You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
@i_like_food first of all, what a great place to go. Skiing stateside is very different to European skiing, with much less in the way of apres ski piss ups, fewer on mountain eating options and generally much smaller ski areas.
But they’re usually very quiet in the week and outside of public holidays so lift queues are a rarity. I was at Timberline earlier this year and the entire resort had no more than 50 people on it one day.
On buying and renting, rentals are actually reasonably priced in the US, it’s the lift passes and ski lessons that are eye watering. If you can, see if your brother has options for discounted residents passes or knows of any places selling them cheap. Buying them at the resort window is the highest price, again in Oregon this year we paid nearly £200 for two of us just for one day at Mt Hood Meadows. Ouch.
And renting just boots might be a challenge too. Sure, I’m sure shops will rent them to you but they’ll be discounted with skis (not much use for one without another). I’d be doing some internet research before heading out.
Edit. Just looked at the JH website and lift passes are being limited and they’ve already sold out for 28, 29, 30 December and passes either side are $225 a day 😳.
Blimey, shit got expensive!
Just received an email from our electric supplier in Austria. From January electric prices going up by a factor of around 2.3
Our place is all electric, no gas, so the bills are going to be eye watering!
Can't your brother help with some of this? Does he know of any families etc that might have spare / old skis in the basement? I'd be somewhat leery of buying sight unseen ski gear off facebook market place. You've no idea of the condition of the bases, edges or bindings. If you're having to rent boots anyway then the incremental cost of getting a set of skis that are going to fit the boots and have been serviced recently shouldn't be too much extra.
Just looked at daily rentals at JH, $47 just for skis and $52 ish for skis and boots. Don’t take that to mean you can rent boots for $5 a day unfortunately.
@tuboflard and @sweaman2
Thanks. Yes, will ask my brother for help, although he knows about as much about skiing as I do!
Given the boots cost Vs skis I reckon I'll just go for everything and suck it up. I'll remortgage soon anyway 😂
Absolutely cannot wait. A week with junior and adventures, am very lucky and intend to appreciate every second.
The good thing about rentals is if you don’t like them you can go and swap them for a different set of skis. And they’ll be properly maintained with decent edges and base on them. Should be a blast, how many days are you there for?
@i_like_food when I was out in the states in the summer there was tons of snow sports gear in all the charity shops and ridiculously low prices. I’m sure it’s not great stuff, but for the sake of a beginner just getting out there, maybe your brother could do a bit of shopping for you and pick up some key bits of kit?
I’ve just discovered there’s potential for me to get a week in Salt Lake City in mid Feb. It could be my chance to learn to snowboard… wasn’t planning on another flight out there but it’s very tempting!
@stwhannah you should jump at the chance, SLC resorts are great for boarding (apart from Alta, pah), they don’t say “The Greatest Snow On Earth” on their plates for nothing.
Snowbird is probably the best resort for intermediates and above, so much terrain to go at and some great stuff you can hike to. I really like Brighton and Solitude too though, probably Brighton edges it for boarding. And Powder Mountain used to be great but think it’s gone a bit corporate in recent years, it used to be a really low key resort with just a small mountain hut and almost no one there.
@i_like_food Maybe buy boots and rent skis. Skis will affect your day less than boots. Rental boots may very well suck badly. They're usually more on the high-volume side. You can draw around your feet to figure out size and width and then see what's available near your brother. You can usually remold the liners a bit with some hot rice and an old sock to get a better fit.
I have just bought some new skis and bindings. I got the Season Nexus skis. I wanted something in the 108 waist area to use on medium-deep days. I'm going to get them mounted with Pivot 15s on the weekend after Thanksgiving.
Also, where were you going to spend just £2.2k on a week in half term?
I think the cheapest was Arabba, thanks to a last minute deal, and free ski passes for under 9s. But that still included lessons for the kids and a days guiding off piste for me. Unbelievable looking back.
We also skied St Anton 3 times I think, and Canezei one year. Can't remember where else. Never more than £700 each including flights, transfers, taxis to the airport, food, beer, skipasses, souvenirs, lunch in the Hutte, accomm9dation, ski carriage etc
Just realised I'm partly lying. We did Gressoney when covid hit and that was nearly 3 grand all in 🙁 blew the budget
Helps to be flexible about destination airport. Who knew you could ski Sella Ronda via Frankfurt... or that Nuremberg was great for St Anton!
I skied SLC earlier this year; Snowbird, especially the top bowls, my favourite. As noted already, lift passes were eye watering reflecting the fact that the lifts are run for a profit rather than a more community approach generally seen in Europe. It is worth exploring the season pass offers which allow skiing at more than one resort. What you spend on lift passes you save on long lunches and too much apres ski. If I went again I would consider buying skis as hiring was much more expensive than Europe, so if you can something teed up within the US i would encourage it.
Snowbasin. Just before the olympics. Acres of untracked fresh snow and nobody there.
Powder Mountain- did just what it said on the tin.
Alta- old hard snow but some lovely double blacks
'Bird - ditto, but allowed to use the board.
Canyons was great, but not much snow.
And some other place I can't recall.
Them a week in Moab on Poison Spider, Portal, Slickrock, Porcy
Then a couple of days at the Creek doing Supercrack of the Desert etc.
Then back to Snowbird for a couple of days.
Best holiday ever
So much wanted to go back for a return visit with the kids, but Covid.
Could probably blow the £550 budget each day at the current exchange rate, never mind in a week 🙂
I don’t think we are far over £1k pp at new year. CBA to count it all up right now but a quick tally comes up thereabouts.
Driving, tunnel, self cater, take skis & boots for all four of us. Cheap used for the kids off FB market place, but they use that on the dry slope most weeks.
Could probably blow the £550 budget each day at the current exchange rate, never mind in a week
I once calculated how much a ski holiday costs worked out as per hour on the slopes. I nearly cried.
Re boots if there is one thing to buy it's boots, uncomfortable hire boots can ruin the experience. With growing kids we've replaced boots most years, I buy (hardly) used boots off eBay for peanuts, with mondopoint it's pretty easy to get the right size it's foot length in mm (add 5-10mm for socks / comfort) the only thing to watch is width though it's usually possible to find out from manufactures websites. Sometimes it doesn't work out but easy to sell back on if you bought cheap. We know which brands do / don't work for us now. Never bothered with skis mainly as it adds transport costs, though I did own some easy to carry blades for a couple of seasons.
@i_like_food - Not sure where you are in the country, but there's a place near me (outer Cambridge) called SkiExchange, they do rentals for people to take with them, they are also bloody good boot fitters, as people have said boots make a difference. I'd look to rent boots from there and skis are less important in the early days, would mean flying with them, but it's doable.
I think my affliction for French resorts has seen me spend more in general (@thegenrealist), but I pretty much only manage a week a year, so like to treat myself to ski in ski out and decent resorts. I did a trip to a low resort in Austria once and vowed to never again return there!
@tuboflard a week, 24th Dec to 31st Dec. Hope to ski for 4 days in that stretch. Shame resorts don't open at night, could make the most of the jetlag!
@stwhannah there's a secondhand gear shop on Jackson, but landing late on Xmas eve means it'll be shut. Good call for getting my brother to go though 👍
@toby1 Hereford. Nothing like that round here I think, will have a look though.
@thegeneralist please never describe that trip to Utah again. It's very triggering 😉
please never describe that trip to Utah again. It’s very triggering 😉
Agreed, agreed.
But it was weird how you could find the best crack climbing on earth, the best mtb on earth and [ arguably] the best powder skiing on earth in the same place in the same trip.
Good job the white water kayaking there is shit 🙂
And the bouldering was mince too 😉
Meh, the food was not great in Utah, everything had added sugar - the bread, the butter, even the jam wsa sweeter than normal.
I just ordered a set of the Nidecker Supermatic bindings. Heading the Canada for Christmas so I'll pop my review up on the site in the new year. Anyone gone down the step in route already? Burton or Nidecker? I opted for the Nideckers because I really like my current boots and didn't want to have to get new Burton boots.
Meh, the food was not great in Utah, everything had added sugar – the bread, the butter, even the jam wsa sweeter than normal.
Compared to where, Nu Zuland?
Sacrilege!
I thought the food in Utah ( well, Moab at least) was brilliant compared to nevada and California.
First time in Cali I genuinely thought I was going to fade as I simply couldn't find enough non-rank food to keep me going.
Moab OTOH had lovely bakeries and cafes serving amazing breakfast and delis doing brilliant veggie sandwiches. Evening meals with excellent beer ( unbelievable but true) and great food.
Food on the ski hills was same old 'merkan shit so maybe it was just Moab that was special....?
i_like_food Brighton has skiing until 9pm several nights a week.
@i_like_food If you were planning on skiing at Jackson Hole on those dates unless you’ve already bought your passes then they’ve already sold out on 28, 29 and 30 December. You could possibly get a few days in at Grand Targhee instead (never been and has a bit of a reputation as being a bit foggy apparently) but should be quieter than JH.
@blackhat I don’t think he’s doing Utah and it’s about a 6 hour drive from JH to SLC.
My bad, conflated the two US mini-threads.
Grand Targhee is worth a day trip from JH for crowd free powder.
Anyone got any kids ski pants they would like to off-load?
14 yr old girl, but not pink!
Would prefer to get some used ones rather than buy more cheap new stuff. Tried Snowheads, nothing. The classified ads there seem quite quiet?
maybe it was just Moab that was special
We stayed in a suburb of SLC and skiied the Cottonwood Canyons. We had excellent stir fry at Snowbird, but all the other resorts were very much of a muchness. I was more referring to the food we bought in the local supermarkets, TBH. Food was so "meh" and the snow so good that Mrs NBT overdid things in terms of activity and didn't eat enough so had an energy crash, wiped out her immune system and ended up with bronchial pneumonia. That was not a fun few months 🙁
It may be something about being on unfamiliar territory but there is something peculiarly bland yet bad about a lot of the food we encountered in the US this year. A special mention for the large tub of candy floss.
Anyone else packing....
Been a while. Kids have grown again so think I need some new stuff, and to get rid of some of the 10 year old stuff!
Anyone got any kids ski pants they would like to off-load?
14 yr old girl,
Have PMd you. I've git shit loads of boots sallies poles and skis which I need to sell
. The classified ads there seem quite quiet?
That'll be because they don't work. I just tried to post a whole stack of ski stuff but it said I couldn't upload a picture as I didn't own the add ^##^#_>*
You can post pics hosted elsewhere on snowheads ads, but uploading pics with the ad is for site subscribers
I think I are a site subscriber.
As in paying? I'm sure that Graham said Snowheads and super-Snowheads could upload. I must admit i don't post many ads or even pay at all very much, i just help out by zapping spam merchants from time to time.
Sorry, I'm a ****wit. Never even saw the word "snowheads". I tried to post on the classifieds here. I'm so stoopid.
Thanks, TheGeneralist, we are now sorted for Ski Pants..
We are packing though..
🙂
We're off to Kaprun on Christmas eve, returning on NYE, looking forward to using the new lift linking the Maiskogel with the Kitzsteinhorn glacier avoiding the need for a bus. Only minor glitch being border controls being on strike while we're travelling both ways...
Not a bad season opener here in Aberdeenshire. Skied every day since last Friday, mostly in shin-deep powder (with no base to speak of). It's hero snow, right up to the point you hit a big clump of buried heather and it all stops. Quite a giggle!
in shin-deep powder (with no base to speak of). It’s hero snow, right up to the point you hit a big clump of buried heather and it all stops.
😬
My first foray of the season at the weekend will tick many firsts as a new California resident - I’m off to Heavenly, Lake Tahoe! 🙂
Big storms over the last week so whilst I won’t be riding fresh powder there should be Plenty of base down.
Have a season pass for Kirkwood (closest mountian) Northstar and Heavenly.
Hoping to get lots of riding in this year , family commitments aside. Can’t wait!
Even accounting for inflation, is everyone finding next year's prices insanely high?
We're sorting out our usual 2 weeks in cervinia. Historically we could have our pick of very reasonably priced accomodation even leaving booking until a few weeks before going.
Looking this year and we've managed to bag a very basic hotel for about £500 each for the first week in April and that was pretty much the only thing we could get unless you wanted to spend an eye watering amount. Just had another look on Trivago and the cheapest place on there is £330 per night for an awful location.
I've been looking for a cheeky week sometime in Jan or Feb. Just a package for convenience and I'm only seeing crap resorts in 2 star apartments for £1100+ for a week. That's flying from Scotland.
Hoping prices drop in the next few weeks!
Was hoping to join up with a group who I usually ski with. They had already booked as group. To stay in the same hotel as them in Tignes in early March it was going to cost £1700, and that excluded the lift pass - admittedly the price was hiked by a £500 single room supplement. Anyway, with the total cost for a week going over the two grand mark, I decided I'm sadly not going to join the group this year and hope I can find someone to share a room with for next year. If I do go this year, it will be a last minute deal on my own, which takes away much of the pleasure of skiing with friends and enjoying the apres ski.
Skiing as a single is hideously expensive. The last time I did it I got a last minute place with a Skivolution (company in Courchevel run by Dave Beatty) at a reduced rate. If you say you are prepared to share the room then you don't pay the supplement. If there is another single, same sex traveller then you'll share with a stranger and if not then you get the room to yourself. The lessons were included in the cost of the chalet so I had people to ski with. Very fortunate as the group took me under their wing and I skied with them outside of the lessons too. It was a great trip.
You could try club med ....
Snowheads organise several trips where solo skiiers are accomodated with other suitable persons and they're usually big enough that there will always be a good mix of people both socially and in terms of skiing ability. If you're young enough then UCPA (book via Action Outdoors in the UK) is also worth a look
Booked alpe d huez for february half term, french schools.
Prices are up. Flat is 1200, probably 900 3 years ago.
Just got back from an early season week in Tignes. We drove again and whilst lift prices etc have all gone up from last year we tried to keep costs down by cooking in the Appartment every night (8 of us sharing!) It worked out pretty well actually!
It does worry me more and more that Winter trips in Europe are increasingly becoming the reserve of the wealthy few ... there's been a stark drop in diversity I think over the past few years ... and the Pandemic seems to have exacerbated it!
For solo travellers in Europe - have a look at 'Cold Fusion' based in the Chamonix Valley - they cater specifically for people travelling alone - although you will probably have to share a room with someone else. 'Mark Warner' used to offer something similar, but I'm not sure if they do anymore - many of the UK winter tour operators in Europe have apparently struggled to retain/recruit people eligible to work in the EU ...
what was the snow like Digby?
Just back from a week skiing in Oz/Vaujany/Alpe D'Huez.
Amazing snow. Blue skies. Empty slopes. Not too expensive. Solider Jnr progressed really well and we managed some family skiing too.
Worst part of the trip was the 2 hour delay each way on the Channel Tunnel. Hateful experience at the best of times, but the travel was worth it.
Looking to book again in March but will wait until nearer the time to check the late snow conditions.
what was the snow like Digby?
It was really good - although I think some areas have now been impacted by the more recent milder temps & rain in some places - which is a real shame as it was shaping up to be a pretty decent start to the season!
We were the same. Consistent snow and minus 2 degrees until the day we left when it hit 8 degrees and rainy. Christmas week looks soggy and melty! I do wonder about the future of European skiing in 20 years below 2,000 metres.
Car packed, tunnel at 9:30 Boxing Day. Hopefully a smooth journey and some reasonable snow in the 3V. Kids (and me) quite excited!🤣
Biblical rain in the PDS has caused a huge landside that's washed away the ground one of the lift towers is built on in Chatel 😱
Chantel, That looks like a tricky fix. The fact the whole pylon and foundation are hanging off one arm and the cable hasn’t let go shows how over engineered the whole lot is.
Well, the New Year did not get off to the expected start. Flaine and the Grand Massif have taken the unprecendent action of closing the resort to day tickets until 6th Jan then they are going to review it on a day by day basis. As we were due to go out on 7th Jan and there is no snow forecast this week we've moved the Chunnel booking and I will try and hand back the week of leave.
Luckily we think we've managed to get the accommodation for the start of March so we'll try again then.
Gutted
I’m heading to Flaine on 6 Jan 😳. Just hoping there’s enough to keep the lower runs open (I believe they’re even trucking in snow now) and then Sunday and Monday comes good with a bit of new snow. No options to cancel without losing the lot though and a group of 7 so will just have to suck it up and hope for the best.
Fingers crossed for @tuboflard and @nbt
Our new plans may fall through if work insist I take the leave as planned but hopefully they will be understanding about it.
I’m actually toying with the idea of booking La Plagne instead and just accept we lose the money on the Flaine accommodation. We’re only doing a long weekend so want to get some miles in and looking at La Plagne it’s almost entirely open.
I am just back today from Flaine. Skied there Saturday, was just like a day in April but with way more people.
We had a good day anyway but wouldn’t want to do it everyday for a week.
Back out on 12th but expecting to do more cycling than skiing tbh.
@sprootlet - hope you get out there for some late season, book accom soon though as people are pushing back weeks
Thanks Dozofoz, friends who are out in Samoens have just bailed and gone to Chamonix for the final few days of their trip.
We'll be taking hiking gear out at this rate
We are currently in Valmeinier in the Galibier Thabor ski area. It is generally thin. I think about 2/3 of the runs are open. Where there has been artificial snow there is generally a decent depth, but just above where the snowmaking stops, maybe 2100m, although there is some natural snow, it's thin and rock riddled. There is one lift and one piste linking to Valloire, although you can downlift by chair. The single link piste is pretty ropey in places but passable.
The best skiing is on the lower slopes on a thick base of artificial snow. In this zone the "off piste" is 100% bare. Like summer, but brown.
This was a cheap deal for us. Just over £1000 for accommodation (tiny 4 person appt) and 4 x 6-day liftpasses, so I am not complaining. I am more worried about our Easter trip. Lots more snow is needed, and soon, and a switch a switch to sustained cold. I think it was 13 degrees C at the bottom in Valloire today!
We're in the 3 vallees this week, it's not too bad here by the sounds of things compared to the other places mentioned above.
It's patchy below 2000m,but we can still ski back to resort at 1400m .above 2000m the pistes are fine. In the 3 vallees it seems about two thirds of all runs are open.
Obviously there is no off piste to be had.
First day of the season at Glencoe today. Good cover everywhere. Bitterly cold with the wind getting up every now and again but not bad for the 2nd of January. Got to try out the new chairlift which will be a huge help to beginners as its much easier than the plateau button tow, however I have to say that the off ramp at the end of the new lift is crazy steep. You get very little time to get off the chair and the run out is very steep and there's a snow bank at the bottom. I saw a fair bit of carnage on it today and even with 30 years boarding experience, I was taking my board off and holding it rather than trying to ride off at the end. I could've managed it fine, but it was more the endless pile of bodies from folk falling that was more of a concern!
Also just back from 3V (LaTania) never arrived in a resort in such rain, the road was like a river on Monday night From Chambery to resort. I had bad expectations for our time there. Turned out good in the end. Pretty much everything open icy in the morning soft in the afternoon lower down Above 2000m it was good and surprisingly not too busy considering other resort difficulties. We are booked for La Plagne at Easter but had thought of a cheeky trip with a mate in between. I’ll be hoping for more snow before long.
Just how bad are the runs back down to the base like @dozofoz? Struggling to get a clear picture of just how bad they are. Thinking stuff like lower Serpentine, lower Tourmaline and the green Epicea.
Don’t mind them being slushy but if they’re full of rocks and having to dodge big brown bare patches of earth I’d rather not bother. Only there for 3 full days so would rather just cover ground than dodge mud.
@tuboflard - if you just skied down from Grand Platieres to either of the chairs (Desert Blanc, D.Boir) then the snow cover was fine and I imagine will have held up ok the past few days. Problem was those lifts had 10min queues, so we always just went back down to base to telecabins, Aup Veron had no queues all day. The snow cover on the bottom half was patchy but really just the last few 100m of blue and the green (whatever name is) that loops around was a problem.
Put it this way, I was riding a brand new board and was happy that it was easy enough to avoid stones, rocks, grass etc.
Big dump incoming early next week though 🙂
We were in Val Thorens last week, freeze-thaw conditions for the first few days meant afternoons of lumpy & slushy fake snow down low, but up high it was pretty good for most of the week.
Snowed a bit so there was a bit of powder to be had if you got up early.
Orelle had decent snow as well.
Didn't bother with the other valleys.
We've stayed in Les Menuires the last couple of times, glad we spent extra to go up the hill this year.
@Jimdudleyou, It was nice off the top of Pointe de la Masse. A bit of powder to be had on NY Eve. Sadly we didn't get over to Orelle. I was surprised that there were still fresh tracks to be had at the easy to reach stuff, by the time we got there from La Tania.
Just back from Les Gets - green fields everywhere. Had to drive up to Avoriaz where it wasn't too bad if you stayed high and didn't mind the crowds. Bumps were pretty big by midday though.
Lots of injuries the last few days but luckily not to the 8 year old girl who smacked head first into the barriers and catch netting on a turn on a steepish blue at full tilt.
I was geniunely not expecting good things when I asked her if she was hurt but luckily she was just shook up.
Was raining hard again in the village at 6am this morning. If I had a trip booked there in the next week I would be trying to switch to a different resort ASAP.
To be fair Les Gets has been a bit of a lottery for a while. Personally don’t like the ski area much at the best of times - far too much travelling across flattish terrain to get to the good bits, plus more than one trek on foot if you want to travel across the whole area.
Looks like getting cold again in a week or so - fingers crossed for Les Arcs at the beginning of Feb…
I’ve switched my Flaine trip to La Plagne yesterday, it’s cost us about an extra £100 per person but worth it for a decent base from resort level at 2000m. Also managed to bag a brand new apartment which is substantially cheaper than the hotel we had originally booked so hoping to recover some of the costs through avoiding £8 pints.
And the forecast does seem to be coming good for Sunday and Monday with consistent snow across most forecasts as well as dropping temps. Did someone say powder day?!
Has anyone stayed in Brides-le-Bains? Whats the link to the ski area like, gondola to Meribel?
Has anyone stayed in Brides-le-Bains? Whats the link to the ski area like, gondola to Meribel?
I wouldn't this season, it's cheap for a reason, it takes ages to get up to the slopes in the morning, and the last lift back is pretty early.
The olympic only brings you into Meribel itself, you have another couple of lifts from the village to get to the good stuff.
I wouldn’t this season
We're not going until the first week of April, so plenty of time for snow yet....
We were'nt going to bother this year for various reasons, but now thinking we might get something cheap late on in the season. Dont mind a bit of faff but if it's gonna take an hour to get from apartment to slopes then might give that a miss....
...Which it will, ads678.
The Olympe takes over 20 minutes from Brides up to la Chaudanne in Méribel; the bottom of the pistes. It's only ok if you're happy having up to an hour's commute before getting on the slopes every day.
I wouldn't be comparing late season conditions to how it is right now. You could be knee deep in the pistes mid April, it's often the case. The French have a saying "Noel au balcon, Pâques au tison" Christmas on the balcony, Easter by the fireside. Not that it's sure, but it happens.
Bummer, sounds rubbish. Might have to forget that one then. Looks a nice place though.
Yeah I've been in easter a few times and had some very different weather day to day, so know it can be great. Usually not very busy either, which is a bonus!
Has anyone stayed in Brides-le-Bains? Whats the link to the ski area like, gondola to Meribel?
Yep me too. Would I do it again? Not in a million years!!
Serious question. Is anyone genuinely thinking of taking their bikes instead of skis if this season doesn’t improve? Would it actually be viable? Suppose gondolas would be ok but chairlifts won’t have the bike holders fitted? Would they allow to you ride the trails in winter? Or If we were to do a big back country pedal out - what would conditions be like?
Got a weekend in chamonix coming up in a couple of weeks… got La Plagne booked for march too - La Plagne snow cover looks fine tbf, but who knows about spring time…
It’s been super wet out there so what will any bike trails be like to ride? Not great I suspect.
It will be ok, snow will come. It’s all happened before. Two of the theee seasons I did we had to bus customers out for the start of the season.
Woop woop, just booked L2A for first week in April*! Bonus with it being Easter weekend at the end of the week, only need to take 4 days off work and can then get the overnight ferry home on Sunday night. 🍬
*Hopefully there will be some snow by then....
Has anyone stayed in Brides-le-Bains? Whats the link to the ski area like, gondola to Meribel?
It's not so much the ride up, although that isn't pleasant to sit in that little bubble with a hangover, but the last one back is at 5PM which is really limiting at Easter. The only alternative to get down is an expensive taxi.
Pistes are fine here in Hochkoenig (Austria)
Quiet week too
