Who is going skiing and where 2014?
Discussion
Off to Morzine the 2nd week of Feb, can't wait. Stayed in Les Gets last year and the skiing around PDS was awesome, just a little quiet at night so hoping for a little more life in Morzine. Also planning a long weekend mid/late March but think I wait and see what the snow's like before I commit to anywhere.
897sma said:
Off to Morzine...hoping for a little more life...
Depends where else you've been.For France it's actually very good - proper village, reasonable number of restaurants and a handful of apres ski bars with people in them. If you've looking for an Austrian level of apres ski...well no-one really does apres ski like the Austrians.
Worth hunting out Bar Robinson - just down hill from the central area of bars.
Edited by //j17 on Tuesday 19th November 17:49
//j17 said:
If you've looking for an Austrian level of apres ski...well no-one really does apres ski like the Austrians.
Worth hunting out Bar Robinson - just down hill from the central area of bars.
Thanks.Worth hunting out Bar Robinson - just down hill from the central area of bars.
Edited by //j17 on Tuesday 19th November 17:49
Went to Mayrhofen last year too for Snowbombing, was a little too much après which made it difficult to maintain the ski part, may do similar again next year but this one will be about hitting the slopes with at least the option of a drink/night out. Les Gets was dead after 6pm with only a few restaurants and one bar open, none of which were lively.
897sma said:
Thanks.
Went to Mayrhofen last year too for Snowbombing, was a little too much après which made it difficult to maintain the ski part, may do similar again next year but this one will be about hitting the slopes with at least the option of a drink/night out. Les Gets was dead after 6pm with only a few restaurants and one bar open, none of which were lively.
Sounds like Morzine should his the right spot then.Went to Mayrhofen last year too for Snowbombing, was a little too much après which made it difficult to maintain the ski part, may do similar again next year but this one will be about hitting the slopes with at least the option of a drink/night out. Les Gets was dead after 6pm with only a few restaurants and one bar open, none of which were lively.
The way to survive Austria is to follow the German's lead - hit it straight from the slopes, go for food 7-8, then go to bed. Asleep by 11pm, so no problem waking up for breakfast and the first lift of the day!
jock mcsporran said:
Avoriaz. All booked up, first time the board has come out since my son was born. He's booked in ski school. Excited already....
Excellent!We gave our eldest son a few 1 hour lessons at the SnoZone in Milton Keynes before going skiing - certainly seemed to help and now we're on to son number 2 starting! We're going to do a couple of hours there, with the eldest son as well, just to blow the cobwebs away and ensure he gets the maximum out of being on the slopes. Especially as we missed out on skiing last year. So it's been about 20 months since he last went skiing.
state4 said:
Val D'isere for the first time in January, Been going to St Anton for 6 years.
Booked to go on the overnight ski train, anyone been on there before?
Been on it a couple of times. Booked to go on the overnight ski train, anyone been on there before?
First time we went First Class when it was only a small premium over Standard, got a of a bit bigger seat, nice meal en route, all very civilised. Second time was cattle class which was still very civilised, alas it was in one of the heavy winters (about 6yrs ago), the power car got overwhelmed with the sheer amount of snow, we lumbered into a railway siding somewhere in Northern France late at night and sat there shivering with no heat and only emergency lights for the best part of 6 hours until they could get a new power car out to us.
The upside was that this was a trip with 14 blokes and enough booze carried on board to sink a battleship, so we were able to occupy this downtime in the finest British tradition of getting mullered and ignoring the delay!
That was a bit of a freak weather event though ... from what I recall that week we'd have been no better flying as most UK airports were snowbound.
It's a very nice, relaxing way to travel, and Bourg St Maurice to Val D'Isere is a nice short transfer.
Have fun - we're probably going elsewhere this season, but Val D'Isere is an od fave of mine. They've already had a huge dump of snow, hopefully bodes well!
PurpleTurtle said:
Been on it a couple of times.
First time we went First Class when it was only a small premium over Standard, got a of a bit bigger seat, nice meal en route, all very civilised. Second time was cattle class which was still very civilised, alas it was in one of the heavy winters (about 6yrs ago), the power car got overwhelmed with the sheer amount of snow, we lumbered into a railway siding somewhere in Northern France late at night and sat there shivering with no heat and only emergency lights for the best part of 6 hours until they could get a new power car out to us.
The upside was that this was a trip with 14 blokes and enough booze carried on board to sink a battleship, so we were able to occupy this downtime in the finest British tradition of getting mullered and ignoring the delay!
That was a bit of a freak weather event though ... from what I recall that week we'd have been no better flying as most UK airports were snowbound.
It's a very nice, relaxing way to travel, and Bourg St Maurice to Val D'Isere is a nice short transfer.
Have fun - we're probably going elsewhere this season, but Val D'Isere is an od fave of mine. They've already had a huge dump of snow, hopefully bodes well!
thanks for the write up - sounds like it was a quiet holiday then!First time we went First Class when it was only a small premium over Standard, got a of a bit bigger seat, nice meal en route, all very civilised. Second time was cattle class which was still very civilised, alas it was in one of the heavy winters (about 6yrs ago), the power car got overwhelmed with the sheer amount of snow, we lumbered into a railway siding somewhere in Northern France late at night and sat there shivering with no heat and only emergency lights for the best part of 6 hours until they could get a new power car out to us.
The upside was that this was a trip with 14 blokes and enough booze carried on board to sink a battleship, so we were able to occupy this downtime in the finest British tradition of getting mullered and ignoring the delay!
That was a bit of a freak weather event though ... from what I recall that week we'd have been no better flying as most UK airports were snowbound.
It's a very nice, relaxing way to travel, and Bourg St Maurice to Val D'Isere is a nice short transfer.
Have fun - we're probably going elsewhere this season, but Val D'Isere is an od fave of mine. They've already had a huge dump of snow, hopefully bodes well!
from reading the website though you are now only allowed 5 units per person to take on...
state4 said:
thanks for the write up - sounds like it was a quiet holiday then!
from reading the website though you are now only allowed 5 units per person to take on...
Yep, like a vicar's tea party! from reading the website though you are now only allowed 5 units per person to take on...
I believe they've done that to keep a sensible lid on things, or maybe just bump up profits from the buffet car? Cyncical, moi?
The last time I went was when it was operating out of Waterloo, we took the view that we'd lob a few additional cans in ski/boot bags, plead ignorance to the rules and if they got found on X-ray then we'd just forfeit them.
Nobody from Eurostar seemed to complain, I'm sure they're busy enough looking for bombs than a few sneaky cans of Stella, and following the mantra of 'behave as you would wish other people to behave around you' we had a good old laugh all the way.
Just thinking about it has made me want to book ..... *surfs over to Eurostar*
topgunkos said:
Going to Val Thorens on Friday, I can't concentrate at work, keep watching the webcams!!!
Jealous! I've got to get back to the 3 Vallees at some point. We did New Year in Les Menuines and it was excellent, could have probably done a week there and barely skied the same run twice. Catch Le Masse for the first morning run before anyone else gets there and a late run down the valley back from Val Thorens before the lifts shut.Sigh.
Doing a half term run to Courmayeur in Italy which looks rather small and I have to take 25 school kids with me. On the plus it's completely free and I can ski where the hell I want during the day!
Some skiings better than no skiing!
MiniMan64 said:
Doing a half term run to Courmayeur in Italy which looks rather small and I have to take 25 school kids with me. On the plus it's completely free and I can ski where the hell I want during the day!
Some skiings better than no skiing!
Are you going with Interski by any chance? Done some instructing for them in the past, last time was last Jan and March. Courmayeur is a nice area, never get bored looking up at Mt. Blanc..... It does get a bit samey, a decent intermediate will ski it out in a few days but what there is is varied. I find Pila allot easier to teach in as there's a good progression of runs in Courmayeur you have the apptly named 'baby' bowl and few blues-what's there has some steep pitches you just can't avoid. There's some very decent off piste, and some challeging blacks-one that becomes particulary bumped out, some good tree skiing too.Some skiings better than no skiing!
The kids are left with the instructors through the day and you can either free ski or get some lessons too. I had a group of teachers last year. You could visit one of the neighbouring ski areas in the Aosta valley, or consider doing the Vallee Blanche. It's no more difficult than your average red run but you'll need a guide-it's very scenic and a cracking day out.
If you're going with Interski I'd wager you're stopping in the Telecabine (the former gondola station). It's actually in Dolonne which is about 10 mins out of Courmayeur (on foot) and has it's own gondola station. Chances are you'll be on kid watching duty in the evening but there are some good bars where they put on a nice selection of Italian tapas gratis if you're having a beer. It's a very pretty town.
You can't ski back down to Courmayeur, you can get back down to Dolonne and the Telecbine if you're up for a bit of bush whacking and the snow is good enough-most just download in the gondola. I'm not doing any instructing this year so I won't be out but chances are there be someone out there I'll know.
a311 said:
MiniMan64 said:
Doing a half term run to Courmayeur in Italy which looks rather small and I have to take 25 school kids with me. On the plus it's completely free and I can ski where the hell I want during the day!
Some skiings better than no skiing!
Are you going with Interski by any chance? Done some instructing for them in the past, last time was last Jan and March. Courmayeur is a nice area, never get bored looking up at Mt. Blanc..... It does get a bit samey, a decent intermediate will ski it out in a few days but what there is is varied. I find Pila allot easier to teach in as there's a good progression of runs in Courmayeur you have the apptly named 'baby' bowl and few blues-what's there has some steep pitches you just can't avoid. There's some very decent off piste, and some challeging blacks-one that becomes particulary bumped out, some good tree skiing too.Some skiings better than no skiing!
The kids are left with the instructors through the day and you can either free ski or get some lessons too. I had a group of teachers last year. You could visit one of the neighbouring ski areas in the Aosta valley, or consider doing the Vallee Blanche. It's no more difficult than your average red run but you'll need a guide-it's very scenic and a cracking day out.
If you're going with Interski I'd wager you're stopping in the Telecabine (the former gondola station). It's actually in Dolonne which is about 10 mins out of Courmayeur (on foot) and has it's own gondola station. Chances are you'll be on kid watching duty in the evening but there are some good bars where they put on a nice selection of Italian tapas gratis if you're having a beer. It's a very pretty town.
You can't ski back down to Courmayeur, you can get back down to Dolonne and the Telecbine if you're up for a bit of bush whacking and the snow is good enough-most just download in the gondola. I'm not doing any instructing this year so I won't be out but chances are there be someone out there I'll know.
I was looking at the resort last night and does look a little small but that's probably a good thing with a school trip! Trying to keep track of 20 kids in the 3 Vallees would be a nightmare! We in a Hotel Alpechiara which looks you typical basics hostel but is a bit further down the valley from Courmayeur (Pre-Sait Didier?) so I don't know if it'll be a bus in the morning or what.
Skiing is skiing though. Never been a huge off pister so maybe this will be the trip to get into it.
MiniMan64 said:
Yup, Interski. It's my first trip as a teacher but kids or not I'll take absoultely any opportunity to ski when I can (somewhat limited in this job) and I already run the school ski club at the local dry slope.
I was looking at the resort last night and does look a little small but that's probably a good thing with a school trip! Trying to keep track of 20 kids in the 3 Vallees would be a nightmare! We in a Hotel Alpechiara which looks you typical basics hostel but is a bit further down the valley from Courmayeur (Pre-Sait Didier?) so I don't know if it'll be a bus in the morning or what.
Skiing is skiing though. Never been a huge off pister so maybe this will be the trip to get into it.
Yeah you’ll get bussed there and back every day-I’ve never heard of schools staying outside of the area when I’ve been over. The actual Km’s of piste seem to vary wildly, mid 30’s up to 70 mentioned. The pistes over the Val Veny side I like best, quiet and a bit of a variety and more to it than it looks on the piste map. dell’Orso is the black run I was referring to in my last post, it’s the only black that isn’t groomed and quite easily gets bumps the size of minis or bigger.I was looking at the resort last night and does look a little small but that's probably a good thing with a school trip! Trying to keep track of 20 kids in the 3 Vallees would be a nightmare! We in a Hotel Alpechiara which looks you typical basics hostel but is a bit further down the valley from Courmayeur (Pre-Sait Didier?) so I don't know if it'll be a bus in the morning or what.
Skiing is skiing though. Never been a huge off pister so maybe this will be the trip to get into it.
There are various ways up to the top of Col Checrouit-another gondola and taking a couple of chairs. This is the main face of the mountain and allot of people seem to complain this is essentially the same run which I don’t agree with. There’s a little old gondola that goes up to Youla, it’s prone to being closed with the slightest fart of a wind and once it’s open the queues are excessive. You can then get another gondola up to Arp but there no runs down. If the wait for the Youla lift is excessive then I wouldn’t bother except when you get of that there’s easy access to a couloir and a nice wide open bowl of off piste terrain, I’d recommend sticking to the right.
A good thigh sapper is the run down from Col Checrouit all the way down to Dolonne-well over 1km of vertical. It’s generally dead especially first thing in the morning. Enjoy, as you say it’s a free weeks skiing and you should get offered an instructor if you’re interested and they’ll know the area and act as a guide.
They’ve decided that anyone who wants to instruct for them needs to go to one of their training camps at a cost of £1200+ don’t fancy that at my own expense as it’s a holiday or two.
If you want the number/contact of a good instructor in the local Italian school to do some off piste lessons with drop me a PM.
So, I had the great idea of going from 27th/28th-3rd/4th Jan this year to use up the last of my holiday allowance. Unfortunately not one of my friends could join me on this.
Couple of questions...
1) Anyone going away at this time with room for another?
2) Anyone been skiing on their own for a week? Is it rubbish? Obviously there will be skiing, which is the best, but nobody to talk to about it. Unless...
3) I go with a tour company who'll add me to their tour... with strangers. Is this weird? Good fun? Something worth doing. Seems like it might be a good way to make a load of new friends and have a great time if I can find a speck of bravery to book it.
Couple of questions...
1) Anyone going away at this time with room for another?
2) Anyone been skiing on their own for a week? Is it rubbish? Obviously there will be skiing, which is the best, but nobody to talk to about it. Unless...
3) I go with a tour company who'll add me to their tour... with strangers. Is this weird? Good fun? Something worth doing. Seems like it might be a good way to make a load of new friends and have a great time if I can find a speck of bravery to book it.
Chapppers said:
3) I go with a tour company who'll add me to their tour... with strangers. Is this weird? Good fun? Something worth doing. Seems like it might be a good way to make a load of new friends and have a great time if I can find a speck of bravery to book it.
I've been skiing on my own many times since a) divorce and b) mates are all in London with family. A few times I've been with Mark Warner, ClubMed and with Solos. You no longer get ski guiding with Mark Warner (France) so that one's out but it's not really a problem as their holidays are the most overpriced anyway. In general the hotels are terrible as well. ClubMed the nicest, Solos the most fun. Go for it - you'll have a blast.Gassing Station | Holidays & Travel | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff