Who's going skiing and where - 2022

[//j17]

Normally I'd say, with still 2 months of the current season to run it's too soon for the "next season" thread but let's face it, this season's a right off and I've already started looking at what's to come, rather than what I've missed so...

For me so far:
Mid-Dec - Tignes (planned)
Late Jan - Morzine (reservation carried over form this year)
Feb half term - Avoriaz (booked)

Space for a week in Austria in March me thinks...

Edited by //j17 on Tuesday 23 February 13:33

[//j17]

So 2 weeks booked in Dec, 1 in Jan, and 1 in Feb.

Maybe time for an Austria trip in March...

[//j17]

AndyAudi said:

I solo ski & always catered chalet (not looking so plentiful this season?).
I pick a bigger chalet in the hope there will be multiple groups who don’t know each other, so less chance of feeling a hanger on to a family holiday!
It’s a long evening to fill in on your own, so having a structure of a dinner & drinks round a table & a hot tub to use does help. Rarely will I ski with anyone from the chalet, sometimes I will go out for drinks though.

I tend to use HOFNAR for my solo trips for similar rasons, just safe in the knowledge that most people in the chalet won't know each other either. From a random group of 12ish solo skiers there's always someone who's in to the same sort of both skiing and apres skiing as you - though with no pressure to ski with others if you don't want to.

[//j17]

Welshbeef said:

cowboyengineer said:

I always go on a ski holiday solo. Always in a group chalet and always in group lessons. I say always, this year I’m going with 3 other people who have been in my same ski lesson group for the previous 3 years

Isn’t a risk of solo skiing that if anything were to happen to you no one would be missing you : able to report your missing on the slopes (you may have no cellular reception too).

Depends what sort of skiing you're doing.
Do I go off piste, or even onto an officially marked but not monitored free-ride area when skiing solo? No.

Do I happily ski on-piste solo? Sure - though I also tend to stick to the more core areas/runs, ski less aggressively, and make sure someone knows what time I'm due back. One thing I realise I often forget to do is carry emergency contact details in an obvious pocket - must make a note to tighten up on that.

Keep to the popular runs and you know someone should either see you wipe out or find you before too long, or worst case the pisteurs will find you when they sweep the runs at the end of the day. This DOES leave the risk of to cocking up when nobody else is watching and shoot off into the trees and out of sight - but that's why I ease off and make solo days laid back cruising days where you take the time to stop and look t the magic around you.

[//j17]

The_Doc said:

The 10pm road south out of Calais on a Friday night in Feb...

There's a reason why that autoroute is called the Route des Anglais.

Because Jemima loves having the Audi in resort, and the aupair can fly down and join us too.

Well it could be that...or it could be the cost of flights at half term. I'm going with a friend's family next year and even the day flights went on sale you were basically looking at £1,000 per-person to fly at a humane time - which is basically the same as it's costing us to hire a big car + euro travel add-on + extra driver + Eurotunnel crossing + fuel + tolls. Even with a couple of overnight hotel rooms down and back, extra meals, etc it's still going to cost less for the 5 of us to drive than for 2 of us to fly.

God I miss the old BA OptionTown.com deal ;(

[//j17]

I think the important part in that quote is "as before the pandemic" rather than "There will no longer be apres-ski".

Will all bars and restaurants be closed/not serving beer and with people hurded off the slopes and into their hotel rooms every day? No.

Will you have the heaving, sweating mass of humanity squeezed shoulder-to-shoulder 'singing' at the top of their lungs and forming conga lines that snake through the kitchens? No, probably not either.

Will you have seated-only bars with the same music but a slightly more subdued atmosphere, just due to the lower numbers of people? More likely.

[//j17]

Booking 'in advance' gives you:
- Best choice of accomodation/flights/etc.
- If going with friends a firm commitment.
- An early start to get the excitement building.
- Best for worriers and people who know they want the A o'clock flight, to airport B, to stay in chalet C, in resort D, for week E.

Booking 'last minute' gives you:
- Best chance to follow the snow.
- Best chance of cheap deals.
- Works best for packages - generally flights only go up and direct accomodation prices don't drop.
- Best for the chilled and people who like flexibility and are happy to compromise on what/when/where.

Booking 'in the middle' gives you:
- The worst of all worlds really.
- Some option will have already gone but prices not dropped yet.

[//j17]

6 weeks until my first 2 weeks. Question is with our current "Covid, what Covid?" response will the EU borders still be open to UK travellers...

[//j17]

malks222 said:

breakfan said:

I've noticed a lot of chalets which typically look like they would be catered, are now showing only as self-catered.

I'm presuming this is a combination of Brexit making it harder to employ Brits abroad, and Covid just generally making life more complicated.

Anybody know for sure?

probably a mixture of everything. Another thing I noticed and it’s maybe to keep costs down, but they dropped from 6 nights catered to only 5. so when the price went up year on year, it’s actually gone up even more as you then need to budget for another night/ meal out, in the grand scheme of a ski holiday isn’t a huge increase, but it’s still another bit of budget creep!

From memory the swap from 6 to 5 catered nights wasn't down to costs but was a knock-on effect of the French government getting hacked off with UK companies playing fast and loose with French employment law. In addition to forcing TOs to pay their staff properly they also had to follow the working Time Directive and other French employment rules, part of which meant 2 days off per-week.

[//j17]

Freshprince said:

Booked my first ski trip in mid-jan in Chamonix and going on my own. What do you wear when not skiing? Keep on ski clothes? What about in evenings in the hotel/bars/restaurants? Jeans and thick wooley jumpers or are indoors warm? Don’t know anyone else thats been. Google shows everyone just wearing ski clothes.

In general you'll only want to be wearing ski gear when your outside for extended periods, so while skiing or drinking outside a bar after skiing. Yes you see people in ski gear in lots of ski resort photos but remember they are 'selling the dream' so just piling as many cliches in to each photo as possible.

Once you're inside almost everywhere is on the border between "warm" and "too hot" and very much t-shirt temperatures. Also unless it snowing and blowing a gale (at which point just stay inside) 'mountain cold' doesn't feel as cold as the 'biting wind cold' we get in the UK. If it's just a 10-15min walk to a bar/restaurant in the evening I'll just throw a hoodie on. By the time the warm of your start point has worn off and you're starting to feel a bit chilly you can see your destination and know you'll be warm again in no time.

Finally unless you're going somewhere really posh there's no dress code when it comes to ski resorts and looking around a bar/restaurant you'll see everything from 'stumbled in from apres ski still in ski gear' to 'Friday night in Newcastle' - but most people will be in jeans/t-shirts or similar, so no need to take 18 changes of clothes!

[//j17]

Ah, Robbo's in Morzine - a great place to sit for a glass or two of Mützig, just a terrible place to try and stand up after a glass or two of Mützig

Now being run by the third generation of the same family, which I believe's had a real impact on the opening hours. Apparently they now stay open till they say they are going to close, not just staying open till the OAP owners feel they have made enough money for one day and quite fancy a sit down.

[//j17]

Jarcy said:

The lockdown is for an initial 10 days from Monday, with a review to extend up to a "Maximum" of 20 days.

Trouble is there's an at least 10, usually more like 20 day lag between a measure coming in and having an impact in the data. Day 1 you have existing cases + another day's worth of new cases at the current rate. It takes 10 days for all those people to be clear - but 10 days spent locked in their homes with their families...who will all tend to get infected (if not already), and they will take another 10 days to clear. It's only from about Day 15 you'll really start to see any sort of drop in the data.

Jarcy said:

We fly out to Ischgl on Monday 13th (which is when the tour operators seem to open their season bookings).

If your trip does get cancelled it could be for the best. I mean doing Ischgl with Covid restrictions on Ischgl's apres ski isn't really DOING Ischgl


I'm (in thoery) off to France from the 4th to 22nd. As it stands I think we'll be able to travel out...but starting to get concerned about getting back again!

Edited by //j17 on Friday 19th November 15:31

[//j17]

Jarcy said:

//j17 said:

Jarcy said:

We fly out to Ischgl on Monday 13th (which is when the tour operators seem to open their season bookings).

If your trip does get cancelled it could be for the best. I mean doing Ischgl with Covid restrictions on Ischgl's apres ski isn't really DOING Ischgl

We booked Ischgl in the knowledge that, like most places things will not be the same.
Although I'm an Ischgl virgin, my ski buddies are veterans and if the scene is subdued, I'll tick it off as a warm up for a more lively visit later in my ski career. We booked a hotel with a decent bar, so even if we're confined we can entertain ourselves.

That said, judging by the posts from my mate who's just returned from Hintertux, the apres was pretty much full-on:
"Johnny Däpp" playing at full volume, and dancing in ski boots.

Yep, go or no-go keep it on the list to revisit in less strange times. You've not done Ischgl until you're in the Kitzloch listening to the 3rd repeat of Wir Wollen die Wisbären Sehen because DJ Boris, in full polar bear outfit is still trying to get through the gap in the rafters

[//j17]

Jarcy said:

I will most certainly disappointed though, if the serving maidens in the Schatzi bar are not dressed in their gingham dirndl outfits..

Yea, I can happily live without Schatzi. Nice for a beer outside watching the home run carnage but a room full of sweaty German men leching over some bored women standing on the bar swinging their knees from side to side doesn't do it for me (though not as bad as Freeride, which is dirtier than the dirty kabab shop next door to it).

[//j17]

Dog Star said:

Second year on the trot I’m bailing on skiing. I really cannot be arsed with the hassle, testing and STILL the very real possibility that the destination will get closed down.

Currently at least and for adults going to France, if you're double jabbed you're only looking at the single, post-return "Day 2" test (and if you decided NOT to get jabbed, well that's how you decided to make your bed...).

As for hassle it's really not THAT hard to:
1. Download/print out/complete the French entry form.
2. If flying via Geneval the same for the Swiss one.
3. Install the NHS app. and get your "I'm jabbed" QR code.
4. For convienience install the French TousAntiCovid app and scan the NHS code in to that*
5. As of yesterday face masks or proper anti-covid snoods for lift queues and on non-button lifts.

• NHS app makes a call for a new QR code every time you open it while the French one just re-uses the same one for the month it's valid, useful up a mountain with no mobile signal.

Life IS harder with non-double jabbed children, but that's easy to fix by just leaving them at home

Edited by //j17 on Thursday 25th November 09:56

[//j17]

FrankAbagnale said:

26th December to 2nd Jan ski holiday in Courchevel. Lovely.

Flying into Geneva where you have to quarantine for 10 days on arrival with no transits into France allowed. Not lovely.

Looking at alternatives now, but feels like this years holiday won't go ahead again.

It's going to be very interesting on refunds for the chalet as we booked flights separately - assume the holiday companies may well say "The chalet is available and open".

10 adults + 1 young child and a baby so unfortunately Eurostar + Train or long transfers aren't really possible.

Are you SURE the train or a long transfer doesn't work? I've done group trips with assorted tiddlers and have to say that overall they enjoyed the train more as once you were on and in your seats they weren't trapped there. Easy to swap seats so different people could play games and I'm sure our fellow train passengers preferred a happy 18 month old being helped to toddle up and down the carrage then screaming in their seat! OK that was the old direct Eurostar and you'd be looking at the slight stress of swapping stations in Paris but still overall a low stress way to travel.

And as for long transfers - there's always the "door to door" option in your own cars. That way you can pace yourself, stop when you need to stop, maybe with an overnight stop to break the journey (though finding hotels might be an issue at this stage). Or if the baby's a good sleeper you can just share the drive through the night and they will be dead to the world for a good chunk of it!


I was meant to be flying out to France for 3 weeks on Sat (via Geneva)... Now down to 1 week and driving.

[//j17]

Woo-hoo, that's a negative 'fit to fly' test so looking good to fly to Geneva in 23hrs time.

Today's rules for skiing in France, via Geneva (and subject to a post from me in 24hrs time about how I forgot something and am still sat at Heathrow) are:

• Double jabbed.
• Negative "Fit to fly" test - <72hr old PCR or <48hr old antigen test.
• Completed Swiss passenger locator form - https://swissplf.admin.ch/formular
• A direct transit from GVA out of France (no stopping in restaurants/shops/etc in Switzerland) the same day (or 10 days quarentine in Switzerland and lots of Covid tests/trips to the local cantonal office).
• Completed French "I'm clean" entry form - https://www.interieur.gouv.fr/content/download/128...
• A stack of proper face masks (not just a scarf/a DIY one made from an old bed sheet by your gran) to wear more or less anywhere indoors or in crowds of strangers.
• A proof of double jabbed status QR code, and supporting photo ID (driver's licence or passport). Here the TousAntiCovid app is recommended as the French are used to it and it generates and stores/reuses the same QR code (the NHS app generates a new code every time you use it do needs data/a phone signal - and you'll need to show it at every chair lift...).
• A pre-booked UK entry "Day 2" test - you need the code for this to complete the UK passenger locator form but the code should get emailed to you so you can book while away. The test needs to be taken in the first 2 days AFTER you return to the UK, NOT while you're still in France.
• A completed UK passenger locator form - https://www.gov.uk/provide-journey-contact-details...

[//j17]

Whoozit said:

HFLagos said:

Were planning to go with our kids in Mar/Apr, teen will be double jabbed but hadn’t factored in that 5 - 11 year olds also need to be jabbed. Now rethinking plans.

Ah yeah, no entry to anything without jabs. Sorry.

Which country's that rule for?

[//j17]

The following pair of Morzine Source Magazine articles seems to be one of the best 'points of truth' at the moment. They have a vested interest in getting it right so as many people as possible who CAN ski in the PdS DO ski in the PdS. They are also well linked to the different layers of local government in the area so able to ask questions and get firm answers.

https://www.morzinesourcemagazine.com/covid-19-and...
https://www.morzinesourcemagazine.com/travel-to-fr...

[//j17]

Carbon Sasquatch said:

'Returning to France' is a special case & may be exempt

There's also a difference between the rules to enter France and the rules that are planned to come in at some point with the new Pass Vaccinal, which will define what you can/can't do while you're there based on vaccination status.