St. Moritz Snow Polo: Luiza Rodas’s weekend on the frozen lake

TRAVEL · BY LUIZA RODAS

St. Moritz turns a winter lake into a sporting venue, then allows the weekend to continue throughout the town. At the Snow Polo World Cup, the game is the centre of the gathering without being its only destination.

During my visit with friends, the contrast was immediate: horses and players moving across the frozen surface, with the Alps behind them and spectators gathered around a temporary winter arena. Cashmere, wool, sunglasses and Champagne formed part of the scene, but the setting gave it a scale that a conventional field could not reproduce.

The surface sets the conditions

The tournament depends on the lake and on the organisation required to use it safely. An earlier claim that it is the only polo event on ice anywhere in the world was too broad. St. Moritz’s distinction can be appreciated without erasing other snow-polo events.

For a spectator, the appeal is the relationship between the speed of the game and the apparently still landscape around it. The mountains remain in view while the field changes from a stretch of water into the focus of the weekend.

After the match

The gathering continues at Badrutt’s Palace, where the view of the frozen lake keeps the event present even when the game has finished. The Kulm offers another setting, with its fireplaces providing a place to warm up between appointments.

Those transitions give the weekend its character. It is possible to follow the sport closely, then spend time around a table or a fire without feeling that the day has split into unrelated activities.

A day on the mountain

The ski slopes provide another route through St. Moritz. On the day I described, Paradiso Mountain Club made a natural lunch stop between runs, combining an après-ski atmosphere with the practical rhythm of a mountain day.

Its hours follow that rhythm rather than those of a late-night town restaurant. Returning towards St. Moritz on skis extended the afternoon in a way that belonged to the place, not to a scheduled series of hotel activities.

Dinner at Langosteria St. Moritz introduced another part of the international winter scene. Italian cooking and a cosmopolitan dining room continued the social life that had begun at the lake.

The next winter

The organiser lists the next tournament for 22–24 January 2027. That future programme is separate from the weekend recounted here, and lake conditions, access and event arrangements should be checked for the specific visit.

What remained with me was the connection between the elements: the sport, the snow, a table with friends and a room warmed by a fire. At St. Moritz, winter was not merely the season surrounding the event. It was the reason those experiences belonged together.

Further information: organiser.

Instagram: Snow Polo St. Moritz.

Reporting: Luiza Rodas

Cover: Snow polo in St. Moritz. Archive image.