Who is going skiing and where 2015?
Discussion
jenkotvr said:
Morzine last week of Jan. Biked every summer there for the past 4yrs. Always wanted to see it covered in the white stuff.
In Jan it can look like this:
But often the village it's self is snow free as it's so low.
There's usually plenty of snow on the slopes though March...unless you have a poor winter in which case it can look like this:
Skiing was still fine in the mornings even then and just meant a nice tan and the apres started a little earlier than it otherwise would
Hopefully it will be more like 2013 that 2014 and it will look like this though:
(not technically Morzine but one of the chairs on the trek back from Avoriaz to the top of the Super Morzine gondola)
Edited by //j17 on Wednesday 10th September 14:23
Learning To Ski
1. I'd always say ski school over individual lessons for the first 2 weeks on skis. There's not really THAT much to learn but it takes a lot of practice and you might as well share the cost of someone telling you; to 'bend your knees', not to 'sit on your skis' and to 'get your weight over the front of the skis' with some other people. It's also good to be with other people in the same boat.
2. Dress warmer than you think you need to and warmer than your skiing friends. They will be on the move most of the time so generating heat and keeping warm. In ski school, and even private beginner lessions you will spent a lot of time standing around listening/watching others and even when you are on the move it's not going to be that arobic to start with. Being cold won't make it any more fun.
3. Learning to ski starts in the hire shop, not on the slope. If you're boots don't fit well they will hamper your skiing and slow your rate of improvement. Too loose and you won't have full control off the skis so won't trust and commit to them. Too tight and they will hurt so you won't move correctly and make the skis work.
- Open all the clips and slide your foot in. Stand up and rock backwards and forwards on to your heals. The idea here is to get your heal correctly located in the back of the boot.
- Toe clips come next but should be secure, not tight. You should be able to flick them open with your index finger. Go tighter and all you do is restrict blood flow to your toes => cold toes.
- The 2 calf clips should be tight but not painfully so.
- With everything done up rock forward in your boots. You heal shouldn't lift.
If your heal lifts/they are painfully tight/etc ask for a different pair!
If you find your heal lifts or they are painful out on the slopes go back to the hire shop and ask for a different pair!
4. Don't go for the cheapest hire skis because you're a beginner so better skis would be wasted/a waste or money. In general (though sadly not always) the more you pay the newer and better condition the skis will be in - and as a beginner a really good set of edges will give you so much more faith in the skis...and when you trust the skis you commit over the fronts more and they work even better.
1. I'd always say ski school over individual lessons for the first 2 weeks on skis. There's not really THAT much to learn but it takes a lot of practice and you might as well share the cost of someone telling you; to 'bend your knees', not to 'sit on your skis' and to 'get your weight over the front of the skis' with some other people. It's also good to be with other people in the same boat.
2. Dress warmer than you think you need to and warmer than your skiing friends. They will be on the move most of the time so generating heat and keeping warm. In ski school, and even private beginner lessions you will spent a lot of time standing around listening/watching others and even when you are on the move it's not going to be that arobic to start with. Being cold won't make it any more fun.
3. Learning to ski starts in the hire shop, not on the slope. If you're boots don't fit well they will hamper your skiing and slow your rate of improvement. Too loose and you won't have full control off the skis so won't trust and commit to them. Too tight and they will hurt so you won't move correctly and make the skis work.
- Open all the clips and slide your foot in. Stand up and rock backwards and forwards on to your heals. The idea here is to get your heal correctly located in the back of the boot.
- Toe clips come next but should be secure, not tight. You should be able to flick them open with your index finger. Go tighter and all you do is restrict blood flow to your toes => cold toes.
- The 2 calf clips should be tight but not painfully so.
- With everything done up rock forward in your boots. You heal shouldn't lift.
If your heal lifts/they are painfully tight/etc ask for a different pair!
If you find your heal lifts or they are painful out on the slopes go back to the hire shop and ask for a different pair!
4. Don't go for the cheapest hire skis because you're a beginner so better skis would be wasted/a waste or money. In general (though sadly not always) the more you pay the newer and better condition the skis will be in - and as a beginner a really good set of edges will give you so much more faith in the skis...and when you trust the skis you commit over the fronts more and they work even better.
VEIGHT said:
I have booked up for Jan but getting the bug for some snow now!
There's been a few discussions of short, even day-trips to the snow on another forum.Driving your closest resorts are Chamonix or Megève, both about 8hr from Calais so you could leave after work, drive through the night with maybe a few hours kip in something cheap like an ibis budget and be in the resort for first lifts. With a car you could then drive down from the resort to find cheaper accomodation.
If you really want to go for it and you live in London you can go to work all day, hit St Pancras for the 19:39 over-night Eurostar to Bourg-St-Maurice, up the fanicular to Les Arcs, ski all day, but down to Bourg, have some food and catch the 22:15 over-night train back to St Pancras, arriving back 07:16 Sunday morning!
VEIGHT said:
This sounds good!
What are the roads like in Chamonix this time of year?
Potentially snowie, so get yourself a set of chains - http://www.lidl.co.uk/en/our-offers-2491.htm?id=43...What are the roads like in Chamonix this time of year?
Week #2 booked - 7 days of skiing, rotisserie chicken, BBQ ribs and trying to drop more pieces of schnapps-soaked pear in my friends beers than they manage to drop in to mine in Ischgl.
I can relax now - well once my friends have paid their shares and filled the sizable hole in my bank balance!
I can relax now - well once my friends have paid their shares and filled the sizable hole in my bank balance!
Steviesam said:
Is it due to snow? From what I have been reading, there is nothing there except on the Motte and nothing more thaqn perhaps 1 cn on the horizon.
snow-forecase.com have temps to dropping off a cliff for most of the alps after the weekend, which means they can run the snowmakers even if nature doesn't provide (though between 17cm and 22cm forecast for Tignes).For the bottom of Tignes (1556m) you're looking at +3C to -6C today...but -6C to -16C come Tuesday. Up the top (3456m) you're looking at down to -20C.
Edited by //j17 on Thursday 4th December 10:19
eyebeebe said:
Just found out that I need to organise a stag weekend, probably in St Anton or Ischgl weekend of 6th March. Does anyone have any ideas for getting reasonably priced accommodation for a weekend in either place? On booking.com basically everywhere wants you for a Saturday to Saturday or is crazy expensive. If it were a normal weekend, I'd just chance my arm and rock up to the tourist centre in the town and get something on the day, but that's a bit risky for something a bit more organised.
Can't comment on St Anton but think you'll struggle with Ischgl. It's a ski resort in the middle of ski season, so they obviously want to get 14 (2x Sat-Sat weeks) nights money off of people rather than 2 or 3 nights (Fri-Sun/Mon), then empty the rest of both weeks. It's also not a cheap resort - but IS worth the money.You could look at staying outside Ischgl, in Mathon, Kappl, etc and just accept getting the bus in/taxi back (plenty of minibus taxis around). This is what the German weekenders do - drive to resort and stay down the valley, then shuttle in. There's ski lockers up at Idalp, so you don't need to lug your skis/poles around all evening.
bp1 said:
Belle Plagne next February, never been before any tips? Reasonably advanced skiers, but no mental off piste stuff - getting too old 
.
Stayed in Belle Plagne about 4/5 years ago... . One of the better French attempts at building a resort as it looks like the people designing and building it actually gave a s
t what it looked like! Don't worry as you drive up through the older resorts with their USSR-esque concrete blocks, occasionally with pieces of rotting wood nailed on - your resort doesn't look like them!There was a reasonable range of restaurants too, not the classic 7 night/7 restaurants, all crap. Apres was a bit dead though, but such is the way when most appartments are self catering.
One word of warning, we were in Les Balcons and the footpath that lead from there across the resort to the bars, etc was made of plain wood and on a slope. In a ski resort. Where it's cold and icy and people are walking in ski boots. I'm guessing this was dreamt up by the same guy they ask where to but the toilets in French mountain restaurants and who always replies "How about down a flight of smooth tiled stairs, spiral if possible!".
Skiing was good, though seem to remember a lot of flat bits and a lot of polling until we learnt the resort a bit so knew which run combinations to avoid/where you needed to carry speed.
awooga said:
It's all very cruisy and easy blues and reds to be honest. I learned to ski there so had fond memories of the place, until I returned 20 years later as a far more capable skiier and then realised how flat it is. Missus loved it though! It's all pretty much door to door skiing though and they keep the snow well. There's a couple of cracking reds around the one called lucifer though and the long reds to the bottom from there are pretty good if you've got good edges. The blue called Tunnel is a novelty providing you just go straight down the top steep section, otherwise you have a long pole to the tunnel entrance!
You can always spice things up a bit by skiing over to Les Arcs. The pressure to not miss the last gondola and lifts back home should get a bit of adrenaline flowing come mid-afternoon 
a311 said:
Things can change quickly and hopefully they will. Speaking to friends living and working in the Alps the higher slopes are OK but generally it's as bad as anyone can remember it for 30 years.
Last time I skied at Christmas was in 2009. Once the ice was broken with the chalet host and a few beers he showed us some pictures on his phone taken just a couple of days earlier and the home run down to the chalet was green and muddy, it then proceeded to dump and dump until it got to the point there was too much and things were closing due to avalanche risk.
If it gets to the end of the week and there's no snow and it remains mild the resort operators and punters alike will very worried about Xmas week.
It's not really unusual for there to be little or no snow at this time of year and IME it does come in time for the Christmas week. I'm not out till the 1st of February for my first trip but Glencoe and Nevis range open up this weekend so hoping to get some sliding in over Xmas.
Depends where your friends are and how good their memories are.Last time I skied at Christmas was in 2009. Once the ice was broken with the chalet host and a few beers he showed us some pictures on his phone taken just a couple of days earlier and the home run down to the chalet was green and muddy, it then proceeded to dump and dump until it got to the point there was too much and things were closing due to avalanche risk.
If it gets to the end of the week and there's no snow and it remains mild the resort operators and punters alike will very worried about Xmas week.
It's not really unusual for there to be little or no snow at this time of year and IME it does come in time for the Christmas week. I'm not out till the 1st of February for my first trip but Glencoe and Nevis range open up this weekend so hoping to get some sliding in over Xmas.
Apparently there's plenty of snow in Ischgl:
And people in the Port du Soleil area are saying not much different to 2007, with the old locals saying a warm December is usually followed by a snow-filled rest of winter...
[quote=a311]Indeed, I'm not surprised that the conditions are OK in Ischgl they open late November religiously which is permitted due to extensive snow making.../quote]
Snow making machines aren't helping many French resorts at the moment - it's not been cold-enough to run them! Certainly that's been the report for Chatel in PdS.
Snow making machines aren't helping many French resorts at the moment - it's not been cold-enough to run them! Certainly that's been the report for Chatel in PdS.
prand said:
I've decided that from today I'm not going to ruin my Christmas moping around looking for non existent snow reports and just wait till the day before before deciding if I need to pack any ski gear!
Even though we're driving I don't fancy the idea of scratching around the area trying to find a patch of skiable mnountainside with everyone else, our very small kids will make this very stressful and complicated, but I do home they get to have a play in the snow at some point, even if we don'a actually get much skiing done.
There's snow up in Avoriaz that shouldn't be at risk of melting/rain so either get the free bus or drive to the free car park at the bottom of the Prodains gondola and take that up so the young ones can play in some snow. Take your (possibly bananna-hammock - it IS France) swimware with you and more time can be passed in the Aquariaz water park, which should be another good child distraction.Even though we're driving I don't fancy the idea of scratching around the area trying to find a patch of skiable mnountainside with everyone else, our very small kids will make this very stressful and complicated, but I do home they get to have a play in the snow at some point, even if we don'a actually get much skiing done.
Personally I'd take the free bus as world+dog will be trying to get up to Avoriaz to ski and the car park at Prodains will fill up very quickly!
prand said:
I'm more than happy to accept a duff ski trip now and then as I have had some great times over the years, but more than anything I wanted my 3&4 yr olds to get on skis, so the fact that anything else aside I can still get the kids into their booked ski school, in all this was good to see.
Les Gets is doing everything it can to get areas open for beginners, with the Piou Piou kinder garden open.YouTube video...
At the moment it's generally just France struggling for snow. Italy has generally had a good start to the season with Austria not far behind.
A number of the forecasts for the Port du Soleil (Avoriaz/Chatel/Les Gets/Morzine) area are starting to show summer ending today (10/11°), autumn tomorrow/Christmas day (-7/4°) and winter starting on Boxing day (-9/0°).
Not going to help people out for Christmas but a ray of hope for those of us out in Jan.
A number of the forecasts for the Port du Soleil (Avoriaz/Chatel/Les Gets/Morzine) area are starting to show summer ending today (10/11°), autumn tomorrow/Christmas day (-7/4°) and winter starting on Boxing day (-9/0°).
Not going to help people out for Christmas but a ray of hope for those of us out in Jan.
SilverSixer said:
Brilliant, thanks for that. Yes, Interski. Coach trip from Reading. 10 yrs old, Mrs SS is cacking herself, first trip away from home. He'll be fine.
A coach. From Reading. To Italy. Ughghgh! Pack him with tons of snacks and drinks and instructions (that he'll ignore) to buy loads for the trip back.
If the current forecast comes true I'm going to feel REALLY sorry for people who booked the Christmas week for skiing. There's not much worse than having a crap week of snow, only to wake up and have to brush 12cm of snow off their car before driving home (current village forecast for Les Gets) - and if you have a late depart, seeing the beaming faces of the new weeks guests arriving to a sea of fresh snow.
Looks like some chilly nights ahead though, -16.
Looks like some chilly nights ahead though, -16.
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