Who is going skiing and where in 2016

[cptsideways]

Looks like its dumping in the French Alps right now, 1m and counting apparently.

Might have to join the snowheads lot on an early bash next week to Tignes, just need to get out of the ball on the weekend with my beloved

[Stu R]

Colorado and Utah for me.

[shunt]

Welshbeef said:

Looks great.

What was the all in cost?

We stayed in the Laurin Hotel in Hochgurgl, Squeezy jet flights, Passat Estate car hire (surprisingly nice car) and half board in the hotel was £1200 for the 2 of us. Obviously lift pass on top (225 Euros each) plus lots of nice wine and the odd beer and goulash soup. In my book that was a bargain, the hotel isn't 5* luxury but good food & clean. The slopes were busier at the weekends, but mostly empty during the week, even at the weekends lift queues don't happen. We shared a chairlift once during the week.

It's not a party town, infact a bit surreal last week, like staying at the 'Overlook Hotel', we were the only guests on our floor. But for a weeks skiing in November I couldn't fault it. If you fancy a bit more luxury, 'Top Hotel Hochgurgl' looked rather nice..........But pricey.

[Dog Star]

Montgenevre for me for a week - 9th January. Never been there before and looking forwards to it, especially after last years disaster in Andorra when it just snowed and snowed and snowed and we didn't get a single days skiing in.

[Jarcy]

For several years now I've enjoyed two ski holidays each season, split between a family holiday and a lads outing.
Then for the last 3 seasons I've managed to sneak a third. - Mrs Jarcy is very obliging.
But it looks as though this season will set a new record with 4 trips! :-

Jan - St Gervais
Early Feb - Wengen
Half term - Les Arcs
Easter - Engelberg

If that seems greedy, I have ski-buddies who manage 8 or 9 trips a season!
A couple have apartments out there, and one guy saves up all his annual leave to map out the ski-season. (He works for a bank).

[Mr E]

cptsideways said:

Looks like its dumping in the French Alps right now, 1m and counting apparently.

I did just look at the webcam for VT. Twitching now....

[jonny996]

Jarcy said:

For several years now I've enjoyed two ski holidays each season, split between a family holiday and a lads outing.
Then for the last 3 seasons I've managed to sneak a third. - Mrs Jarcy is very obliging.
But it looks as though this season will set a new record with 4 trips! :-

Jan - St Gervais
Early Feb - Wengen
Half term - Les Arcs
Easter - Engelberg

If that seems greedy, I have ski-buddies who manage 8 or 9 trips a season!
A couple have apartments out there, and one guy saves up all his annual leave to map out the ski-season. (He works for a bank).

Have you done St Gervais before? it does not get mentioned a lot for some reason.

[Jarcy]

jonny996 said:

Have you done St Gervais before? it does not get mentioned a lot for some reason.

I've skied St Gervais many, many times. It's where two friends have bought apartments, but I first discovered it with Snowcoach.
The ski area does rest in the shadow of it's more famous neighbour - Chamonix, but it has its own very extensive lift network.
The Evasion Mont Blanc lift pass advertises 450km of runs. Within that, St Gervais is linked with Megeve boasting 265km of runs. If you have transport or hop on the free ski bus, you can visit the hidden gem of Les Contamines under the same lift pass. (There are also plans to link this to the main St Gervais/Megeve area.) Combloux is another non-linked area, which is worth a day to explore. There is also the Tramway du Mont Blanc cog railway which you can catch from St Gervais up to the Les Houches ski area at the end of the Chamonix valley ( and the famous Kandahar world cup down hill run). It cost about €38 for the return trip including lift pass for the day.

St Gervais itself is a proper mountain village. It has bars and restaurants but no real lively apres scene. That said, La Folie Douce came to Megeve last season
It's quite low at 850m and you often need to take the bubble down if the resort home run is close (but I've skied it many times in patchy (closed) conditions).
Brits are starting to discover it due to it's proximity and ease to get to - 8 hours from Calais & under 1 hour from Geneva. There's a growing ex-pat community. It's a great destination for a DIY ski trip or a long weekend trip.

[jonny996]

Jarcy, thank you very much for that write up, it has made me feel a lot better. I have to confess in drawing the info from you under some false pretence. My sons are getting into skiing, so we took a cheap week out to the alps in October to see the villages & decide where we wanted to take them as none of us have actually skied on snow before, all dry slope.
I think we may have jumped the gun a bit as we all fell in love with St Gervais & inspired by Gruffy's thread on renovationg his Chamonix apartment, we bought a place when we where out there.
I really do hope they like skiing :-)

[Jarcy]

jonny996 said:

Jarcy, thank you very much for that write up, it has made me feel a lot better. I have to confess in drawing the info from you under some false pretence. My sons are getting into skiing, so we took a cheap week out to the alps in October to see the villages & decide where we wanted to take them as none of us have actually skied on snow before, all dry slope.
I think we may have jumped the gun a bit as we all fell in love with St Gervais & inspired by Gruffy's thread on renovationg his Chamonix apartment, we bought a place when we where out there.
I really do hope they like skiing :-)

Sounds fantastic! You've made a great choice.

Feel free to PM me if you want any further tips or info about the place.
And I'd be happy to put you in contact with my mates who've already bought apartments there. Could be useful for practical local information and an introduction to the ex-pat community. You always need the name of a reliable plumber!
I'd be interested to know where your apartment is too!

[telford_mike]

Off to Wengen 10th December, looks very snowy

http://www.downhillonly.com/site/cam.shtml

[jonny996]

Jarcy said:

Sounds fantastic! You've made a great choice.

Feel free to PM me if you want any further tips or info about the place.
And I'd be happy to put you in contact with my mates who've already bought apartments there. Could be useful for practical local information and an introduction to the ex-pat community. You always need the name of a reliable plumber!
I'd be interested to know where your apartment is too!

Thanks for the offer, may contact you soon. Our's is very near town centre just past the mini roundabout that goes up to the swimming pool.
Got to love PH for getting advice.

[ph1l5]

Just booked up for Les Deux Alpes in Jan. Its my first time going to France skiing so hope its as good as Austria.

[malks222]

If you enjoyed the apres in austria, then you should be ok in les duex alpes. there's a lot of bars going on in the main bit of town, usually pretty lively, ended up hammered most nights, but spent a fortune (maybe more down to the £1 = 1.02euro)

The skiing was ok, very cold and windy up high on the glacier though!! although i really liked the funiculaire under ground up to the glacier.

the green run back to town was carnage though, thankfuly this should be resolved with the new blue run they've carved out the mountainside. just shame when i was there our chalet hosts were absolutely terrible and kinda put me off the place!

[ph1l5]

malks222 said:

If you enjoyed the apres in austria, then you should be ok in les duex alpes. there's a lot of bars going on in the main bit of town, usually pretty lively, ended up hammered most nights, but spent a fortune (maybe more down to the £1 = 1.02euro)

The skiing was ok, very cold and windy up high on the glacier though!! although i really liked the funiculaire under ground up to the glacier.

the green run back to town was carnage though, thankfuly this should be resolved with the new blue run they've carved out the mountainside. just shame when i was there our chalet hosts were absolutely terrible and kinda put me off the place!

Hmmm suddenly Im sort of regretting this

[T1berious]

Choices are Whistler or St Anton but Lordy! the flights are mental for Vancouver at the mo! Think we'll wait a few days and see what happens with the Flights

[cptsideways]

I now have a rather big itch, been sat at home for too many days.


Anybody up for a roadtrip to the Alps or there abouts?

[Mr E]

malks222 said:

the green run back to town was carnage though, thankfuly this should be resolved with the new blue run they've carved out the mountainside. just shame when i was there our chalet hosts were absolutely terrible and kinda put me off the place!

I learnt to snowboard in 2alpes. I have never taken that green home. Frankly, the black straight of the side of the mountain isn't that hard unless it's a mogul field. (Note: first half usually a mogul field)

Drink in the rhummery for unusual evenings.

[popeyewhite]

Mr E said:

I learnt to snowboard in 2alpes. I have never taken that green home. Frankly, the black straight of the side of the mountain isn't that hard unless it's a mogul field. (Note: first half usually a mogul field)

There's two blacks isn't there? Maybe not... One's pretty steep...but anything to avoid that green on tired legs lol.

[malks222]

ph1l5 said:

Hmmm suddenly Im sort of regretting this

sorry i should have emphasised it was still a really good fun holiday! it was actually just because the chalet staff were that bad (like comically bad) they put a huge downer on the holiday.

our 'cooked' breakfast every morning was just eggs. we were there for xmas week and xmas morning the offer was boiled eggs or nothing. christmas dinner was also rushed together and served cold, they thought my friend was being a tw@t asking for his to be stuck in the microwave for a minute, until the whole table also asked the same.

it culminated in them giving me and my friend into trouble for being drunk one night, said we were terrible guests and being very disrespectful, when we asked why all the meals were terrible, the chalet hadnt been cleaned, towels not changed and why there was a huge pile of laundry at the top of the stairs (and had been for 5nights), we also told them that booze was the only thing keeping us happy.

funnily enough the next day we got a full cooked breakfast....