The Pizol Schneeerlebnis area is built around five small lakes and a single cable car, with pistes that fan out from the Pizolhütte at 2,222 m back down to Furt and Gaffia. There are no green slopes on the trail map, but the blues are genuinely gentle and the reds long, well-pitched and groomed to a Swiss standard that rarely disappoints. The descent toward Wangs, when conditions allow, is one of the longest continuous runs in eastern Switzerland and the one that gives Pizol its reputation as the most panoramic ski outing within easy reach of Zurich. The infrastructure is modest, the queues are short, and the food, in keeping with the Heidiland tourism region, leans on cheese, Rhine valley wines and old Sankt Gallen mountain inns rather than club music. For a day from Zurich, with a stop in Bad Ragaz for the thermal baths on the way home, Pizol is hard to beat.