.

In the vast lobby, you barely stay long enough to admire the panels embedded in the ceiling like pine needles and to ring five Swiss bells hanging from the wall, to summon the senses.

already accomplices of Six Senses in Vietnam, took up a frame of the local architect Jean-Pierre Emery.

In the vast lobby, you barely stay long enough to admire the panels embedded in the ceiling like pine needles and to ring five Swiss bells suspended from the wall, to summon the senses.

already accomplices of Six Senses in Vietnam, took up a frame of the local architect Jean-Pierre Emery.

In the vast lobby, you barely stay long enough to admire the panels embedded in the ceiling like pine needles and to ring five Swiss bells hanging from the wall, to summon the senses.

The elevator will do the rest: you come to the fifth floor, the real heart of the hotel with its long counter in Vals stone, its art library, its smoking room with a view of the slopes and its mineral terrace with the large swimming pool. exterior, all in quartzite.

A serious competitor to the solarium, which opens higher up to the bluish immensity of the Alpine chain, from the Matterhorn to Mont Blanc.

Read alsoWhere to ski in Valais?

From Zermatt to Crans-Montana, great skiing facing the giants of the Alps

Modern lines and mountain incursions

The interiors exude softness everywhere, tinged with a very slight hint of vintage and modernized mountain codes.

Six Senses Resort / Press Photo

If the exteriors play on linear modernity, the interiors exude softness everywhere, tinged with a very slight hint of vintage (low leather sofas, ceramic lamps, thick rugs) and modernized mountain codes (natural wools, raw planks, notes of wood and cream), never demonstrative.

On the walls of the corridors, recycled cork, on the floor, a thick carpet with sinuous patterns, like a path of earth and roots.

The same accuracy of tone in the bedroom (45 today, 78 when the set will be completed at the end of 2023), which opens like a designer cabin behind its larch door.

Raw wood panels, rock-coloured coated walls, bathroom entirely in stone, generous private terrace with a view of the forest.

And a string of little details that are the signature of the Six Senses: yoga mats in the cupboards, rainwear from the Danish brand Rains, 100% natural products with a good scent of blueberry and echinacea... The architects wanted to create “

 ”.

Successful bet.

You almost have to resign yourself to going to the ski shop, directly open to the slopes, where sharp brands equip the sliders (Dénériaz skis,

Guided tour of the Six Senses Crans-Montana

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At a time when the mountains are turning pink, the hotel takes care of its après-ski: at the bar, the cocktails make the great schuss of originality around the flavors of Valais (in the glasses, Swiss sparkling wine, or chocolate bitters) .

As for the plates, the Japanese Alps land at the

, serving ramens, onsen eggs and stewed in miso.

Red velvet, black lacquer, paper lanterns: the decor relies on the discrepancy with the optical white of the tracks and slums around the turntables in the evening.

At the

plays a relaxed score, never lazy.

Pizzas, yes, but with pumpkin or veal tongue.

Sandwiches, yes, but over a wood fire and with alpine cheeses.

In the evening, the menu headed by chef Lorenz Hoja shifts towards locavore gastronomy.

A poached perch next to a Vaudois sausage flambéed with absinthe, an ice cream with pine needles wins all the votes.

A spa like an altitude cave

The pinnacle of well-being is reached in the nearly 30-meter indoor pool!

Six Senses Resort / Press Photo

For those who like to pamper their muscles before their taste buds, the

displays its curves on two floors.

In a chiaroscuro corridor that looks like a glacial cave is the hammam and not one, but four saunas (Finnish, infrared, organic salt, stone).

Among the options after a day spent slaloming: a

session , or technology at the service of muscle recovery.

Legs slipped into connected waders, programmed to massage and stimulate circulation.

Disconcerting but effective.

The foot leaves light.

For those who prefer human expertise, recovery massages target athletes (such as

, alternating stretches and pressures), and smart yoga sessions are held every morning.

But the pinnacle of well-being is reached in the nearly 30-meter indoor swimming pool, opening onto a garden of birches.

On the ceiling oscillate 15,000 oak rods (which must be cleaned by hand…) whose imperceptible swinging soothes like a mobile.

Some see tree roots plunging down to their source, others wooden stalactites crowning an aquatic grotto: each swimmer has his own dream.

And to all of them, an experience at high altitude, from which one does not quite descend.

Six Senses Crans-Montana, 60, route des Téléphériques, Crans-Montana, Switzerland.

Such.

: +41 58 806 20 20. From 710 euros per night, breakfast included.