Who's going skiing and where - 2021 #postcrisis

[Carbon Sasquatch]

There’s another differentiator that some insurance companies rely on - it’s the second paragraph (Regardless of actual departure date)

FCO website said:

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advise against all but essential travel to France (including Corsica). This is based on the current assessment of COVID-19 risks. Check separate travel advice pages for overseas territories of France.

The FCO is not advising those already travelling in France to leave at this time........

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/france

[Welshbeef]

With so much risk be it disruption, closure of shops bars etc or even actual piste and lift closure due to not enough customers it would be bold to be spending big.

[Carbon Sasquatch]

Welshbeef said:

With so much risk be it disruption, closure of shops bars etc or even actual piste and lift closure due to not enough customers it would be bold to be spending big.

Fortune favours the bold
Go big or go home
Etc.

[Marcellus]

Welshbeef said:

For those living out in the mountains genuine question if things get bad in your resort to the point it closes or doesn’t open for 20/21 what then? Unless you are into Nordic ski hiking un pisted and no lift mountain is pretty useless for skiing.

last season broadly 1/3rd of my clients bailed and joined the bun fight fro flights when the resorts shut.

The rest stayed with the view that being locked down in France woudl be much like being locked down in the UK, but of those probably half then decided that actually they'd feel happier at home so left resort.

This season there's all sorts of "Pandemic Clauses" with varied levels of refunds if resorts open late/close early/don't open or a Government prevents access to/from resort.

The Tour Operators are generally being optimistic albeit they have dropped their less profitable properties and I suspect there's still some which won't be here come the start of the season.

[Welshbeef]

The other thing to remember is skiing isn’t a cheap hobby so with job uncertainty or sadly job losses the demand even from those who would ski will be weak/let alone the disruption issue.

It’s st all round - just hope a vaccine comes quickly enough to slow or prevent job losses so there is still a market maybe not for this season but future. The weaker resorts might go pop for the operators of the mountain.

[Condi]

Carbon Sasquatch said:

Fortune favours the bold
Go big or go home
Etc.

Or just book late when you have a better idea of snow conditions, resort opening days and travel restrictions. Probably will be cheaper if you can be flexible and book last minute too.

[Welshbeef]

What will snow conditions be like this year? 19/20 certainly wasn’t a great year for snow

[Carbon Sasquatch]

Condi said:

Or just book late when you have a better idea of snow conditions, resort opening days and travel restrictions. Probably will be cheaper if you can be flexible and book last minute too.

I Was still talking about being there for the season - agree though - if just a week and no kids involved, I’d book late.

[Dog Star]

Marcellus said:

last season broadly 1/3rd of my clients bailed and joined the bun fight fro flights when the resorts shut.

I was in Bad Gastein 7th - 14th March and the place was a little bit "eerie" during the week - everyone knew something was going to kick off, then in the middle of the week chalet/bar staff started to bail on their employers. The Friday the ski locker/depot was totally empty, pistes deserted. Bit sad.

We had our seats booked already on the Saturday (the Jet2 flight that came to get us had no outbound passengers) so no big deal for me, but the airport was like something out of a zombie film. Arriving in Manchester was equally odd as it was absolutely dead, it must have been about ten minutes from leaving plane to exiting the airport.

I hope to never experience it again.

As pointed out above - I'm not investing 2021, it's coming up fast now and there's no sign of this chaos ending.

[lemmingjames]

Welshbeef said:

What will snow conditions be like this year? 19/20 certainly wasn’t a great year for snow

going to be the best season yet, with inches of snow every night and blue bird days every single day!

[JQ]

lemmingjames said:

Welshbeef said:

What will snow conditions be like this year? 19/20 certainly wasn’t a great year for snow

going to be the best season yet, with inches of snow every night and blue bird days every single day!

That's what I'm predicting too, can't wait to get back out there.

Family trip is booked and looked last night at possibilities for the annual lads trip and the normal flight we get is no longer available. We normally fly to Munich Friday night, ski all day Sat, Sun, Mon & Tues and fly back 10pm from Munich - 4 full days skiing for 2 days off work. The latest flight back is now 3:45pm on the Tuesday, so that buggers things up somewhat.

[Welshbeef]

JQ said:

That's what I'm predicting too, can't wait to get back out there.

Family trip is booked and looked last night at possibilities for the annual lads trip and the normal flight we get is no longer available. We normally fly to Munich Friday night, ski all day Sat, Sun, Mon & Tues and fly back 10pm from Munich - 4 full days skiing for 2 days off work. The latest flight back is now 3:45pm on the Tuesday, so that buggers things up somewhat.

Surely with possibility of quarantine / other issues you’d want to land in the country you are skiing in not having to cross border.

[JQ]

Welshbeef said:

JQ said:

That's what I'm predicting too, can't wait to get back out there.

Family trip is booked and looked last night at possibilities for the annual lads trip and the normal flight we get is no longer available. We normally fly to Munich Friday night, ski all day Sat, Sun, Mon & Tues and fly back 10pm from Munich - 4 full days skiing for 2 days off work. The latest flight back is now 3:45pm on the Tuesday, so that buggers things up somewhat.

Surely with possibility of quarantine / other issues you’d want to land in the country you are skiing in not having to cross border.

If we're at a moment in time where we're not permitted to transfer between Germany and Austria, I very much doubt we'd be permitted to fly to each country either. Booking a trip for next year is definitely a risk, but one that I'm more than happy to take.

[Welshbeef]

JQ said:

If we're at a moment in time where we're not permitted to transfer between Germany and Austria, I very much doubt we'd be permitted to fly to each country either. Booking a trip for next year is definitely a risk, but one that I'm more than happy to take.

Given it’s a group you’ve got why not drive safe cash and avoid risk of Covid flying. Door to door it’s not bad and enables you to get the longer ski hit you flag in your post.

[lemmingjames]

Welshbeef said:

Given it’s a group you’ve got why not drive safe cash and avoid risk of Covid flying. Door to door it’s not bad and enables you to get the longer ski hit you flag in your post.

BUt what happens if France is suddenly put on the st list, your car only does 250 miles to a tank so you need to stop off

Or the German/French border is closed so you can't snake up that way

Or if the French are striking and you cant get to the ports

Or

Or

Or.

Are you looking for a hug and to be told its all going to be ok and book away or clarification that you shouldnt go?

[JQ]

lemmingjames said:

Welshbeef said:

Given it’s a group you’ve got why not drive safe cash and avoid risk of Covid flying. Door to door it’s not bad and enables you to get the longer ski hit you flag in your post.

BUt what happens if France is suddenly put on the st list, your car only does 250 miles to a tank so you need to stop off

Or the German/French border is closed so you can't snake up that way

Or if the French are striking and you cant get to the ports

Or

Or

Or.

Are you looking for a hug and to be told its all going to be ok and book away or clarification that you shouldnt go?

This. There could be a global plague of vampire bats next year for all we know.

I'm more than happy to drop £100 on a flight now and book the rest closer to the time. If things do open up next year I can guarantee that as soon as they do prices will go through the roof. I certainly have no intention of driving to Austria for a lads weekend away, the drive home would be unbearable.

If flights are an issue, I'd drive for the family trip to France where the travelling can be done over each weekend, we're there for longer and I'm not consuming my body weight in German lager whilst there.

[EddieSteadyGo]

JQ said:

Booking a trip for next year is definitely a risk, but one that I'm more than happy to take.

+1

[Rich_AR]

Welshbeef said:

What will snow conditions be like this year? 19/20 certainly wasn’t a great year for snow

Some resorts saw the best snow conditions in the last 10 years here in Canada. Almost 5 meters of snow fell this season where I live.

[JQ]

Not great news but it appears Crystal have cancelled all their catered chalets for the 2020/21 season. I've never used them so don't know if that's a big part of their total business, but it's not a good sign.

https://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/news/crysta...

[Carbon Sasquatch]

JQ said:

Not great news but it appears Crystal have cancelled all their catered chalets for the 2020/21 season. I've never used them so don't know if that's a big part of their total business, but it's not a good sign.

https://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/news/crysta...

They are still doing apartments & hotels though - I guess it makes some sense as most of the chalets are multi-family in close proximity which I guess is the most likely thing to be banned. Still not good though.