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It's August - time for a new one of these.
What have you all got planned?
I'm currently looking at a week at New Year with the boy and maybe some decent Scottish snow?
Val Thorens in early March
😎
Saalbach Feb half term with the family. Hopefully a week somewhere else with mates but doesn't get decided until much later on. Guessing resorts will be much busier than last year!
Not sure yet. A load of us are going somewhere in early March for a long week for my (elder) sisters 50th birthday. Might be Samoens but not finalised yet. Depending on funds that could be it next year.....😞
This will be my first Winter living in Finland, so I'm looking forward to riding without having to get on a flight somewhere. In-Laws are in Lapland, so we'll probably ride some of the higher resorts a couple of times throughout Winter.
I miss the Alps though, hopefully next year.
Grand Massif in January. May get a season pass so we can go back out later as well. Might get to meet @sprootlet who I recall often spens January in GM?
Work is getting in the way of our preferred month of skiing in January !
Hope to be out there for 2 weeks though, will look at skillico for the lift pass as the seasons pass is probably not economical this year. Might be able to do some touring in Verbier towards the end of the season.
I'd usually be looking to get something booked in August, but with spiralling costs at the moment the 'ski-fund' is empty! This is not a satisfactory situation as I refuse to miss another year, 1 mid-covid was enough.
Les Mens was excellent in March this year, although lacking in fresh snow. I'm very tempted to ski-train it to hills next year too.
Hopefully if I can convince the SO after she broke her wrist last time. Think I'll get her ski lessons rather than snowboard.
Otherwise my mates are off to Andorra at some point.
6 weeks in Verbier for me from the middle of Feb. Accommodation booked. I CANNOT WAIT.
Les Arcs end of Jan/beginning of Feb
Whistler for Christmas!
Just added my kidney in the classifieds
We’ve got a week in January somewhere, probably a package of some sort and about 12 days in the camper in March.
Wife just started looking last night, anyone got any info on Cervinia?
Champery in Feb, might be the last one with the boy.
Not wanting to put an immediate downer on things but has anyone seen the chat about possible limits on skiing in Europe due to power shortages this winter? Is this a realistic risk?
@phil5556 Did Cervinia last year. Generally great but would describe runs as easy/cruisy. I forked out for expensive pass to include Zermatt and only got over 1 day - doesn't take much to close the link.
Good for snow reliability and didn't feel ridiculously expensive. We did Airbnb in Ciel Alto and self drive from Milan.
Saalbach a few times for me and I suppose a possibility of Solden. I'm thinking about joining a gym this week as lockdown laziness hasn't gone away yet and last winter was a struggle.
St Anton 1st Feb, 4 days with the lads snowboarding. Excited as it will be 3 years due to the obvious.
Wife just started looking last night, anyone got any info on Cervinia?
I've been loads as we used to go at Easter. I'm a fan, especially with the link to Zermatt, but it's very open with few trees - not as pretty as some of the Dolomites resorts. It does have the longest continuous run in the Alps, starting in Switzerland and finishing at Valtournenche. Restaurants and bars are OK. On slope options are OK too.
Broached the subject when the ski club put out details of the annual trip (Tignes for £1100 in March), didn't receive a favourable response.
My partner wants to visit an ailing cousin in Vancouver, our youngest daughter and just need to convince her we should visit in March!
Other than that, fingers crossed for some Scottish skiing!
Doc has said that I can ski again in the new year. I'll be teaching again this winter if the resort is ok with me not teaching until after Christmas. I'll be interested to see what happens with skier numbers in Colorado this year. In 2008 the numbers seemed as high as ever despite the recession and high lift ticket (at the time) prices.
If anyone is planning on coming to Colorado and are thinking of taking lessons message me, I know instructors at a lot of the resorts who I could put you in contact with, if you don't already have someone in mind. The instructors will make a bit extra on a request lesson, and it'll give you the chance to find out if they'd be right for you before taking the lesson.
Verbier for 6 weeks. That sounds lovely.
Cervinia, you should get a refund for days where you can’t use the extension. Try now, you never know!
Our plans, booked La Tania for NY. Looking at options for Easter. Contemplating Cervinia as it happens. Never had a bad week at Easter.
Cervinia is good v wide cruisy pistes. Not sure about a week there though. If you have a car the aosta valley pass gives you access to a range of locations and you can pick your fancy and the weather conditions for the day.
Cheers, Cervinia is off the table for now, maybe one to look at fora day or 2 when we’re in the van instead.
Ischgl is now booked with Crystal. It was the trip that got cancelled at the beginning of covid so going to try again.
Val Cenis for us over Christmas, daughter worked for MGF last season so she's keen to show us all the secret stuff. My family are all competent off piste skiers except for me, so I'm a bit nervous and will be looking for any excuse to get back on piste!
We normally stay in chalets or hotels, any tips for finding a decent apartment? Ideally one with a proper oven - the last one we rented just had some weird combination microwave / oven thing that we couldn't figure out how to work properly. Specifically looking for a place in Flaine in March...
Stay in one of the MGM or CGH complexes. Much nicer than the rabbit hutch sized Pierre et Vacances ones built in the 80’s.
We book through Peak Retreats as they include Flexi Plus crossings both ways.
We normally stay in chalets or hotels, any tips for finding a decent apartment? Ideally one with a proper oven – the last one we rented just had some weird combination microwave / oven thing that we couldn’t figure out how to work properly. Specifically looking for a place in Flaine in March…
RockyPop hotel in Flaine has fully fitted apartments too which have proper kitchens. I’m stopping there in January though just in the hotel.
Has anyone any advice for getting to the Alps from northern areas without flying? Trying to weigh up options for a family trip during school holidays. Currently considering (a) Newcastle-Amsterdam ferry plus train (b) train all the way, changing in London (at least) (c) driving, but can't realistically see us driving each way being a recipe for happiness all round. So any suggestions/experiences of trying to do this gratefully received!
We drove from Manchester this season for the first time. Worst bit was getting to Eurotunnel, driving in France was a million times better. Hoping to use the train this year but the booking doesn't open until 2 or 3 months before the date of travel, so I've booked refundable eurotunnel tickets as well. We set off Thursday night, got the Eurotunnel on Friday, then into resort on Saturday. Coming home, we actually left resort on Friday night and drove a couple of hours, then on Saturday drove up to just short of calais. The last leg home on Sunday was then relatively easy. We shared driving between 2 of us, but only traveled for about 8 hours per day. If you had more drivers and / or could drive for longer then you can do it quicker, obviously. I do know people who've left work on Friday and still managed to be skiing before the lifts close on Saturday, but that did involve driving through the night
How many drivers have you got? How happy are the younger family members in the car?
We drive from Bristol, not as far as you have to travel, I suspect.
We usually drive out with a stop in Dijon, stop at tea time, leave in the morning arrive early afternoon after a big shop in Bourg St. Maurice. We do the return in a long day.
Perversely we all tend to enjoy the drive, kids get a chance to mong out listening to audio books or reading.
Driving on the French auto route is a breeze. My wife and I share driving (75% me).
Its cheaper than flying, we all have our own kit (Cheap used kit for the kids off Ebay, but they use that on plastic) Saves lots on hire, we take lots of stuff, too. We self cater, and take pre prepared food for a couple of nights.
Nice thing this easter was that we managed to extend our stay for an extra day, flexi plus tunnel tickets made that even easier.
I am convinced it's the right way for us to go skiing for the time being.
Thanks for the replies @TheDTs and @nbt - we're probs 500 miles from Folkestone, 9hrs continuous driving I imagine, 2 drivers. Advantages are taking gear with us (only a small car but can manage). The driving on the UK side is more frustrating than in Europe - hence possible Amsterdam route (can sleep overnight half the driving). Similarly, more than happy with trains in Europe (used them all the time for ski trips before living in UK) but the UK leg seems more liable to not run smoothly (other than changes in Paris as another possible PITA with kids).
Yes, that's quite a chunk more than we have to get to the channel..
We drive to Austria 4 times a year from Wirral.
For years we’d leave around 10am, drive down to Dover to get a 4pm ferry, get to Luxembourg around 11.30pm. Cheap hotel then set off after breakfast and get to Austria late afternoon.
Last couple of years we’ve gone Hull/Rotterdam,
We can leave Wirral at 5pm, the ferry sails at 9pm, a bite to eat and bed. Then we do the 630 miles in one go the next day, usually takes 12 hours taking it really easy with a few stops.
Although the Hull ferry is a lot more expensive, the route is around 230 miles shorter each way and saves 2 hotels, so a similar cost overall but much more pleasant.
There was a discussion on Snowheads around rail travel to the Dolomites Here
They seemed to suggest an Interail card as being the best way!
Although if you have children with you that could add extra cost and stress.
Personally I'd go for the ferry option and drive, we are a similar distance from the Channel ports as you.
We've driven to Annecy from Edinburgh once via Eurotunnel and it was not a joy filled experience, particularly in the UK!
I considered Amsterdam and indeed have just checked for prices. Currently no available sailings for our dates, so we can't book that anyway, but it's an extra 2 hours driving versus the eurotunnel. On the UK side, it's 2.5 hours to Hull vs 5 hrs to Folkestone. Friends have advised that driving in The Netherlands is not as pleasant as driving in France, so we were happy on Eurotunnel, but as you sau, going via the ferry would save a full day's holiday and that's more limited than I'd like
"some decent Scottish snow"
We can all hope for that one!
Prob Cervinia before Xmas but would really like to some more time in on my splitboard. I'm hoping it will shift my covid kilos.
“some decent Scottish snow”
I'm hoping the Col du Sherrifmuir is reopened. 😉
We're debating trying to squeeze a trip to the Alps (Morzine) between Christmas and the start of term, but Christmas falls on a Sunday this year so lots of places seem to be taking Christmas / Boxing Day bookings and not whole-week bookings. Or offering whole-week bookings Tuesday - Tuesday. We'd be driving via Eurotunnel so travel itself isn't a huge problem, just the logistics of time off work... or possibly bunking off school if we opt for 31st Dec / first week of Jan.
@Pierre, we are leaving on Boxing day (Early) Aiming to get to La Tannia in a long day, come back on the 1st in two days.
The weeks don't align well with Christmas this year, we looked at some apartments and it was very inflexible. Gone for a private rental not an agency as it was easier to get what we wanted. I don't like Air BNB for skiing as it is always vague locations. I like to know where I am going to be.
not contemplated skiing for a couple of years for obvs reasons but just starting to look this winter now...
what the hell has happened to the catered chalet market? all our usual haunts are accom only now!
what the hell has happened to the catered chalet market?
Brexit. Can't just ship chalet staff out from the UK and pay them a pittance, have to staff chalets with properly paid staff and abide by french employment laws. There are still places available but it's not as cheap as it used to be that's for sure
Best job ever, paid beer money, no bills, ski most of the day, most of the week, skied more than most of the guests most weeks.
Taken advantage of, I was not.
I was thinking that a business where you take your chalet staff with you could be an option..
We go with extended family, My mum doesn't ski anymore and can rustle up a Spag Bol or roast dinner no problem.
@bajsyckel we’ve driven quite a few times (actually just got back last week via Eurotunnel), admittedly it used to be easier when I lived in Kent…
In Ayrshire, Scotland now and last winter we used the ferry Hull-Rotterdam for the first time, not really an option now so would look at Amsterdam instead (we actually went twice and the second trip our return was cancelled so had to rebook via the tunnel). It made the journey really easy, waking up fresh at 8am to start the drive down from Rotterdam was so much better than having driven all the way to the tunnel. The drive on the other side is easy to do in one go if there’s 2+ drivers.
Another unexpected benefit of going via Holland was that there were hardly any tolls on the route we took.
@TheDTs I reckon I had best job in resort, company driver, usually moving stuff rather than people - often I could decide when to do jobs, as long as they were done by the deadline didn’t matter if I got there at midnight after a day on the hill as long as someone was still up at the hotel I was going to. Got to ski some different places too.
Obviously transfers were a bit more time critical but I often only did the random Sunday / mid-week pickups so usually got Saturdays to myself.
Fully fed, boarded and vouchers for drink from our hotels. Came home with more money than I left with.
Season passes for Grand massif ordered. January holiday booked. Need to find a place in Flaine for March...
Up until five years ago a long weekend in Chamonix was a regular trip, but of course it was always packed and Geneva airport on a Sunday night was pretty bleak. This coming winter will be my first as a retiree and for a short break I am tempted by the “reverse flow” of out on a Sunday afternoon, home on the Thursday - should be cheaper all round and relatively empty slopes.
Hi from Sweden. My son skis, I surf the white wave (snowboard:) ) Anyhow, the boy manages around 30 days a season on skis. He is 10 years old and intermediate.
If i was to buy him some skis, what should i be looking for...? The previous ones we have bought have been second hand carving/ piste type skis, not twin tips. He has started to mess around more with sking backwards, spins and so on, plus powder skiing, but he has still not mastered carving.
Should i stick with directional type skis and really get him carving, or twin tips. Or both? He is 145cm , lite as a feather
I didn't buy junior anything other than race skis till he was about 14. He had a set of Slaloms and a set of Giants and that was it. He could do just about anything on them. If you work it out kids at that age have more float in powder with a pair of 63 giant skis than you do on a set of 88s.
At 14 I bought him a pair of K2 Iron Maiden park and pipe "double-spats". They're ace, still in the cupboard and I love them when there's a fall of fresh, and you can carve on them, even do the ESF "virage moniteur" - junior uses them for instructing on soft snow.
Who is "teaching" him to ski? 30 days/year is a reasonable amount of time.
Sweajnr is 8.5 and is on "multi-event" race skis but he's also in a local ski race club. I find that in powder the main issue is a lack of momentum to get up enough speed for the skis to actually plane and I'm not sure something different ski wise would help with that.
@howsyourdad1 - At a guess, whatever you get you won't get much more than a season out of it as he'll grow quite a bit between now and start of next season. Based on my last trips to Swedish ski hills, by 12/14 all the cool kids will be blasting round fakie on twin tips and sending it/jibbing off everything in sight, regardless of conditions. But most of them seem pretty handy at carving by that age too and that is handy for everything else.
If you can find a decent set of both second hand at a good price then I'd go for that, but kids learn fast to do whatever they want on the kit they have available so it's hard to go too far wrong if you go for one or the other. Sizing and condition more critical on race skis than the park end of the spectrum IMO. Any of your mates kids got hand me downs? Or anything local on blocket before the season starts, maybe even try some shops selling off ex-hire if not too abused? New gear is daft money unless you have someone else to pass it on to when he's done.
Have booked ski train to Val Thorens for xmas.
Did similar at Feb half term this year, but Les Menuires instead. Quite rate the Travelski express, it's pretty stress free with everything included.
Most resorts have had snow today, love looking at webcams to get excited!
Kids skis, my two just get used kit from eBay. Got a pair of lovely GS and a pair of all mountain 140’s very cheap a week or two ago. Ok a few years old but ski marketing moves at a faster pace than ski tech (remind you of anything?) Also same as bikes, the kids just get a pair of skis to use, never as a present makes hand me downs easier
I have become aware that the "Foret Blanche" ski area, Vars & Risoul, is not operating as single entity this coming season. Essentially, the two operators have fallen out over revenue distribution, and have suspended joint operations for this winter. It could be a disaster for both of them...
Perhaps a resolution will be found, but the clock is ticking.
Takes me back to when I did a season in Les Caroz, There was a weak agreement in place between Les Caroz and Flain, and you couldn't rely on lifts linking up and lifts ocasionally shut for lunch. Put that with a slightly grumpy head Chef and there were a few tense moments getting back to work in time!
Have booked ski train to Val Thorens for xmas.
Excellent!
La Plagne currently have a flash sale on their website. 10% off skipasses. Ends 18 Nov.
Quick question, do the Burton Step-in bindings work?
Everyone else skis now but my knees are shot so I have no choice other than to board.
I’d like to keep up off the lifts (and need all the help I can get).
And it's snowing 🙂
Unfortunately Val Thorens has delayed opening due to lack of snow. Apparently it is fine at higher altitudes, but there is not enough lower down.
We have booked a last minute deal for Valmeiner for New Year, so a little twitchy. There is time though...
got a lads weekend to Chamonix lads booked for Jan (doing Fri-Tues to avoid Sunday night in Geneva!) And then to La Plagne with all the family in March. managed to find a catered chalet in the end - 20 of us in it!! we have taken non skiers before who can cook but its still hassle of shopping, washing up and appeasing everyone... its their holiday too.
Our ski club is planning a weekend trip in February to Annecy.
Hopefully through the twinning group we will go on a day trip with Cran Gevrier Ski Club.
Maybe even manage a session on Semnoz as well!
One for the Francophiles
Anyone done Courmayeur for the day while staying in Chamonix? any good? worth it?
Yes, definitely. If Chamonix (especially Grand Montets) is tracked out, you’re still very likely to get freshies in Cormayeur. Look at Lorne Cameron blog or on Instagram for inspiration.
It’s also got arguably the best on mountain restaurant anywhere in the world (no, not an exaggeration) in Chiecco.
Check forecasts though, what falls in Chamonix doesn’t mean the same amount of snowfall in Courmayeur.
It can be mild and drizzling in Chamonix, while "dumping teh pow" in Courmayeur.
Love Courmayeur. Done a long weekend and three * one-week trips there over the years, it's been great. Chiecco is fantastic, Maison Vieille is also worth checking out
Quick question, do the Burton Step-in bindings work?
@ign
Yup, very good response, as comfortable as the boot you buy (varying degrees of stiffness)
Only caveat is if you’re likely to get stuck in deep powder they can be a ball ache to release.
Unfortunately Val Thorens has delayed opening due to lack of snow.
The weather has a month to get cold and get some snow dumped up there otherwise it will be a sad Christmas for us.
Webcams looking pretty green still…
We had a stunning sunny day in Courmayeur last year as part of our Aosta trip. Th views across to Mt Blanc were just amazing. For variety and expanse of pistes I would say that La Thuile-La Rosiere just a few miles up the valley are better skiing, but if you're into offpiste there's Val Veny at Courmayeur to consider.
Week away in January with White Room booked really looking forward to it, so the way this year has gone will be green slopes and 20 degrees!
Blimey, shit got expensive!
We used to budget between £2.2k and £2.8k for a family of four all in for half term. It looks like this year is going to be twice that, the prices are nuts.
Question is whether we bite the bullet now and get the flights booked for ~£300 each now or hold on in the expectation that package holidays get reduced substantially once cost of living hits...
Had probably my best day ever on the board in Courmayeur. Think it was 1998 and we were staying in Chamonix. We had a biblical dump. It was almost a metre down in the village. We did the day trip to courmayeur as chamonix wasn't open. Chest deep powder absolutely everywhere. I imagine the only thing that came close to the feeling was pure heroin.
package holidays get reduced substantially once cost of living hits
I'm assuming that the sort of people most impacted are not likely to be the sort of people you'd see booking a ski trip each year.
Also, where were you going to spend just £2.2k on a week in half term? Usually spend that for a week out of half term and there's only 2 of us!
Also, where were you going to spend just £2.2k on a week in half term? Usually spend that for a week out of half term and there’s only 2 of us!
yeah, I used to be happy with 1k all in per person. its looking 1.3 to 1.4k now - not in school holidays.
Webcams in Flaine are looking white today...
Webcams in Flaine are looking white today…
VT looking fairly cold / snowy with less muddy tracks 🙂
Encouraging to see lower temps and precipitation in La Tania. Off on Boxing Day which is much earlier than we usually go..
https://www.latania.co.uk/webcam/
Winter arrived in Austria today.
View from our webcam at around 900m
https://www.apartmentamade.com/mariaalmwebcam.shtml
Hoping for some advice from people who know things about skis...
My brother lives in Jackson hole (yes, I know) and junior and I are hoping to get out for a week over Xmas. As you can imagine, between the exchange rate and the location, hiring kit is eyewatering. I'm already reaming myself with flights and ski passes.
So, my thought was to buy some skis and poles from Facebook marketplace or ebay out there and get them delivered to my brother's ready for us to use. This would save money and mean we wouldn't have to faff for so long on the first day.
Both of us are beginners, with 1 day of intensive lessons and then 3 days each of practice last winter. We can ski blues easily with the odd carve and could get down a red without dying. We generally use an 'i can MTB blacks easily' over-enthusiastic approach to everything gravity related.
He's 12 years old. 165cm and 50kg. I'm old, 175cm and 75 kg.
I'm expecting to rent boots so they got our hobbit feet.
So, stupid idea or not? If it's not a stupid idea what on earth do I buy?
I fully realise that the equivalent question rephrased into MTB speak would result in a stream of that's a stupid idea' answers. Please feel free to respond in that way, it'll save you typing!